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What happened
Drought, the war in Afghanistan and the Covid-19 pandemic caused a catastrophic rise in hunger.
Decades of conflict, poverty, and the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic were already taking their toll on the people of Afghanistan.
The recent conflict and change of government, coupled with the worst drought in 27 years, tipped the country over the edge into a humanitarian crisis. The economic collapse has sent food prices soaring. Afghanistan’s health care system reached the brink of collapse.
How your support has helped
Christian Aid's partners are on the ground have been able to reach the people most in need. With your support, they and their local partners have:
- provided emergency food and nutrition support for children
- supported healthcare facilities
- provided winter kits to help displaced families stay warm
- supplied clean drinking water
- protected women and girls
Our response: January 2022 update
Since the appeal launched in December 2021, our partners have reached people with food, nutrition and hygiene kits as part of our DEC emergency response.
We'll be continuing to assist the most vulnerable - including those displaced by conflict - in Nagarhar, Kunduz, Kabul, Badghis, Laghman and Herat, through three local partners (which we haven't named, for their protection).
Through two partners we aim to reach around 17,000 people with food packages and provide over 850 pregnant women, new mothers and malnourished infants with additional nutritional support.
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Prayer for Afghanistan
Come, Jesus…
Come, our Saviour,
come to all the people in Afghanistan,
in this bleakest of winters.
Come, with food and water,
to feed the hungry and refresh the thirsty ones.
Come, once a child yourself,
come to the children and the babies,
when so many cry with hunger pangs
and parents would give everything to feed them.
Come, the peace bearer,
come and bring your shalom to this land
after forty years of brutal war.
Come to those displaced and uprooted,
to a people fearful and vulnerable to violence.
Come, the light in our night,
come to families cold and shivering,
when infection passes from one to another,
while the economy is broken,
and creation groans in pain.
For all people, of all faiths,
to all children of every family,
in all the places where mothers weep and children cry,
come, God made vulnerable flesh,
to touch your world with true hope once more.
Turn our sorrow at the suffering of children,
and our determination that hate will not win,
into something we can do.
Take the money we give and the prayers we pray,
and stir in us, and in all your people,
whatever is needed for a new world to come.
From the depths of a bitter winter,
may hope spring.
Written by Rev Dr Susan Durber, Moderator, Faith and Order Commission, WCC
