Afghanistan: AMA arrives to deliver #HealAfghanistan campaign

AMA arrived in Afghanistan this week to re-launch the Heal Afghanistan campaign, designed to deliver emergency relief to locals in the country.

Afghanistan is currently experiencing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with around 24.4 million people, more than half of the population, in desperate need of emergency assistance.

AMA’s team visited local hospitals and families, where the lack of proper medical equipment and assistance available to locals has caused hundreds of patients to go untreated.

According to Hassan Choonara, AMA’s regional director who is currently on the ground in Afghanistan,  some of the worst affected people are women and children.

“In a country that has been ravaged by four decades of conflict, an entire generation has been completely wiped out,” he says.

According to Choonara, there is an increasing number of widows and orphans in the country as many lives have been lost in the conflict.

“Young males are no where to be seen, in all of the families we visited, there were around six or seven children with a mother,” Choonara explains.

 

With no breadwinner, and a harsh winter ahead, many families have expressed their fears of not being able to survive through to the next year, particularly as they lack access to sufficient food, warmth and clothing.

“Even professionals who are working are impacted by the humanitarian crisis,” he adds, describing how they too are seen waiting in queues at bakeries, waiting their turn to receive small rounds of bread.

For many in the country, small packets of bread is all they will be able to get their hands on to survive.

AMA’s team described how they saw many families waiting by their neighbours home for left-overs, after not being able to get hold of food for days.

“Mothers have the difficult decision of choosing which child of theirs gets to eat from the minute amount of food the family has,” says Choonara, after visiting several families in the city of Kabul.

Winter Rescue

Support for families in Afghanistan is critical, particularly as the weather gets colder and snow blankets many regions of the country.

During the cold winter months, harsh winds and extreme weather isolates villages, which means that sourcing food and clothing becomes even more difficult.

During the night, temperatures drop to below zero degrees, leaving the elderly shivering in the cold as they are forced to sleep on the floor with no mattresses, heaters or warm clothing.

For those living in remote villages, they have the difficult task of walking down a steep mountain to source water in order to boil and use. The journey can be dangerous and long. In order to avoid making the long and perilous journey, some families resort to boiling the surface water of sewage from around the house.

AMA has identified an urgent need for boreholes and water wells in the country, to help assist with the devastating situation.

The lack of clean water has also meant that diseases such as cholera and typhoid are spreading quickly among people, and with no properly functioning medical care in the country, the situation is fatal for many.

“We have seen mothers afraid to go to sleep at night in the winter, because they’re scared to wake up in the morning to see their child has passed away,” Choonara says.

Many of the children have been seen walking barefoot or with make-shift shoes during the winter, and without warm clothing, a large proportion suffer from chest-infections during the winter months.

‘Overburdened’

Hospitals in Afghanistan have long been overwhelmed with patients, with staff struggling to deal with the surge of cases.

Children are in need of key medical treatment, due to malnutrition.

A significant number of children suffer from malnutrition as a result of inconsistency in the food available to them. With insufficient equipment, staff and services, hospitals can do little to help treat them.

A hospital AMA visited in Kabul was overburdened and had limited electricity, with staff unable to treat patients.

“With no medication and serving over 500,000 people in a village, people queue outside the hospital waiting to be seen,” says Choonara.
AMA has also been visiting children and distributing donations and sponsorships which have been gratefully received.

Children and parents broke out in excitement and emotional tears upon receiving the donations, expressing their thankfulness for any support.