Thanks to humanitarian aid my family is able to survive winter, says Hafnar Ahmad hit by earthquake in Afghanistan
Published: Feb 18, 2016 Reading time: 2 minutes
Hafnar Ahmad and his family lived their modest life in the village of Qol Qasabi close to Pul-e Khumre in Baghlan province of Afghanistan. At the end of October powerful earthquake struck their village and changed the life of the whole family completely. Their home collapsed.
Three days later (29th of November) People in Need assessment team recognized Hafnar Ahmad’s family was hit by earthquake and soon realized their house was totally destroyed. The family lost everything they had and their home was left in rubble. “After the disaster, we had to move to our relative’s house as a temporary shelter,” says Hafnar Ahmad. He has got seven kids, four sons and three daughters. His four sons are disabled from birth and his wife is chronically ill.
With the help of the Common Humanitarian Fund (CHF), People in Need (PIN) provided the family with an emergency cash grant to cover their winter fuel and blankets for two months as the first installment. In the second round they will be provided with cash covering fuel for next two months. The CHF and PIN are supporting more than 700 families with winter support after the devastating earthquake.
Timely and valuable support
When Hafnar Ahmad received the cash, tears started flowing from his eyes. “I normally work as a daily laborer and I am hardly able to feed my family. Now I can buy fuel. Thanks to People in Need’s timely and valuable support I am able to cover substantial part of my living expenses during the winter,” he mentioned.
“Cultural coping strategies were already close to being exhausted when the earthquake hit. Afghanistan and Pul-E-Khumre in particular has seen a series of both natural and conflict induced disasters in 2015. Families are continuously being uprooted jeopardizing their livelihoods, children’s attendance in schools and producing health concerns that the current health system struggles to deal with,” says Zahra Mahsud, PIN’s emergency programme Manager. The humanitarian needs are only going to increase in the future with the Afghan context becoming more volatile that we have seen in years. The support of the humanitarian community including the CHF is highly needed and appreciated.
