The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), in partnership with The Liaison Office (TLO) and the AfghanAid Charity Organization, has provided financial assistance to 440 destitute and orphaned families in the Paktika province. The aid was distributed to families in the Ziruk and Nika districts, with a total of almost 14 million Afghanis being allocated, equating to around 30,940 Afghanis per family. Despite the aid, some families are still struggling due to the lack of employment opportunities and sources of income in their areas, with basic living facilities often being inaccessible. Meanwhile, those who were excluded from this aid in the Ziruk district have criticized the distribution process, claiming that not all needy families received the aid. Nevertheless, officials from The Liaison Office (TLO) have emphasized that transparency was the primary factor in distributing the aid and that the families who were not included in this phase will receive aid in the future.
Shahbaz Khan, a 41–year–old resident of the Nika district, has received financial aid from The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). Although he is grateful for the assistance, he has also expressed his worries about the issues his district is facing and has called on aid organizations to focus more on these areas. In an interview with the Hasht–e Subh Daily, Khan stated, “Our district has been neglected. We lack roads and farmland, and our people are enduring numerous hardships. We are living in poverty and deprivation.”
Mir Akbar, a resident of the Ziruk district, has acknowledged the short–term benefits of the cash aid he has received. However, he has highlighted the need for sustainable solutions to the economic challenges in his district. He stated, “Our district lacks basic healthcare facilities such as clinics and access to medicine and doctors. Furthermore, our schools lack proper buildings and books. Additionally, the routes and roads are inaccessible, making it difficult to transport patients to health centers and obtain food.”
Miwa Khan, another inhabitant of the Nika district, is dissatisfied with the manner in which the cash aid is being allocated. He is of the opinion that numerous deserving households have not been given the aid, and that it does not offer a permanent solution to people‘s issues. Khan further suggests that the district has plentiful valuable stones in its mountains and that job openings should be made available to the youth so that they can become self–sufficient and work for themselves.
Nawab Khan Darwish, the Deputy in charge of TLO projects in Paktika Province, has stated that they have placed a priority on transparency in the distribution of aid and have carefully identified families in need. He further noted that assistance is particularly necessary in the Ziruk and Nika districts due to the high levels of poverty, and that future humanitarian programs will cover additional families.
Ziruk and Nika are remote, mountainous, and border districts of Paktika province, where the residents face various challenges, including a lack of proper roads, schools, and health clinics, as well as inadequate arable land. Furthermore, the lack of telecommunication services forces them to rely on humanitarian aid to survive. The locals are hoping that international organizations will focus more on providing essential facilities to improve their living conditions.
It is noteworthy that the TLO Office in Paktika Province recently provided financial assistance to numerous families affected by the earthquake in Gayan District. This aid was distributed to the inhabitants of Paktika Province at a time when the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported high levels of poverty and hunger in Afghanistan. OCHA stated that approximately 23.7 million Afghan citizens are in need of humanitarian aid, and requested that the international community donate $4.62 billion to the OCHA for the Humanitarian Response Plan of the country.
The international community has yet to agree to provide the necessary funds to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). On Tuesday, April 25, OCHA tweeted that Afghanistan is currently facing its third consecutive year of drought, coupled with the second year of severe economic crisis, as well as the long–term consequences of several decades of war and natural disasters. Furthermore, OCHA stated that humanitarian aid is the only remaining hope for the majority of the country‘s population. OCHA has confirmed that, due to the lack of funds, aid organizations have been forced to reduce their aid to Afghan citizens.
At the beginning of this year, the United Nations asked the global community to give $4.62 billion in humanitarian aid to assist nearly 24 million people in Afghanistan. However, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that only $250 million was received from the international community in the first three months of this year, which is only 5.4 percent of the total aid requested. It is noteworthy that the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan has drastically worsened since the Taliban regime was established.