Afghanistan

The war in Afghanistan was the longest major ongoing conflict, and the August 2021 Taliban takeover of Afghanistan intensified the already dire humanitarian crisis.

In 2023, 28.3 million Afghans will need life-saving assistance. According to the World Food Program, nine out of 10 Afghan families lacking adequate food and children and pregnant women are the hardest hit. Give to the World support to Afghans began in 2003, where our founder began humanitarian distributions to help stabilize Afghanistan after the start of the war. From 2008-2013 Give to the World distributed 180 shipments of basic humanitarian supplies throughout Afghanistan.

In one village where Give to the World provided support, one of the small huts contained just a single room with two men, a woman, and four small children. Temperatures in the winter were routinely below zero and the earth in their area had been wiped free of trees during the Soviet occupation. The family was only able to generate a small warming and cooking fire from the dug-up roots that remained. One of the men had lost a leg from a landmine in the 1980’s and was unable to provide for the family, while the other man, his brother, walked 15 miles a day with their handful of goats to find enough grass to feed the tiny flock. Give to the World provided them a large supply of food, water, blankets, and clothes to improve their chances of survival. The excess material from the clothing and blankets could be used as windows to cover the openings in the side of their hut.

Additionally, GTTW provided the children with school supplies and stuffed animals. The family was so overwhelmed that tears ran down the face of the men, whose cheeks had been weathered by years of hardship. The children smiled from ear to ear. Within a couple of months, Give to the World adopted the orphanage in Golbahar, Afghanistan and continued to supply thousands of pounds of material for the children for over a decade. These efforts remain a critical pillar of stabilization.