Afghanistan Emergency Fund

Thank you for your generous donations to the Afghanistan Emergency Fund. Your contributions are helping ensure that Afghans have access to healthy food, healthcare, education, and relief following a deadly string of natural disasters and ongoing violence.   

More than  23 million Afghans rely on humanitarian assistance in 2024, with new families being added to the list each day as disasters like the deadly floods in Kabul in April and May that killed more than 300 people and injured nearly 1,600 community members.

Generous support to the fund has recently powered seven grants to vetted nonprofit partners in our community. Here is a short description of some of the critical work you’ve supported:

• Sahar Education is an Afghan-led nonprofit that ensures all children can go to school,  particularly girls barred under Taliban rule. The organization offers coding classes for girls and empowerment courses for mothers. In 2024, they aim to assist over 400 girls through diverse initiatives and also seek to foster feminist allies among Afghan boys via courses promoting female empowerment and involvement in community decision-making. 

• Afghanistan-Pakistan Women's Economic Empowerment (APWEE) focuses on women's livelihoods, education, and emergency aid. APWEE continues to provide food packages to women and families affected by the 2023 earthquakes in Herat, an area experiencing severe food shortages due to drought, job loss, supply chain shortages, and aid blockages by the defacto government. APWEE also implements projects like livestock farming and sewing machine distribution to help women impacted by natural disasters. In the past, the nonprofit funded key business development workshops for female Afghan refugees in Pakistan facing deportation.

• Action for Development (AfD) is an Afghan-led organization providing essential care to communities at their health clinic. With more than 80% of the population now below the poverty line, fewer can afford the $1 fee that was used to pay salaries for staff and fund community outreach efforts. GlobalGiving’s support enables AfD to continue to run this clinic, which addresses critical gaps in care for Afghans as it serves 50-65 patients daily.

• LEARN Afghan is a nonprofit organization established in 2018 by an Afghan refugee determined to. LEARN provides free education for Grades one1 to 12 in Pashto and Dari, benefiting more than 7,000 Afghan girls. The organization offers classes and training in key subjects like math, science, and coding, along with offline learning through its at-home resources. The organization continues prioritizing expanding its underground schools and stepping up in times of crisis to deliver essential goods to people who need it most. , humanitarian aid distributions especially after disasters like the earthquakes in Herat in 2023, and its maternal health programs.

• Enabled Children Initiative (ECI) is one of the only nonprofits in Afghanistan dedicated exclusively to children with disabilities. Following Afghanistan's recent flash floods, ECI is aiding families with disabled children enrolled in its programs who reached out with pleas for support. Drawing on ECI’s successful response to the 2023 Herat earthquakes, ECI will provide families with much-needed emergency aid, like food, clothing, and other essential goods.

These life-changing projects are only possible thanks to donors like you! We cannot thank you enough for helping GlobalGiving’s Afghanistan Emergency Fund fuel community-level responses across Afghanistan. 

As Sohair, leader of APWEE shared,

“GlobalGiving is a bright light in our imperfect (and, in some cases, troubled) world”. 

That bright light is made possible thanks to your generosity.

You can find the full list of nonprofit partners receiving grants at the end of this report.

With gratitude, 

Kyra + the GlobalGiving Team

Nonprofit Partners Receiving Grants

• Action for Development (AfD) 
• Afghanistan-Pakistan Women's Economic Empowerment Inc.
• Enabled Children Initiative
• HALO Trust 
• LEARN Afghan 
• Japanese Emergency NGO
• Sahar Education

Thank you for your generous donation to the Afghanistan Emergency Fund. Donations to this GlobalGiving fund continue to make a difference, helping Afghan communities to survive harsh conditions caused by human-made disasters and natural hazards, and responding to ongoing forced displacement.

Since our last report, donations from the Afghanistan Emergency Fund have supported grants to 11 high-impact and community-led nonprofit organizations at the forefront of the ongoing humanitarian crisis. Tragically, since then, Afghanistan’s Herat province has been hit by several devastating earthquakes. The earthquakes killed thousands of people and created additional humanitarian needs in the country. The majority of those killed, injured, or missing were women, given their restricted employment and education opportunities outside the home. Although GlobalGiving launched an Afghanistan Earthquake Relief Fund, fortunately, many of our partners in the country were well positioned to respond thanks to grants from the Afghanistan Emergency Fund. 

Here is a short description of some of the critical work you’ve supported: 

• Enabled Children Initiative Ltd (ECI) is focused on supporting children and youth with disabilities by providing educational opportunities, community awareness, social integration, and emergency relief, including in response to the earthquakes in Herat province. ECI also launched the first day school for children with disabilities in the capital, Kabul. 

• The HALO Trust has previous experience in Afghanistan’s earthquake-affected areas and moved quickly to deploy excavators and ambulances for first aid and evacuation. Excavation of victims’ bodies and homes continues. The HALO Trust is also distributing food packages and cooking gas in Zenda Jan and other affected districts. 

• Lighthouse Relief is supporting Afghan refugees in Greece who comprise the majority of refugees and asylum seekers in the country. Many make dangerous and deadly journeys to Greece, and Lighthouse Relief has supported survivors with mental health and psychosocial support, food, and hygiene items. The organization also supports Afghans in registering asylum claims and receiving case management. 

• Aseel Foundation is providing emergency response packages to women-led households and vulnerable communities in Afghanistan through its community-led Atalan (Pashto for 'Heroes') Network, its OMID (Pashto for 'Hope') System on identification, and its Do Good program. The Aseel Foundation supports communities and individuals who are not engaged in commercial activities and need livelihood support, including access to the digital economy, and humanitarian aid.

GlobalGiving’s flexible, trust-based approach to funding before, during, and after crises—including from the Afghanistan Emergency Fund—means partners can pivot to address unforeseen catastrophes when they strike. That includes delivering vital earthquake responses in Afghanistan and continuing activities in the country and with refugees abroad. 

Your support of the GlobalGiving Afghanistan Emergency Fund powers community-led responses, and it means that nonprofit organizations supporting Afghan communities can continue to act quickly in emergencies and provide opportunities over the long term for families. As the crisis in Afghanistan continues to evolve, most recently with the earthquakes and forced displacement of Afghans who were living in Pakistan, your support makes a difference. You can find a list of nonprofits receiving a grant from the Afghanistan Emergency Fund at the end of this report.

With gratitude,

Sarah + the GlobalGiving Team

Nonprofit Partners Receiving Grants 

Action for Development 

Aid Afghanistan for Education

Aseel Foundation

ASSOCIACAO COMPASSIVA

Bamyan Foundation

Enabled Children Initiative Ltd

Lighthouse Relief

MADRE

The HALO Trust