Feed the Hungry,Warm the Cold-Support Afghanistan

Afghanistan is facing an alarming nutrition crisis, driven by a combination of economic collapse, food insecurity, and the recent surge in returnees from Iran and Pakistan. Since September 2023, more than 2.43 million undocumented people have returned—many to communities already struggling with unemployment and high food prices. With limited income opportunities, families are forced to reduce meal portions, skip meals, or rely on low-quality foods.

Children are among the most affected. Nationwide, 3.5 million children under five from the people of Afghanistan are at risk of acute malnutrition in 2025. For many, poor diets, lack of clean water, and limited healthcare lead to stunted growth, weakened immunity, and life-threatening illnesses. The situation is even more severe for returnee families who arrive with no resources, often settling in overcrowded and impoverished areas where nutritious food is scarce.

AfD’s Nutrition Support for Children and Mothers
To address this crisis, AfD integrates nutrition support into its health services, focusing on both prevention and early detection of malnutrition:

• Mother MUAC Training: AfD trains mothers to use the Mid-Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) tape to detect malnutrition in children at home. This simple, color-coded tool helps mothers identify malnutrition early, enabling timely referrals for treatment. MUAC tapes are distributed to trained mothers so they can continue monitoring their children and share knowledge within their communities.
• Nutrition Education for Pregnant Women: AfD includes a nutrition module in its midwifery program, equipping midwives to raise awareness among pregnant women about healthy diets, the importance of micronutrients, and proper breastfeeding practices—especially exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months of life.
• Community Outreach: Through health education sessions, AfD promotes practical, low-cost nutrition strategies tailored to local food availability, ensuring mothers know how to prepare balanced meals even with limited resources.

By empowering mothers with skills and tools, and by integrating nutrition counseling into maternal health services, AfD not only addresses immediate malnutrition but also builds long-term community capacity to protect children’s health. With sustained support, these efforts can help break the cycle of hunger and give the children of the people of Afghanistan a stronger, healthier start in life

Your continued support makes this work possible. Every donation helps us provide medicine, vaccines, maternal care, and nutrition support to Afghanistan’s most vulnerable. Together, we can keep this critical health facility open and save lives in the months ahead

Winter Relief for Kabul and Parwan Most Vulnerable Children and Families

At Action for Development (AfD), we believe that no child should have to choose between survival and safety. Yet for thousands of children in Kabul, life on the streets is a harsh reality—many serve as the sole breadwinners for their families, braving the cold to bring home what little they can. With the generous donation from GlobalGivig and the support of our private donors, AfD was able to bring warmth and hope to those who needed it most during the cold winter days.

On January 15, 2025, AfD delivered 330 winter relief kits to families on the brink of survival—270 households of street-working children and 60 families engaged in grueling and low-income labor. This act of kindness reached 2,511 individuals living in Kabul and Parwan provinces, many of whom live in shelters with unprotected windows, on hillsides or top of the mountains,  far from basic necessities like electricity, clean water, or healthcare.

Before launching the initiative, our dedicated  Team conducted a thorough needs assessment, going door-to-door to understand the daily struggles of these families. What they found was heartbreaking: families enduring freezing nights without fuel, children falling ill with pneumonia and fever, and single mothers forced to send their little ones to work in bitter cold just to survive.

In response, AfD prioritized coal distribution, a lifeline for these families during Afghanistan’s punishing winter. Each household received 49 kg of coal—a small but vital source of heat, helping protect children from frostbite and respiratory illness and offering families a moment of relief and dignity.

The majority of our beneficiaries were women and children, many surviving on less than $1 a day. These are not just statistics—they are mothers, fathers, and children who, thanks to you, experienced the comfort of warmth and the power of solidarity.

Each year AfD runs such campaigns and distributions, with 35,000 street-working children in Kabul alone, the need remains overwhelming. Most of these children come from internally displaced families living in desperate conditions or in crumbling buildings with window wholes being closed by plastic wraps, no warm water, no electricity and of course forget about insulation from the cold.

Your support made a real difference. But so many more families are in need of such support each winter waiting, still hoping.

Let’s continue to stand by them. Let’s give more children the gift of warmth, safety, and hope.

Thank you for your compassion,

Action for Development Team