By: Mohammad Kandil
Source: MuslimVillage.com
Islamic Relief holds grave concerns for the future of Afghanistan as significant aid cuts are made, at a time when foreign troops are preparing to withdraw from the war-torn country. This comes after a decade of increased humanitarian effort for Afghanistan.
A new report published by Islamic Relief has found that substantial gains have been made in the areas of education, with almost half of all Afghan girls in school, as opposed to 3% a decade ago, and health, with vaccination rates tripled in the same period.
However, in just two years, aid has been cut drastically, from $894 million in 2011 to just $508 million in 2013. The report details how the significant cuts threaten to derail over a decade of progress, in a country where poverty kills more people than armed conflict, and where over a million children under five are acutely malnourished.
According to Islamic Relief’s Country Director of Afghanistan, Farzana Balooch, “large cuts in aid threaten to cripple health, education and other services and sentence another generation to a life of poverty. We need our friends in the international community to stand by us and work with us for a brighter future.”
Islamic Relief argues that the international community should work on improving aid effectiveness, through focusing on basic needs such as health and food security, and ensuring the Afghani people are increasingly involved in the developing and delivering of aid.
The Ambassador of Afghanistan to Australia congratulated Islamic Relief for recognising the need for continued humanitarian and development support. He thanked Islamic Relief for their contribution to Afghanistan in difficult times over the past 20 years and for their initiative in publishing this important report.
Afghanistan in Limbo, published on the 26th of March follows over twenty years of work by Islamic Relief in Afghanistan. Islamic Relief’s local office in Afghanistan employs 123 Afghanis, over a third of whom are female.