After more than 30 years of war, humanitarian needs in Afghanistan are immense. Humanity & Inclusion is steadily resuming its activities in four provinces: Herat, Kunduz, Kandahar and Nimroz.
Julio C. Ortiz-Arguedas, Humanity & Inclusion’s Country Director in Afghanistan, shares more information on the organization’s history in the country and how it has been impacted by the recent regime change:
Most of Humanity & Inclusion's activities with people in Afghanistan have resumed after a few days' interruption. Humanitarian needs are immense in a country devastated by decades of conflict and one of the most contaminated by explosive remnants of war and landmines in the world. Today, 80% of the Afghan population has some form of disability due to the presence of mines and explosive remnants of war, armed conflicts and limited access to health and nutrition services.
The rehabilitation center in Kandahar is the major activity of Humanity & Inclusion in Afghanistan. Humanity & Inclusion set up this center in 1996 and has been supporting it since. At the center we have a total of 53 staff working to support people for rehabilitation and psychosocial aid.
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We were able to gradually resume activities. Since the Taliban took control of Kandahar on August 13, the rehabilitation center has served 240 men and 180 women, distributed 200 walking aids and fitted 50 beneficiaries with orthotics or prosthetics. These numbers represent a 50% increase over the average in the previous months: the end of the fighting, of the roadblocks and the increased security have allowed more people to access the center.
However, the Kandahar Mobile Team—comprising 15 members—could not yet return to the countryside, so it was deployed in the center and, in that same week, was able to accommodate 117 people.
People are coming every day at the center, sometimes from very far away—we had families who made a one-day trip to come to get treatment—as it is the only rehabilitation center for the south of the country.