The role of ofoundation
The aftermath of the unfortunate events last year pushed Afghanistan from Humanitarian crisis to catastrophe with increasing security concerns for its population especially women who have to take care of their families on their own. Due to the high rate of men who have died during wars and recent conflicts not to mention the pandemic and other widespread diseases. It is estimated there are almost 2.5 million widows in Afghanistan today. Often uneducated and restricted at home. These widows have very few options to survive on their own if their husbands die. Most of them receive an amount of just $150 a year from the government only if their husbands died in a war. Hence their chances to find a suitable job or even beg on the streets are zero to none. With the autonomy and financial support, their access to basic living conditions such as clothes, food, healthcare is at risk.
The impacts that the new Taliban ragime had on women were devestating. Imposing their basic rights, violating policies which created huge barriers to their freedom to get higher education and even leave their homes without being accompanied by a male number of their family. Women are deprived of earning income and most of them lost their employment due to Taliban policies restricting women's access to work where many of them were the sole or primary wage earner for their family.
OFoundation has been helping families in Afghanistan especially widows and children for the past few years, with the aim to ensure the safety of families in crisis situations and help children grow healthy, educated and safe. This is done through one big project: Adopting families in Crisis. Striving for peace and prosperity in a war torn country like Afghanistan where millions of women and chlidren are without shelter, education, clean water and health support. OFoundation Sponsorship provides a fixed amount to the family for a two year period. Some of the families come from areas affected by war where the women and children know nothing but conflicts their entire life. Hence, thousands of families have been displaced from their homes and moved to the North, in Parwan province. Sadat (a widow) along with her kids lives in Charikar which is the main town of the Koh Daman Valley and the capital of Parwan Province in northern Afghanistan. It has a population of about 171,200 people, the majority of whom are Tajik.
Sadat's family story
Sadat's family has been one of the targeted families that was threatened and had to flee their home due to the recent conflicts. OFoundation Sponsorship also covers Sadat and her kids' basic needs to maintain a steady lifestyle despite the crisis taking place. This way OFoundation has given them a chance to have a better life and help them provide the basic elements required to start a new life in a community such as shelter, food, clothing, and other essentials. This sponsorship also allows the kids in the family to further their education to break the cycle of poverty issues by giving them a chance to understand the world's issues and guiding them in a better path. A path that gives them an approach to pursue the right education and experiences and build the right skills for their survival that could not only help them but the entire community. OFoundation got in contact with Sadat and her family through WhatsApp, where we got to know their situation and had interviews about the sposnorship which covered Sadat and her kids' basic needs to maintain a steady lifestyle despite the crisis taking place.
OFOUNDATION SPONSORSHIP
OFoundation Sponsorship includes a fixed amount every month that is able to cover the following direct services to Sadat's Family:
- Medical support: Help the family secure access to medical assistance, e.g., help them set medical appointments; or assist them at medical facilities.
- Education: All the expenses related to education of Sadat and her children.
- Clothing: Clothing items for family members.
- Groceries: Food, including culturally appropriate items.
- Transport: For Sadat and the children to commute to school and other places easily.
- Household items: Needed furniture, household appliances, and needed technology items for the kids.
OFoundation is proud to deliver life-saving services and a fixed aid to Sadat and her children and furthermore aims to help five more families partucularly the most vulnerable, such as widows and children who have no source of income and are internally displaced from their homes.
Initiatives taken by ofoundation
OFoundation is working to improve the living situations of five more families in the future keeping in check with their physical health, nutrition, sanitation and hygiene, education, protection, food security and livelihoods. Together with more donations and sponsorships by Partner organizations we could adopt and reach more disadvantaged widows and children through our humanitarian program. The aim is to improve the delivery of financial support services to disadvantaged families where the donors are in close contact with the families to assure that the help is reaching the families effectively.
OFoundation's Humanitarian Program isn't just a chance to change a widow's life but a chance to change her entire family's future, for generations to come. "Our lives are better when their lives are better".
Help OFoundation's in it's mission to:
- Provide support to widows and malnourished children of disadvantaged families by offering socail services and vocational training.
- Intergrate necessary mental health support along with financial help in our program.
- Support and advocate for early education of disadvantaged chlidren and helping families to bring awareness of the importance of pre-school education.
- Improve the access to protective environments for widows and children living in insecure environments.