Following the US troops’ withdrawal from Afghanistan and being superseded by the Taliban, Afghanistan has reached an all-time low. The country’s entire population of 41 million people is dangerously on the brink of plummeting into universal poverty. An OCHA report showed that in 2023, 28.3 million people (two-thirds of Afghanistan’s population) would need urgent humanitarian assistance to survive as the country enters its third consecutive year of drought-like conditions and the second year of crippling economic decline.
Due to the loss of livelihood, many parents cannot afford education for their children. This led to school drop-out and increased risk of exploitation, e.g. child labour, child marriage or child trafficking. Among all children, those from ethnic minorities with visual or hearing impairments are the most vulnerable. CEDAR and a local partner provide education services such as training on life skills, braille or sign language, facilitating enrollment to public schools, training teachers to support students with special needs, after-school tuition, facilitating girls’ access to education through hiring female teachers, etc. Apart from education services, CEDAR Fund supports two other healthcare partners in Afghanistan. One of them provides healthcare services to malnourished children and pregnant women. The other provides free medicines to vulnerable groups such as families displaced by armed conflicts and disasters.
