History
CRS began working in Afghanistan in 1998 with local organizations through the international Caritas network. Shortly after September 11, 2001, CRS opened offices in Kabul, Kandahar and Herat, with suboffices in Herat and Ghor provinces. We began by providing food, shelter, and vocational training and materials to returning refugees and the poor who had suffered severely from drought, oppression and war. Over time, CRS started rehabilitation work, helping people rebuild their homes and farms and establish basic ways to make a living. CRS supports cash-for-work programs that allow people to earn money by rebuilding neglected and war-damaged infrastructure, such as irrigation canals and roads. With a new program in Bamiyan, CRS now provides access to education, clean water and sound livelihoods for Afghans living in some of the most remote parts of the country.
Partners
The Afghanistan National Association
The Afghanistan National Association for the Deaf (ANAD) is one of only a few organizations improving the lives of Afghans with hearing impairments. Offering basic primary education, teacher training and vocational training in Kabul, ANAD has opened the door to learning and life opportunities for many, including students, teachers and most of the staff, who also have hearing impairments. CRS has covered rent for ANAD's school buildings and teacher training as well as providing management support.
The Welfare and Development Organization for Afghanistan (WDOA)
The Welfare and Development Organization for Afghanistan (WDOA) is a nonpartisan group that assists poor people in Afghanistan. WDOA places a special emphasis on helping women learn organizational, vocational and marketing skills. It has presented workshops on food processing, including sorting and packaging various types of vegetables and fruits, in Herat and Bamiyan provinces. WDOA supports more than 200 women's food processing centers and 40 self-help groups in Herat province.
Programs
Agriculture
Since 2004, CRS has helped Afghan farmers grow and sell more food and raise more livestock. Our innovative agro-enterprise projects address the demands of local markets and teach farmers how to improve their growing techniques and better process and market their crops. In one case, CRS connected tomato growers in Herat with a tomato-paste factory. Now, nearly 600 farmers are earning profits through this public-private partnership. CRS also improves farmers' access to credit, water for irrigation and better farming tools. An integral part of our agriculture program is self-help groups, which place special emphasis on women's enterprise development. As of 2009, CRS' agriculture program is helping approximately 200,000 people in 220 villages.
Education
Since 2003, CRS Afghanistan has been expanding learning opportunities for children in isolated rural communities. CRS helps these communities provide basic education to children who don’t have access to formal, government-supported schools. Roughly 12,400 students (60 percent girls) attend these CRS-supported schools in 340 rural communities. CRS also funds the Afghan National Association for the Deaf so they can provide quality education to approximately 250 students with hearing impairments in Kabul.
Disaster Response
From the time of our arrival in Afghanistan, CRS has responded to drought and other severe weather emergencies that significantly reduce domestic food production. Combined with the sharp increases in international food and fuel prices, such natural disasters resulted in the tripling of prices for most staple foods from 2007 to 2008. In response to the food price crisis, CRS reached more than 14,000 households through cash-for-work projects, with an additional 1,200 extremely vulnerable households receiving vouchers for food and other essentials. Some 89 villages have participated in
cash-for-work projects focusing on repairing roads, clearing snow and building up water systems.
Helping build better water systems improves sanitation and is an integral part of CRS' water projects, complementing the work of government health clinics and other village health workers. Over the last 4 years, CRS' water programs have alleviated the suffering caused by drought. In Herat, Ghor and Bamiyan provinces, CRS runs activities that improve access to clean water. In Ghor province alone, 5,280 people now use 4 CRS-built water systems that bring safe and adequate amounts of drinking water within 900 feet of their homes.
CRS engineers help communities develop pipelines and other infrastructure for water management and local usage. Also, given the tremendous need for controlling waterborne disease, CRS has trained poor residents in remote communities (and particularly women) on proper hygiene practices.
CRS' natural resource management program helps communities control water runoff and erosion. To protect natural resources in impoverished villages, CRS has trained 787 farmers on ways to improve agriculture and better manage soil and water resources. CRS programs have also planted more than 71,000 trees and used other natural resource management techniques to prevent soil erosion on about 321 acres of land.
