DEC Afghan Crisis Appeal reaches £50mn
Melanie May | 15 August 2022 | News
The Disasters Emergency Committee’s (DEC) Afghanistan Crisis Appeal has raised £50 million since its December launch, it has announced. The total includes £10 million matched by the UK Government.
The appeal raised £26mn of the amount in its first two weeks. At the time, DEC estimated that over 8 million people were on the brink of famine in the country, with 1 million children under the age of five at risk of dying over the next three months.
In the first six months of the appeal, DEC funds supported:
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- Over 243,000 people with cash assistance, giving them flexibility to meet their own family’s unique needs, for example to buy food, medicines or fuel
- Over 131,000 people with emergency food supplies including, for instance, wheat flour, vegetable oil, pulses, salt and rice
- Over 100,000 people with health services, including medicines, vaccines and maternal and newborn care
- Over 2,900 children under five and pregnant or lactating women with treatment for acute malnutrition
A full report on the first six-months of the response will be available in the Autumn on the DEC’s website.
As well as providing emergency support, the money is funding water and irrigation schemes to help counter the drought; cash for work projects; and livelihoods initiatives and vocational training to help people get back on their feet.
Salah Saeed, CEO of the DEC, said:
“People in Afghanistan suffered a terrible winter and spring with millions struggling to feed their families. Donations to the DEC Afghanistan Crisis Appeal have helped provide a lifeline to hundreds of thousands of those most in need, providing food or the money to buy it. The funds are also helping provide specialist treatment for children and mothers suffering acute malnutrition. They’ve also provided much-needed medical care to at least 100,000 people who had nowhere else to go when they fell ill. Thank you so much to everyone who donated. You have made a huge difference.”
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.