Against All Odds: Coping In Afghanistan
16 October 2002
The people of Afghanistan are struggling to reclaim their lives in an environment still plagued with poverty, conflict, insecurity, and almost constant drought.
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In early 2002, Elizabeth Stites, a former Oxfam intern, joined a team of researchers from the Feinstein Famine Center at Tufts University to survey food security in Afghanistan. The researchers were commissioned by the U.S. Agency for International Development, to learn how people were coping with the continued drought and the extent of food resources at the household level. They aimed to make recommendations for how donors could assist in significant and long lasting ways.
Over the course of five months, the four-person team worked in 16 provinces of Afghanistan, training local men and women to conduct focus group interviews with individuals from more than 1,100 Afghan households. The groups consisted of men, women, young boys and girls. Team members also spoke to civil and military authorities, aid workers, and donor representatives. These accounts provided a generalized assessment of how Afghans were coping with crisis.
THE STORY OF DROUGHT
The story of a drought that persists year after year tells of the breakdown and crushing collapse of society. Although Afghans are accustomed to occasional dry spells, they were unprepared for an extended drought. Such a drought – the worst in living memory – now persists into its fourth year in many parts of Afghanistan.
The Afghans showed great resilience and determination to keep crops and animals alive and families intact. As wells and local water sources ran dry, family members walked up to six hours to fetch water for fruit trees and kitchen gardens.
Such tactics succeeded for the first year, but as the drought continued, many saw their orchards wither, and the eventual loss of the family cow, sheep or goat ended an important source of dairy and protein.
The loss of assets and nutritional diversity increased the spiral into debt, poverty, and uncertainty. Many report livestock losses greater than 70 percent. People sold off essential assets such as stoves, blankets, looms – even ceiling beams holding up the roofs. Too many have been reduced to placing their daughters into premature marriage (some as young as seven) in exchange for food, cash, or fuel wood. Young boys are often sent to work as shepherds in distant villages or provinces. The grief from the separation of families is boundless.
Charity is a central tenet and highly valued aspect of Muslim society, and the poorest are sustained by those with wealth as part of the fabric of community life. As the wealthy disappear, so do resources for the poorest. Today, many Afghans who were previously part of the middle class have joined the ranks of those with nothing left.
Debt is fundamentally alien to the Muslim value system. To borrow is shameful, as is lending for interest. The impoverishment caused by the drought, however, has turned many to debt for survival. A crisis of shame now hangs over many Afghan homes, with men unable to venture out in fear of encountering someone to whom they owe money. Many have mortgaged their homes, orchards, and land, resulting in the emergence of a large population of those without access to land.
AID TO AFGHANISTAN
Last fall, as the bombing began, relief agencies warned of widespread starvation if massive amounts of aid were not brought into the country early enough to reach remote communities before they were isolated by winter snow. Because of the drought, the snows were light, and assistance reached many remote areas. Starvation appears to have been averted, and more than 60 percent of households surveyed received some form of assistance from national or international organizations.
The level of need in Afghanistan remains staggering. Yet, as Elizabeth Stites reports, “The Afghan people are incredibly resilient. They have been coping with conflict for more than 20 years, and have faced their share of natural hazards. Afghans have been successful traders for centuries, and an active private sector is bringing in commodities from neighboring countries.”
In most parts of the country, the problem is not availability of food but lack of money to buy food from the markets. Even subsistence farming has largely failed due to the drought. According to Stites, the real need now is a massive infusion of resources to enable communities to regain their land, reactivate their livelihoods, build new homes, and access markets. Millions are still returning from refugee camps, often to destroyed homes in waterless villages. The drought continues, and communities badly need funds to rebuild the advanced underground irrigation canals and water storage systems that had served them for centuries. Families need to prepare for winter by increasing their food stores and repairing shelters.
“At first glance,” says Stites, “the situation in Afghanistan seems overwhelming – you don’t know where to start. But the Afghan people have incredible strength, and tapping into their knowledge may be essential to provide effective assistance from the international community.”
