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Rescue teams are struggling to reach remote villages as rough terrain, traffic jams, and ongoing landslides continue to block the way and aftershocks continue to come. Funds are desperately needed to stock up and accelerate the relief efforts.
The human cost continues to rise, as over 1,400 people are reported to have died and more than 3,000 injured. Families who lost their homes are now sleeping under cloth or in the open. World Vision warns that it is children who are bearing the brunt of this crisis.
World Vision has launched humanitarian response efforts through local partnerships with the Afghan Women’s Educational Centre (AWEC) and the Agency for Assistance and Development in Afghanistan (AADA), focusing primarily on the provision of healthcare, food, emergency shelter, and clean water.
To see the reality on the ground, Ria Mohammad Rehaa, World Vision Afghanistan’s Communications Manager, travelled to Noorgul district in Kunar – one of the most remote quake-affected areas. The journey took 10 hours by car, followed by 4 hours on foot.
There, alongside one of World Vision’s local partners, AADA, he joined mobile health teams racing to save lives in the aftermath of the earthquake.
Rehaa explains:
“Thousands are affected by the earthquake. Reaching these people is not easy. Hundreds of people from neighbouring provinces are rushing towards the affected community to provide support. But due to the huge crowd here, the road is blocked.
“The situation on the ground is terrifying. Communities are still being hit by violent aftershocks, triggering landslides that continue to block roads and isolate entire villages.
“63-year-old Sarferaz told me that the people were desperately affected and needed urgent help specifically shelter because their houses were destroyed and nothing was left but rubble. He also said that during the burial of two bodies, he witnessed five aftershocks – the shocks were horrifying. These aftershocks could destroy those villages which are less affected. But some people in nearby villages have abandoned their homes.
“Sarferaz told me that he counted one hundred graves in one village alone. When he had asked locals, an elder told him that all of those graves belonged to four extended families.
“On the road to the disaster zone, I saw a few vehicles carrying women and children. The women had tears streaming down their faces. The children looked lost – scared and confused. Some of them may not even understand what an earthquake is. All they know is that they’ve lost their mothers, fathers, siblings – and their homes.
“There are villages where only one or two people have survived. The rest – entire families – are gone.
“One of our colleagues from the local partner who were in the affected communities said that there is a shock almost every ten minutes. He said that the most of the injured in accessible areas are being carried by ambulance. But for remote villages, there are limitations. But still Helicopters are trying to transport the wounded people from those areas. He also said that their colleagues walked for 4 hours to reach those villages – and they themselves were terrified by the aftershocks.”
World Vision has launched an Eastern Afghanistan Emergency Appeal to be able to build up and accelerate humanitarian relief support: https://www.worldvision.org.
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