Donate for Afghanistan
Emergency assistance for Afghanistan
Help was founded over 40 years ago to help Afghan refugees. After decades of successful development cooperation, the Taliban's return to power triggered a severe humanitarian crisis.
Help is committed to supporting the people of Afghanistan: we provide families with relief supplies and cash assistance, and we are combating hunger.
How is Help providing support in Afghanistan?
Alleviating hardship
We are currently providing relief supplies and cash to families in need. These include families affected by last year’s severe earthquakes and floods, as well as people who had sought refuge in Iran and were forced to return to Afghanistan. Many of them have lost all their possessions and are now left with nothing.
In the western Afghan provinces of Herat and Farah, we support farmers in securing and making their agricultural livelihoods sustainable, so that they can provide for themselves and their families in the long term.
Over the past 20 years, Help has been particularly committed to giving young people a self-determined future. In addition to six months of training in manual trades, the project participants received food aid and psychological support, among other things. They were then able to earn their own income and overcome poverty.
We have also dedicated ourselves to protecting children in need: We ran two orphanages in Herat, set up emergency services for violence against children and provided psychosocial support for children, young people and their caregivers.
From 1981 to 1997, numerous projects were implemented in Afghanistan and neighbouring countries in the areas of education, health and agriculture. Only during the Taliban rule from 1998 to 2001 did Help not implement any projects in Afghanistan.
What is the situation like in Afghanistan?
Serious humanitarian crisis
War, violence and oppression have dominated everyday life in Afghanistan for decades. The invasion and subsequent occupation by the Soviet Union (1979-1989) was followed by years of civil war, which culminated in the Taliban coming to power. Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, the international coalition toppled the Taliban rule in Afghanistan, but the danger to the civilian population from daily attacks remained.
Today, Afghanistan is once again the scene of a serious humanitarian crisis. Following the withdrawal of NATO and US troops, whose deployment in recent years had ensured a degree of stability, fighting has flared up again in the war-torn country. In 2021, the Taliban recaptured most of Afghanistan within a few weeks and took control of Kabul. Four years later, more than half of the population is still dependent on humanitarian aid and in urgent need of food, drinking water and medical care. Women and children in Afghanistan are particularly vulnerable in this situation.
Since 2025, conditions on the border with Iran have been catastrophic: numerous Afghan families who had sought protection from persecution in Iran are currently being forced to leave the country or are being deported. Many of them arrive in Afghanistan with no prospects and are in urgent need of help. Help is supporting the people as best it can, but due to the international cuts in humanitarian aid, the need cannot be met. We are therefore urgently requesting donations for families in need in Afghanistan.
The humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan is one of the worst in the world – and it continues to worsen. Those who have been deported from Iran to Afghanistan are particularly hard hit – most of them without shelter, without possessions, without prospects. Due to public funding cuts for humanitarian aid, our hands are largely tied as a humanitarian actor in Afghanistan. This is costing lives. Afghanistan must not be forgotten.
Shafi Shirzad, Country Director Help Afghanistan
Your donation for Afghanistan
Donate now for our emergency aid in Afghanistan.
Q&A
In July 2021, NATO and US troops withdrew from Afghanistan after a 20-year mission. Within a very short space of time, the Taliban once again took control of Afghanistan and have largely wiped out the development successes of the last 20 years.
The humanitarian crisis in the country is severe: nearly 22 million people are in need of aid, and a third of the population is suffering from acute food insecurity.
Time and again, natural disasters have exacerbated the situation: in the autumn of 2023 and again in the autumn of 2025, there were severe earthquakes in which a total of over 3,000 people lost their lives and countless families lost their homes. In the spring of 2026, persistent rainfall in our project regions of Herat and Badghis caused severe flooding. Numerous houses were destroyed by flash floods.
Our projects in Afghanistan are funded by the following donors:
- Aktion Deutschland Hilft
- German Federal Foreign Office
- UNICEF
Find out which local partners we are working with in Afghanistan: Our partners
The Taliban's return to power is a bitter setback for Afghan women. Over the past 20 years, they have fought hard for their rights and achieved a lot of progress: for example, they have been allowed to go to school, study, teach, work as lawyers and participate in political decision-making processes.
Despite the Taliban's promises to respect women's rights and grant freedoms, a different picture has emerged within a few months: female journalists, activists, politicians and lawyers are being massively threatened, girls are being denied access to secondary schools and the burqa has been made compulsory again.
You can donate easily and securely online for our work in Afghanistan: Donate online
Alternatively, you have the option of transferring your donation to our donation account:
Help - Hilfe zur Selbsthilfe e.V.
IBAN: DE47 3708 0040 0240 0030 00
BIC: DRES DE FF 370
Keyword: Afghanistan
For donations of 10 euros or more, you will automatically receive a donation receipt in January of the following year.