Qatar Charity was established to promote sustainable development and provide humanitarian aid around the world. From this standpoint, it played a major role in resolving the Afghan refugee crisis and succeeded in doing so in various ways.
Before the Crisis
Qatar Charity’s efforts began before the outbreak of the Afghan refugee crisis, as the organization was keen on providing the necessary support to Afghanistan over the years. Among its most important efforts before the crisis are the following examples.
June 2014 | Aid for 500 Afghan families
Floods struck northern Afghanistan in April 2014, affecting many families. Immediately, Qatar Charity distributed urgent relief aid to 500 affected Afghan families. The aid included the necessary materials usually needed by those affected by floods and natural disasters, such as food, health kits, plastic sheets, mattresses, and others.
July 2018 | Relief aid
Qatar Charity provided extensive relief aid during the first half of 2018 to 1,847,728 people affected by various crises such as wars and disasters in several countries. The organization provides expertise-based assistance, specialized management, and trained teams, with field offices in more than 26 countries. Afghanistan was among the countries to which Qatar Charity was keen on providing relief aid.
During the Crisis
Qatar Charity intensified its efforts during the crisis and contributed many forms of aid, the most important of which are:
- The Qatari government and charitable societies built houses and field clinics, and provided more than 55,000 meals a day to Afghan refugees, with a significant contribution from Qatar Charity.
- Launching a Qatari aid air bridge to Afghanistan, with the participation of Qatar Charity, the Qatar Red Crescent, and the Qatar Fund For Development.
- Sending medical and food aid in cooperation with other Qatari organizations, as the total humanitarian aid conveyed by Qatar Airways to Kabul airport hit more than 700 tons in the period from September 2021 until March 2022.
- Implementing water, sanitation and hygiene projects in Afghan camps located in 6 provinces of Pakistan, in partnership with UNICEF.
- Sending a Qatari plane, provided by Qatar Charity, to Khost, in cooperation with partners and in coordination with the Qatar Fund For Development, to support the Afghan people as part of an urgent relief campaign after the June 2022 earthquake.
Care and Protection Program for Unaccompanied Afghan Children
Qatar Charity’s Care and Protection Program for Unaccompanied Afghan Children is an important achievement in the field of humanitarian aid. 260 Afghan children had arrived in Qatar without their families, and the goal was to provide them with full care until they are reunited with their families again.
Qatar Charity has developed a set of program management guidelines in order to provide high-quality care. These principles were to uphold the interest of the child and his or her right to rest, entertainment and play, in addition to his or her access to the best physical and mental health services.
To ensure the implementation of such principles, the organization provided the best services to children. Accommodation, for example, took the shape of a reception center with temporary arrangements suitable for children and multi-activity facilities. Qatar Charity also worked to collect information about the children, track their families, and search for reunification opportunities in cooperation with various parties such as the Qatari Foreign Ministry, the International Organization for Migration, and UNICEF.
Once the children were received, the organization assigned a temporary guardian who took responsibility for them, providing them with appropriate support and protection. This task, however, was not easy, as it faced multiple challenges, the most important of which was the difficulty of communicating with the children, gaining their trust, and providing help that suits the needs of each child aside from the challenge of locating the parents.
To provide the assistance needed to the children, the organization established a Children’s Council, where children from different homes voted for a child to represent their interests at a weekly meeting held with the organizers and partner organizations.
Additionally, the program included training 233 volunteers on a variety of skills, and the organization was very careful in their selection.
Another essential part of the program is the mental health and psychosocial support component, where a specialized team has been formed that includes psychologists, counselors, and social support workers. A mental health clinic has also been designated. Furthermore, the organization allocated a call center through which all the children made a total of 17,000 minutes of calls to 13 different countries.
Finally, the organization celebrated the reunion of the last three Afghan children in Doha, ending its mission to care for 260 Afghan minors separated from their families. Yousef bin Ahmed Al-Kuwari, CEO of Qatar Charity, expressed his happiness about this, “We are pleased to reunite the last three children,” who have been under Qatar Charity’s care since August 2021, with their families. “We are proud of being part of the Qatari society, which responded to our call to volunteer within hours and worked tirelessly for months,” he added.
Through such continuous efforts, Qatar Charity has demonstrated its commitment to the people of Afghanistan, and its ability to provide the necessary aid to the Afghan refugees.
