Afghanistan
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Programme
Water, sanitation and hygiene
Climate change has deprived children and families of clean water, but UNICEF meets this large-scale challenge with small-scale solutions
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Article
Every step hurts, but it has a purpose
In the quiet shadow outside a muddy house, a young man leans on a metal walker, using a megaphone to encourage parents to take their children out for vaccination. Ahmad Tabesh Sherzad works as a social mobilizer during the polio immunization campaigns that are held regularly across Afghanistan, one of the last two...
Article
Homeward bound
Bashir stepped off the bus into a tangled knot of people, each jostling to retrieve their belongings. Just as his bus disembarked, another pulled up, with dozens more travelers unloading themselves and their families. Bashir himself had only a small backpack, which he swung over his shoulder to gently push his way...
Article
Karima's "Mission Possible": Healthy futures for every child
“The most painful thing for me is when I ask a mother if she has vaccinated her child, and she looks at me in surprise and says, ‘What is a vaccine?’” For 15 years, Karima Azimi, a 42-year-old mother of eight, has been on the frontlines of public health as a vaccinator at Rawashan Comprehensive Health Centre in He...
Article
Kareema the shoeless midwife
Kareema is never off duty. Sometimes they call her in the middle of the night to help another midwife manage a complicated delivery. She runs from her house, which is just 200 metres from the clinic, sometimes without even taking the time to put on her shoes. “Every second counts,” says Kareema. Shekiban Clinic in...
Photo essay
Keeping hope alive in Afghanistan’s community classes
"I don’t know how to read or write and because of this my life has been difficult," says Serajuddin. He serves as the head of the School Management Committee - or shura - in his village, Sharak Sabz, in Karokh district, western Afghanistan. "We want something better for our children." Six years ago, drought and se...
Article
Safe water on their doorstep
“My husband and I wanted to leave our home and move to a place where there was enough water. For years, I had been fetching water, but now I am old and can no longer do it,” says 60-year-old Fatima. Their home, Khormaloq village in Farah Province, western Afghanistan is an isolated area where access to safe and cl...
Article
An oasis in a medical desert
It’s like a pop-up clinic. For one week every month, a medical team sets up in a “white area” – a community located farther than five kilometres from a static health facility. With a doctor, midwife, vaccinators, nutrition counselor and a health educator on board, the team provides vaccinations, treatment for diseases like diarrhoea and…, Nargis, When patients arrive at the clinic, they register and proceed to a waiting area. There, community mo...
Situation report
UNICEF Afghanistan Humanitarian Situation Report: 1-31 March 2025
Highlights:22.9 million people, including 12 million children, require humanitarian assistance, mainly due to the residual impacts of a protracted conflict, extreme climate shocks and severe economic decline, characterized by high unemployment and fragile recovery.More than 829,000 children were screened for wasti...
Article
From denied to determined
“We need to have more female teachers in our community so that no girl denies her right to go to school due to the lack of female teachers,” says 16-year-old Maryam. Maryam lives in western Afghanistan with her parents and nine siblings. Like many girls in her community, including her older sisters, she was not pr...
Article
Cash for the early moments
“Some days we can’t find even a single potato to eat,” says Barato, a mother of six children. Her youngest is just eight months old. She lives in the ultra-remote Daychopan district, part of southern Zabul province in Afghanistan. Her village is a six-hour drive from the provincial centre on a dirt road through ot...
Article
Purifying contaminated water into a lifeline for communities
It started with bad, contaminated water. Between 2021 and 2022, Sorobi district in Kabul province was ground zero for acute watery diarrhea outbreaks in central Afghanistan. The disease would spread within and beyond the district, affecting thousands - including young children. At the time, the main source of wate...
Photo essay
A dignified return
For thousands of Afghan families recently returning from Pakistan, the journey home can be filled with uncertainty. In the first two weeks of April, as many as 8,000 people returned to Afghanistan every day. Some are parents with children, but some are children on their own, separated from their families or caregi...