The Next Step

We are proud of our history and what we have achieved so far. In light of the current challenges for alleviating poverty, we are renewing our focus and taking a new strategic direction.

We aim to provide the following services:

Emergency relief:  Food, healthcare, shelter, other emergency supplies

Education: Infrastructural development i.e. school, training teachers and providing equipment.

Healthcare: Infrastructural development i.e. hospitals, clinics, training medical staff, providing equipment, water & sanitation.

Housing & Shelter:  Permanent infrastructural development, emergency shelter and construction.

Programmes:  Orphans and widows Care and widow’s welfare programs, such as rehabilitation with vocational trainings.

Seasonal Programmes:  Ramadan and Qurbani

Our Goals

Our strategic goal is to have made a significant contribution to eliminate the poverty, to provide most basic and immediate needs like clean water and healthcare for the orphans and widows and for those affected by war and natural disasters.

Our Objectives

To achieve this goal and explore our vision, we have the following objectives:

• We aim to review our organisational structure and job descriptions to ensure fully functioning departments.

• Regularly reviews our governing document to ensure that it is up to date and that the trustees have the powers that they need in order to achieve the charity's purposes and to manage its resources effectively.

• Recognises, promotes and values equality and diversity in beneficiaries, staff and volunteers, and in all aspects of our activity.

• Ensure that all information such as accounts and annual reviews is available to all stakeholders including donors, partners and beneficiaries.

• Regularly reviews our structures, policies and procedures to ensure that they continue to support, and are adequate for, the delivery of the charity's purposes and mission; this includes policies and procedures dealing with board strategies, functions and responsibilities; good employment practices and the encouragement and use of volunteers.

• Carry out a full review of our achievements in the key programme areas identified above (Emergency Relief, Education, Healthcare, Housing & Shelter, Orphanages and Seasonal Programmes) through impact assessment and case studies.

• To secure increased resources, our aim is to establish a structured approach to fundraising through developing strategies for engaging different funding sectors.

• Review the current communication and marketing strategies and developing a strategic plan for effective communication to ensure targeting of all sectors.

 
Our Projects

1.  Micro finance Projects

Afghan Helping Hands supports projects that empower poor and marginalised people to improve the conditions of their own lives, be it through employment or asserting their human rights. The Static shows there are over 1.6 million widows in Afghanistan and for these women daily life is a constant struggle; a struggle to educate their children, a struggle to feed their families, and a struggle to keep their families warm in the winter months.  These widows have to struggle with the dilemma of finding money to feed and clothe their children and not send them to school as they cannot afford this.

The followings are the micro finance projects which will help them to get something out of it:

(i)  A Sheep

A sheep is a great gift because it produces milk for families to drink, and provides a regular and reliable source of income from a large variety of potential produce; Such as Butter, Cheese, Yogurt; Dry Yogurt; Milk, Cream; Oil and Wool.

The Widow families are provided or given three sheep, two female and one male, so they can fertilized and grow their flock. It will increase the potential volume of produce, so their potential to earn will also increase. Key to the success of this scheme is that once production patterns are established then the widowed families will be able to determine how much volume can be regularly sold and how much volume is needed for consumption at home.  Certainly, the widowed families have been directed that participation in the scheme will also allow them to provide a more nutritious diet for their children.

Make a difference today; donate generously £65.00 for a sheep

(ii) THE BLANKET AND CLOTHING PROJECT

(a)  Sewing Machine

Much more than a hobby, a sewing machine can provide a much-needed regular source of income for widows who would otherwise be more destitute.
Young widow like Amina lost her husband during the war and was difficult to support herself and her two young children. The Afghan Helping Hands provided her sewing machine which is a means of survival to her.
Afghan Helping Hands runs training courses including sewing that can help young women gain skills that can provide an income.

 Make a difference today; give a life changing gift to a widow now. £30.00

(b) Blanket Sewing Project:

Afghanistan is cold mountainous country with over 3.5 million widows and orphans living in sever hardship; they did not have enough blankets or clothing to cover them, nor they have enough to eat or materials for burning for heat. Afghan Helping Hands proposed a project to help the orphanages by involvement and input of widows.

The project plan included purchasing the raw material, fabric, cotton, needles and thread from the local province markets and then surveying the widows in that province to determine the extent of need. The widows will be given clothing and a number of blankets to make along with needles, thread and etc and it will be based on individual need with the finished products will give to the orphanages.  Key to the success of this scheme is the two way help by means of survival to widows and by providing clothes and blanket to the orphans.

For every piece of clothing, they will offer 100 Afghanis and for each blanket 80 Afghanis. It will take about 15 days for all the clothing and the blankets to be completed. This project will help more than 120 widows which will be a means of survival at least for a while.

Make a difference today;  Donate generously  £30.00

When these children are educated they will be able to understand better their immediate and social environment as well as being able to actively contributing to the rehabilitation of their community and country at large.

We recruit and train teachers from the local community and provide textbooks in two languages. The schools are a great success - in December 2008, nearly 50 children went on to high schools to continue their education.

If you would like to contribute funds that would help pay to hire new teachers, 100% of your donation will go toward funding this project.

Your gift could help provide a classroom full of children with a primary school education for a year. £780.00

Equip 30 students from some of the poorest rural areas with all they need for school - exercise books, pencils, pens and erasers.  £ 25.00

  
3.  Water irrigation Projects

Afghanistan is a mountainous country with extreme weathers of very cold winters and very hot summers. Although the country suffers from severe droughts, agriculture is the main industry in Afghanistan with approximately 80% of the population depending on agriculture for their livelihood. 

Digging and constructing a 100m to 150m well will make a huge difference to an entire village in rural Afghanistan. One well provides clean water up to 800 families. With no clean water nearby, it falls to the women and girls to walk miles to the nearest stream of water or a well - often repeating the journey several times a day.

But with a well in the village, the supply of clean fresh water close by means that women can work and contribute to their family's income. It also means that girls can go to school regularly and receive a good education that will help them get a job in the future.

Make a difference today; add a life changing gift to your basket now. £495

 
4.  Water Hand Pump Projects

 Access to clean water, is one of the hardest challenges faced in Afghanistan. Water networks, tube wells, and hand water pumps are the current projects which the Afghan Helping Hands is working on. The provision of water irrigation channels would generate crops which can be sold for income, food for the families as well as water for their livestock.

By supplying clean water through hand water pumps the number of children suffering from common water borne diseases would be reduced and the general hygiene of the families would improve. £500 could provide clean water for up to 5,000 people.
It would only cost £1.60 to provide clean and safe water for 1 family and 10p for 1 person.

5.  Proposal for orphanage

In Afghanistan decades of conflict have created a cycle, where war’s destabilising by-products are fuelling continuing violence. There is an estimated 1.6 million orphans in the country and we are only marginally aware of the hardship that they have gone through, let alone what the future holds for them. They can't have their meals. They don't have proper shelter, medications and they cannot afford to go school as many have to go and earn money to feed themselves and in some cases their widowed mothers.

Our goal is to give hope to these children by building their capacity for self-determination and realization of their full potential like other children in the society.

The relationship between the donors (mostly the remaining family) and the children is basically like face to face. The children can communicate with the donors directly as they like and they can also use the donors' support for their personal needs.

This way, the children have the possibility to gradually establish a personalized relationship with us. Therefore, they will not necessarily see it as something "institutional", but more like bond of family between them and us. To make this bond useful and strong it is necessary that both build and define it, explicitly and implicitly from the beginning. On the other hand, it is also necessary that the relationship follows the human rhythm, so children do not see it as something threatening, allowing him/her to make it part of his/her environment.

By providing this much-needed support, Afghan Helping Hands is working to provide a stable and healthy environment for our orphan and needy children to develop and grow as upright, independent and decent citizens in their environment.

 It only costs £25.40 to provide a good standard of education, a nutritious daily meal and decent clothing for an orphan who has no parent to care and love them