Overcoming Ethnic Divisions to Deliver Aid

A boy carries blankets and other relief items to his home. Mercy Corps and ECHO are distributing essential goods to refugee families returning to their destroyed villages in northern Afghanistan. Photo: Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps

KHANABAD, Afghanistan - Streaming down the dusty dirt road of Obshoora, Khanabad are women, men and children carrying buckets and balancing piles of blankets and floor mats on their heads and shoulders. A little further up the road, hundreds of people are gathered at the distribution area—women, patiently holding their babies in the midday sun, waiting to be called to collect their distribution packages.

Mercy Corps is distributing a variety of non-food relief items to returning refugees in the village. The European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) has donated floor mats, kitchen sets, soaps and detergents, buckets and a variety of essential relief items to assist families who are returning to their villages that were destroyed during years of fighting.

Distribution began in April, and to date, over 7500 families in the northern Afghanistan districts of Dashti Archi and Khanabad have received emergency non-food aid through this program.

The distribution process in this area is extremely complicated and required an extensive, but rapid, assessment study by Mercy Corps. Ethnic divisions in this post-conflict area run deep: ethnic Uzbeks and Tajiks inhabit the hilly highlands, which have been severely affected by the long drought. Pushtuns live in the irrigated lowlands where at least some agricultural activities have been possible. Thus, the Uzbek and Tajik populations are generally much more vulnerable than the Pushtuns. However, a distribution that targeted exclusively Tajik and Uzbek populations could increase ethnic tensions, which already run high after the fall of the Taliban regime. Therefore, Mercy Corps carried out extensive surveys to ensure that the distributions were impartial and that the most vulnerable Pushtun families residing in areas of lower vulnerability received aid as well.

Kamilla, an aid recipient, holds her three-month old son in one arm and clutches her ration card in the other hand. She is thankful for the help she is receiving. “Earlier this month we received wheat from Mercy Corps and ECHO, and now we are getting the supplies we need to set-up our home. It may not be much, but we are thankful to have this.”