Thanks to the phenomenal generosity of our giving community, our teams were able to continue delivering lifesaving and life-changing assistance to thousands of families across Afghanistan in 2025. Despite new and longstanding crises, the strength and resilience of those we work with, twinned with your solidarity, enabled us to provide emergency relief in times of immense need, and also support men and women to build brighter, more secure futures for their families and communities. 

What were Afghan communities facing in 2025?

Life continued to be extremely difficult for Afghan people in 2025. With 22.9 million people requiring humanitarian assistance, and 14.8 million facing acute food insecurity, extreme poverty and hunger continued to fuel immense hardship, particularly in the remote, rural regions in which we work.

What are some of the challenges Afghans continue to face?

1. Afghan communities experienced devastating natural disasters across 2025, most notably August’s earthquake in Kunar province, in which over 2,000 people lost their lives and thousands of families were displaced. These disasters overwhelmed local coping mechanisms and placed additional strain on already limited services.

2. Afghan women and girls continued to face deepening restrictions on their ability to live free and full lives. Exclusion from many areas of public life, including education and employment, continued to undermine communities ability to fully recover and rebuild. 

3. Significant aid cuts throughout the year meant that millions of Afghans were unable to access crucial assistance. In particular, the withdrawal of almost all USAID funding from Afghanistan had a particularly severe impact on the country's health services, including the closure or scaling back of health clinics and development programmes. 

4. The sharp increase in deportations from Iran and Pakistan across 2025 placed immense pressure on already overstretched communities. More than 2.4 million men, women and children were forced to return to Afghanistan, despite many never having lived there and lacking social or economic support networks. At a time when food, shelter and employment opportunities are already scarce, many returnees are facing increased vulnerabilities.

5. The climate crisis continued to severely affect families’ ability to grow food and sustain livelihoods. Prolonged droughts destroyed crops and reduced access to water, driving acute food insecurity and contributing to a sharp rise in malnutrition rates in the latter half of the year, particularly among young children and mothers.

Despite these mounting difficulties, Afghan communities continue to show remarkable strength, resourcefulness and resilience, coming together to support one another and find new ways to thrive amidst the challenges. Thanks to our community-led approach and decades of experience, our teams were also able to navigate these challenges, ensuring those most in need received tailored and sustained assistance. 

Our impact in 2025

Our dedicated staff implemented 16 projects across 13 of Afghanistan's most underserved provinces. Join us as we look back at some of the inspiring people and communities we worked alongside.

1. Learning skills for the future

Across 2025, over 37,800 men and women enrolled on Afghanaid training courses, enabling them to learn new skills to help them earn incomes, grow food, attain key business knowledge and gain tools to better care for their mental wellbeing. 

Recognising the importance of diverse livelihood opportunities, Afghanaid ensures that women and men can access a wide range of skills and vocational options in our projects, tailored to their accessibility needs and their individual circumstances. For women in particular, these programmes are designed to support independence and skill development despite the significant restrictions they face. Some of the training courses delivered in 2025 included:

Visit our stories page to learn more about some of the recent ways Afghan families have been improving their lives with the help of newfound skills and training. 

2. New and improved shelter for men, women and children in Ghor province.

Unpredictable and increasingly severe weather continues to place many Afghan families at risk, as some traditional homes are unable to withstand heavy rain, strong winds and extreme cold. Living in a remote region of Ghor province, Abdul Latif*, his wife and five children faced this reality every day.

"My family and I lived in a house that was in extremely poor condition," Abdul Latif told us. "The walls were cracked, the roof leaked whenever it rained, and the cold during winter was unbearable. As a street vendor, my daily income was very limited, barely enough to cover food and basic necessities. I had no means to purchase construction materials or repair the house. Every time it rained or strong winds blew, I worried that the house might collapse and that my children could be injured."

Despite his efforts to make temporary repairs, covering cracks with plastic sheets and sacks and using wooden planks to reduce leaks, the house remained unsafe, and the underlying structural damage remained. Recognising that he needed further support, Abdul Latif approached his local Afghanaid team and was enrolled in a shelter reconstruction project. Through the programme, he received 37,240 AFN to purchase essential construction materials.

Now able to afford the repair work the house required, Abdul Latif quickly got started on making the changes, with the support of construction workers and training provided by Afghanaid. "With this support, I repaired my house, reinforced its structure, and ensured a safe living environment for my family."

Today, my family lives in a secure and solid shelter, free from the constant fears that once weighed heavily on us. Our daily life has become more stable, and I feel that our future is now moving in a positive and promising direction."

As part of this project, more than 600 households were able to build new or improved homes, keeping over 4,000 people safe and warm during the winter months. 

*Name has been changed.

3. Canals and climate adaptation

As part of our evolving focus to address the systemic climate challenges impacting Afghan communities, our teams continued to implement wide-ranging climate adaptation programmes. Currently the sixth most vulnerable country to climate change in the world, Afghanistan primarily experiences the climate crisis as a water crisis. Prolonged and severe droughts have devastated agricultural production, reduced access to drinking water and worsened food insecurity and malnutrition for millions of families.

At the same time, rising temperatures and shifting weather patterns have disrupted rain cycles, decreasing snowfall and reducing the natural recharge of rivers. When rainfall or snowmelt does occur, the ground is often degraded and unable to absorb the water, leading to sudden and destructive flash floods that wash away homes, infrastructure, livestock and crops.

To tackle this, Afghanaid work tirelessly to end this deadly cycle through robust water management systems, ensuring communities can store water when droughts persist, revitalise degraded soil, and manage the flow of water when heavy rainfall occurs. In 2025, this included building and rehabilitating over 178,162 metres of irrigation canals and passages.

In the mountainous province of Badakhshan, one village knew these challenges all too well. A rural community dependent on farming and livestock, families were highly vulnerable to instances of flash flooding, which frequently destroyed their land. The neighbouring canal was old and unfit for purpose, and was frequently damaged by flooding.

When Afghanaid visited the community, they spoke to residents about the challenges faced and together devised a solution. 450 households came together to discuss how to rehabilitate the canal, and many enrolled in a cash-for-work scheme to support in the construction of the water system. The team stabilised the canal's water intake points and fixed damaged sections to ensure reliable water flow for agriculture.

Since the project, and thanks to the village's strong community spirit, access to reliable water has transformed daily life. Increased crop production has led to more stable incomes, reduced stress, and improved villager's ability to afford basic necessities and schooling for their children. 

"Now, we are hopeful that our children will grow up in a village where farming is safe and profitable, and we can rely on water for our crops every season."

Want to continue inspiring hope in 2026?

This year, we will continue to make life better for over one million people in Afghanistan. At a time when over 21.9 million people require humanitarian assistance, please support this vital work today.