Afghan women overcome challenges, including COVID-19, to provide food support for their families.

Women participate kitchen gardening and covid-19 training.
Sunday, April 19, 2020

As the world faces the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, communities in western Afghanistan are just beginning to feel the effects. People are not only concerned about the potential health risks that virus will bring but also worry about the potential economic impacts due to preventative measures. For vulnerable families in Afghanistan’s northwest province of Badghis, this pandemic is one more challenge added to the list of disasters that the region faces, including recent drought and floods. The ongoing disasters put high pressures on women and men to properly feed their families; many facing hunger, exacerbating already high levels of food insecurity. Many households do not receive their daily portion of key vitamins or minerals, partially because vegetables and other healthy food products are not commonly available in the market. Despite these struggles, communities are working to overcome them through key programmes to increase livelihood opportunities, while ensuring to protect themselves from the threat of COVID-19.

Hygiene kits

Through a project funded by the USAID Food for Peace, World Vision Afghanistan is supporting 400 female-headed households across Badghis Province to establish small, kitchen gardens of fruit and vegetables. The selected participants have been provided with seed and tool packages. They have also been trained on basic farming skills, such as proper use of fertiliser, water conservation techniques, and irrigation methods. Women participating in this training will be able to provide a more diverse food for their families and have surplus to sell in the market, increasing household income. Meanwhile, they follow the best hygiene practices during their work and training, taking advantage of hygiene supplies and printed literature provided by World Vision to increase their awareness of how to prevent the spread of the virus.

Fatima, 40, has been a farmer for years. But for all of her efforts, she has not been satisfied with the result. “Though I am trying, the crop yields are low at the end,” she remarks.  After participating in the training to establish kitchen gardening plots on her land, she is more hopeful about the prospects of this year’s vegetable harvest. “I have learned the principles of planting and protecting against animal disease and pests.” She believes that this will help her to increase her yields and harvest better quality crops.   

Humaira, 21, is another trainee who wants to be an active member of her farming community. She hopes to apply what she learned and pass on the gained knowledge to others, “I came here to enhance my knowledge and to share with the other women in the community.”  She is particularly interested in applying new methods of farming, “In the past, since I did not have much information about cultivation and maintenance of vegetables, we rarely cultivated vegetables.”

“Now we have learned about new methods of farming in the kitchen garden. This can be a good income generation source for me and my family,” she added.  

practical session of kitchen gardening

Now women participating in the project face the difficult balance of providing food for their families while having health concerns facing the growing COVID-19 outbreak. As part of this training, women have received information about how they can reduce the risk of the virus. They have also received hygiene supplies while participating in the training. While the training on gardening helps provide these women opportunities to grow their household incomes, learning more about the current crisis also helps to keep their families and communities safe. 

Frozan, 42 helps facilitate the training and also participates in the sessions. She explains that women are receiving multiple benefits from the training. “The training helped women not only establish kitchen gardening as an income source, we also increased their understanding about Coronavirus and the measures to prevent it. The participants promised to share their learnings with other vulnerable people, which helps all of us through this crisis”.

The knowledge to do more efficient farming is as important as ever since Afghanistan, like majority of the countries in the world, faces uncertain times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Fatima says that understanding preventative measures is as important as the agriculture training. “Thanks to World Vision, I also received some valuable information about Coronavirus and how to stay safe while farming in our kitchen gardens.”

World Vision Afghanistan, together with the help from partners around the world, is able to provide assistance to communities who need livelihood support in a time of crisis. Vulnerable communities cannot afford to stay without necessary food and livelihoods assistance. World Vision Afghanistan continues partnering with the communities and ensures safety as a high priority.

practical session of kitchen gardening