I miss my friends due to Coronavirus!
“I am Mohammad Arif, and I am 11 years old. I live in Shahrak Sabz settlement for Internally Displaced People (IDPs) with my three brothers and three sisters. I study in school and I am in the third grade. But, I do not go to school due to coronavirus. I hate coronavirus; it is such a bad disease which caused my friends to leave. I miss them a lot. I heard so many things about coronavirus from my father. One day he came back home, with hygiene kits and asked us to take care of these items which are very important to save ourselves from coronavirus. My father also told me that if I do not heed cleaning and hygiene warnings then I will be infected with this virus. Now all of my family members are following hygiene instructions and using the kits to survive coronavirus. Most of the time I stay at home. I do not go to public places or gatherings.
”Before the pandemic, World Vision team came to the settlement and taught us on hand washing. I found an illustrated sheet in the kit that my father brought home. The sheet pointed out the tips for hand washing. I hung it on the wall to remind myself that if I am clean then coronavirus will not come to me. I hope this virus ends soon so that I can start school and hug my close friends,” says Arif.
Akmal, 36, is Arif’s father. He explains: “We live in an IDP settlement where vulnerable people have been displaced here due to conflict and internal war. A lot of families who have many members are living together, which is a big problem since coronavirus can be simply spread among them. Through awareness sessions we learned about hygiene and sanitation, and understood the need to adhere to safe practices such as social distancing. Afterwards, we stopped traveling to tell stories together, except for crucial topics (while considering social distancing to help us to be safe). We have received hygiene kits from World Vision and I shared my learnings with my family and Arif to follow hygiene practices. I am happy that so far none of our family members are not sick or infected with coronavirus.”
World Vision Afghanistan has been responding to COVID-19 crisis since it began to spread in Afghanistan. So far, 18,375 hygiene kits have been distributed to IDPs in Shahrak Sabz and Kahdistan IDP settlements. Hygiene awareness and COVID-19 sessions have also been delivered to 6,864 people.
Learn more about and/or support World Vision’s global work to limit the spread of COVID-19 and support the children impacted by it on our COVID-19 Emergency Response Page.