Kandahar & and its Suffering

Ummah Welfare Trust UK in Afghanistan

Trips from Afghanistan’s capital to the provinces are often long, arduous and fraught with accidents. Nevertheless, the fatiguing trips are worth the effort when you arrive to Muslims seeking to place Allah’s deen first.

Nowhere is this feeling more visceral than in the province of Kandahar—a conservative, hot, arid region from where Afghanistan has historically been ruled whenever it achieved independence.

The conservatism is more visible here than in the nominal capital, Kabul. Men dominate public life, and rarely is one seen without the ubiquitous salwar kameez, turban and beard.
The recent war left over 18,000 children orphaned in this province alone (this figure is not final and continues to rise as more orphaned children are confirmed). Almost 3,000 women were left widowed, and more than 2,000 civilians were left with disabilities.
The poverty is as abject as you’ll see outside the immediate city. Children are barefooted, wear tattered clothes and rarely, if ever, eat twice a day. Almost every home in the mud-hut suburbs has lost at least one family member in the previous conflict.

One elder we met witnessed the killing of three of his brothers. One was droned along with four others; one was shot dead, while the third died on his way to the hospital after being injured in a start bullet. He himself, like so many other bereaved Muslims here, was nevertheless stoic, measured with his words, and content with Allah’s decree.

Alhamdulillah, as it does wherever it goes, Ummah Welfare Trust targeted Kandahar’s most vulnerable in its September programme here.

There are over 2,000 madrasahs across the province, a figure that doubled in two years, alhamdulillah. Many of these madrasahs, however, are replete with orphaned children from impoverished families.

Thanks to you, Ummah Welfare Trust delivered both summer and winter clothes, shawls and hats to 2,500 these children. Many of them were having their end-of-year exams, so the clothes were an ideal gift upon completion.

May Allah Most High accept and elevate this small gesture. Only Allah knows what these children and their families have endured away from the world’s eyes. May He continue to honour them for their patience, and keep us united with them like He has done so in these programmes.
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