During another harsh winter in eastern Afghanistan over the past five months, CWS Japan provided cash assistance to help families returning from Pakistan after years in exile to meet basic needs, including interventions to help prevent often-deadly acute respiratory illness among children. Since most families are living in extreme conditions without full shelter or heat, young children face multiple health risks, but ARIs are the deadliest. And, since many of the families being helped are led by single women, whose employment challenges create extraordinary hardship, assistance for their children is vital. While most women have had to spend all their cash assistance to get by day to day, it is heartening to know that some have bought sewing machines, which can help them earn a living even after emergency assistance ends. CWS Japan will continue to help most-vulnerable families if Japan Platform continues funding.
(For more information please contact t.komino@cwsjapan.org )