A good Start
Two major natural disasters, mudslides and flash flood, which hit Badakhshan and Kabul provinces of Afghanistan respectively, forced charitable founders of yet to be established EWSSO to gather for a humanitarian cause; to help their fellow human beings in dire need.
The future founders of EWSSO started, in 2013, a coordinated national campaign to collect donations for helping the horrible flash flood victims in Surobi district, Kabul province.
They were amazed to see people’s reach on to the call. They saw beggars and shoe polishing children donating pennies to help their fellow brothers and sisters in difficult situation.
From basic home equipment to clothes, blankets, shelter, medicine, hygiene items, food packages and fuel, were donated by charitable individuals.
One person, who donated his personal blanket for the flood victims, went to meet a friend of his who lived in Surobi district and saw his friend wearing the blanket he donated in Kabul.
He got so happy that he came to see the founders and thanked them a lot. It was a moment which encouraged the founders to continue humanitarian efforts in the future.
In 2014, a mudslide occurred in Argo district, Badakhshan province with number of deaths varying from 350 to 2,700. Around 300 houses were buried and over 14,000 were affected.
Rescuers responding to the initial mudslide were struck by a second mudslide, which hampered rescue efforts. In response, the charitable founders of the yet to be established EWSSO, initiated a national campaign to collect donations for helping the surviving victims of mudslide.
The collected donations included cash, basic home equipment, warm cloths, blankets, shelter, medicine, hygiene items, food packages, fuel and school uniforms, bags, pens and notebooks for 1000 school children. Most of emergency aid by NGO’s, individuals and the government were distributed in a mudslide location near the highway while another mudslide location, a village named “Aafaqi”, was located at a far distance needing 2 hours of walk on feet as there was no road to that village.
The founders, unlike others, loaded the donated items mentioned above on donkeys and mules and walked for 2 hours to distribute them among the sadly neglected surviving victims of the other mudslide.
Overall, in both campaigns, people’s response was so impressive that it forced the founders to think about establishing a formal non-profit relief organization.
Realizing relief was a temporary remedy and not a solution to the problem, as beneficiaries would use the relief packages within months and they would find themselves in poverty again; the founders aimed to integrate sustainability and promote self-reliance in the programs and projects of their soon to be established non-profit NGO.
The idea of establishing non-profit relief and development organization materialized in 2016 which, guided by principles and values, provides emergency aid and social services and is active in development sector in all 34 provinces of Afghanistan.