Hand in Hand fights spread of Covid-19 in Afghanistan

Hand in Hand Afghanistan is joining the fight against Covid-19, sharing virus prevention guidelines with families in some of the hardest-to-reach areas in the country.

Lessons in handwashing, social distancing and more have appeared alongside our usual business and skills training since the start of last week, when the country reported its earliest cases.

Other measures taken so far include:

• Limiting training sessions to three to five members as opposed to the usual 20 to 30.
• Wherever possible, conducting training in members’ homes.
• In some projects, distributing livestock and chickens slightly ahead of schedule. In the event of a lockdown, chicken eggs in particular will be a vital source of nutrition. Besides, we don’t want members’ training to go to waste.
• Prioritising training modules that will do the most good during a crisis (for now, marketing takes a backseat to poultry farming, for example).

Forty cases of Covid-19 and one death have been reported in Afghanistan as of 23 March. Home to one of our biggest projects in the country, Herat Province is the epicentre of the outbreak, with most cases arriving from neighbouring Iran where thousands of Afghans are employed. Cases are expected to jump as more people return from Iran every day.

Visit our Covid updates page for the latest information on our programmes in Afghanistan and beyond.