OCHA: Without Female Aid Workers, Assistance to Earthquake-Affected Women and Children Is Impossible

Photo: OCHAAfg/X

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says that in natural disasters such as the recent earthquake in eastern Afghanistan, women and girls suffer the most, and therefore the presence of female aid workers must be at the center of relief operations.

On Sunday (September 134), OCHA, in a message on the social network X along with images of female aid workers in the earthquake-affected areas, emphasized that providing assistance to women and children without the presence of female aid workers is not possible.

The organization said that together with the United Nations and non-governmental partners, it is working to ensure the role of female aid workers in the relief process is maintained.

Meanwhile, the Taliban’s strict restrictions have created serious challenges for aid delivery to women and children in the earthquake-affected areas of Kunar and Nangarhar.

Recently, UNAMA announced that the Taliban, by deploying their forces at the entrances of UN offices in Kabul and several provinces, have prevented female employees from entering. According to the organization, this restriction has even applied to the travel of female staff for providing aid to earthquake victims in eastern Afghanistan and to returnees from Iran and Pakistan.

This action by the Taliban has resulted in the closure of eight service centers of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). UNAMA has warned that the continuation of such obstacles poses a serious risk to the delivery of life-saving assistance to hundreds of thousands of women, men, and children.

It is worth mentioning that the 6-magnitude earthquake on August 31 in Kunar and Nangarhar provinces left more than 2,200 dead, 3,600 injured, and thousands homeless. Statistics show that women and children account for more than half of the victims of this disaster.