COVID 19 EMERGENCY - Distribution of Food, Emergency Vouchers, Hygiene Kits and Awareness on Hygiene Rules to Prevent  the Spread of Covid-19 and Improve Living Conditions of the most Vulnerable Households in Kabul, Afghanistan

Project location: Afghanistan, Kabul
Project start date: May 2020 - Project end date: May 2020
Project number: 2020-011
Beneficiary: Associazione Nove Onlus

Nove Onlus is a non-profit organization, founded in Rome in 2012 by experienced international development professionals, who work for it pro bono. The organization is active in Afghanistan since 2012, where it is registered as an international NGO with the Afghan Ministry of Economics.
In Kabul, Nove Onlus has provided free literacy courses (12 months) to over 100 illiterate women, upon request of the Department of Women's Affairs (DoWA). Since 2014, also thanks to the NaEPF support, it is also running a Professional Training Centre that has offered up to now free of charge to over 2.000 vulnerable women training courses and a job/business advisory service. In April 2019, Nove Onlus has launched the ‘Pink Shuttle', the only female transportation service in Afghanistan (more detailed to be found below), that has been endorsed by the First Lady of Afghanistan. Nove Onlus is also engaged in sports activities with disabled women and men playing wheelchair basketball (in collaboration with the Afghan Basket Federation and International Committee of the Red Cross).
The COVID-19 emergency is expected to have a stronger negative impact on countries lacking a structured, well- functioning health system and social welfare.

In Kabul millions of people are confined into their home and hundreds of thousands of residents, whose livelihoods depend on their daily work, have no means to sustain themselves and their families. Those who rely on their daily income to feed their families - such as daily workers (plumbers, workmen, etc.) are facing a choice between food and health. For many, the restrictions imposed by the government mean starvation.

The current situation for disabled people is even worst, most people with disabilities are dependent on services that have been suspended and are not likely to have savings to purchase food and medicine (UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities Catalina Devandas, 2020). It is therefore important to safeguard the provision of food, medicine, and other supplies for persons with disabilities during situations of isolation and quarantine.

The Government of Afghanistan has declared a humanitarian emergency requesting urgent humanitarian assistance to the international community. Nove Onlus has received several requests of support (such as the one from the Department of Women's Affairs - DoWA of Kabul) to secure essential food stock for an initial period of 6-12 weeks to cover food needs for vulnerable people during disruptions (lockdown).
Consequently, Nove Onlus has planned an emergency intervention for 315 vulnerable families, totalizing some 1.890 people.

The emergency activities foreseen by this project, which received a grant from the Nando and Elsa Peretti Foundation, are:

1. To provide food to 190 Kabul families highly exposed to the risk of hunger and virus infection.
2. To provide emergency vouchers (cash) to 125 families of persons with disabilities highly exposed to the risk of hunger and virus infection.
3. To provide hygiene kits and awareness on the hygiene rules to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus to 315 families (190 + 125).