Olga Cherevko (OCHA) on the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan - Press Conference

Are there any further questions? If not, let me turn to our guest.
And so you can actually talk about Afghanistan right away.
So we're very pleased to have let's see if we can bring her up on screen.
We have Olga Cherevko, the spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Afghanistan, who's speaking to us from Kabul.
Welcome.
Thank you very much, Farhan, and good afternoon everyone.
Thank you for being here.
Over the past few months I've traveled across Afghanistan from Bamian and Heraat, Partia, Host, and most recently, I went to Nurdistan after the devastating flash floods.
While each of these places is distinctly different from one another, the stories I hear in these places are remarkably similar.
Mainly people tell me they're exhausted.
They're exhausted from being poor, from being hungry, from repeated climate shocks, mounting debt, and the daily struggle to provide for their families.
Last week in Nuristan, after the flash floods swept through the town, destroying homes and infrastructure, families told me they've lost their loved ones, livelihoods and everything they owned.
And humanitarians moved quickly, delivering shelter, food, safe water, healthcare, protection, and psychosocial support to the affected communities.
But when these floods hit, many people were already struggling to get by.
And Afghanistan is among the countries most vulnerable to climate shocks.
Communities barely have time to recover from one disaster when another one strikes.
Floods, droughts, harsh winters, earthquakes.
Each shock pushes already vulnerable families deeper into poverty.
And that is, unfortunately, a reality I see across Afghanistan.
And yet in all of these places, people rarely ask for food.
They ask for work.
They ask for livelihoods and for a chance to earn a living so they can feed their families themselves.
And mothers tell me they worry less about themselves than they do about their daughters.
My mother will wish the same for me, one of the women told me in Bamian recently.
Sadly, it's too late for my life to improve.
Instead, they hold on to hope that somehow their daughters might have a future with more opportunities than they did.
But today, that future looks extremely bleak.
Restrictions affecting women and girls continue to shape almost every aspect of daily life.
They impact education, livelihoods, access to healthcare, and participation in society.
With every new restriction, women are pushed even further out of public life.
And to me, the danger is that when people become invisible, they risk becoming dispensable.
And from a humanitarian perspective, it matters a lot because when women cannot work or girls cannot continue their education, and when female humanitarian workers cannot reach these women and girls with services, the consequences extend far beyond individuals.
They affect families, communities, and ultimately the country's ability to recover.
At the same time, as Farhan mentioned, we're seeing alarming levels of malnutrition in many parts of Afghanistan, particularly among young children.
Our nutrition partners tell us that wasting among children has worsened this year in over three quarters of the country.
And too many children arrive at health facilities already severely malnourished.
Others never make it there because healthcare is simply too far away.
Parents don't have sufficient information about available options, especially in remote provinces where difficult terrain and damaged roads make access even more challenging.
And of course, prevention is critical, but growing funding and supply gaps, along with other existing risks are putting even more lives at risk.
Recently, I also met a father whose young boy survived an unexploded ordinance blast.
He had borrowed money he couldn't repay to cover the treatment that kept his child alive.
And so his son survived the explosion despite being born in a place where reaching basic medical care takes hours and where one medical emergency can mean financial ruin for a family.
Many others are not so fortunate.
An exploded ordinance continues to kill and maim civilians.
Often when children are simply playing, farmers are trying to return to their fields or people trying to rebuild their homes or earn a living.
Hostilities also continue to take a heavy toll on civilians, especially in border areas.
According to our Yunaa colleagues, between October last year and the end of this June, cross border fighting resulted in over 1,700 civilian casualties with almost 500 people killed and over 1,200 injured, including women and children.
Of course, there's no question that security has improved in many parts of Afghanistan.
But security is not the same as human security because security does not put food on the table and rebuild a home washed away by floods, nor does it replace crops after a drought or treat a malnourished child or bring a doctor closer in a remote village.
And security alone cannot give mothers confidence that their daughters will have the opportunities they dream of.
For millions of Afghans, daily life is still defined by hunger, poverty, and uncertainty about the future.
And all of this is happening amid dwindling resources and dangerously low funding levels.
Of course, we as the humanitarian community here, will continue doing everything we can to save lives and protect the most vulnerable.
But humanitarian assistance alone cannot resolve these challenges.
And having worked in Afghanistan many years prior to this, I have seen Afghans show extraordinary resilience through endless hardship.
But over the years, I've come to think of this term differently.
Because it's not something most people set out to build.
It usually comes at a tremendous cost and it is forged through hardship, loss, and uncertainty.
Resilience should never become a substitute for opportunity or an excuse for the world just to watch and expect people to endure indefinitely without the support they need.
And the people I met are not waiting for another choice for another chance to prove how resilient they are.
They're looking for the chance to live ordinary and dignified lives, to work, to educate their children, to reach a doctor when someone falls ill or to rebuild after a disaster strikes.
And of course, to believe that their children will have a brighter future than they did.
And those aspirations are not extravagant or extraordinary.
They're universal.
And our shared humanity demands that we provide the support and the tools needed to realize these aspirations.
Thank you.
The floor for questions, ED, please.
Thank you very much, Olga on behalf of the United Nations Correspondent Association for doing this briefing.
My name is Edith Lettera from the Associated Press.
You gave a very dramatic picture of the state of Afghanistan today.
And I have two questions.
First, I Do you believe that the Taliban's crackdown on women has affected the level of funding to the Humanitarian Appeals for Afghanistan? And secondly, as a woman yourself traveling all over the country, what was the reaction to you and were you able to go everywhere that you wanted to go? Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Idee.
So In terms of this crackdown that you mentioned and these restrictions that are being placed on women and girls and their participation in the society, we're seeing many effects, and it's affecting the ability of women and girls to access lifesaving services and, of course, our ability to reach them.
And as I mentioned, the funding currently is dangerously low.
We are looking at our humanitarian response plan, and the requirement is around 1.71 billion and we have only just received just over 26% of the required funding, and we're already in August.
So this is something very alarming to us, especially given the fact that we are seeing a lot of these indicators worsening, particularly things like malnutrition.
And as a woman myself, of course.
I mean, I have I have faced barriers because there are certain things that I have to do to travel through the country.
And for me to engage with women many times, I have to have certain conditions in place like a female interpreter or whatever it may be.
But it's a I think what I would like to actually give who I would like to give credit to is the women who work in this country, the female national staff, who continue despite all of these barriers placed against them, to find ways to contribute to the humanitarian response.
And this is something really remarkable and I think should be recognized.
And in answer to my question about funding, do you see part of this funding drop a reaction to the Taliban's treatment of women? I cannot say what is the exact or whether there's one reason that the Trump funding has dropped.
What we know is that the funding has always been less than what we needed.
Or over the years, at least we have seen funding that was insufficient.
And what we're seeing now that despite worsening indicators, the funding is not anywhere near where we need to be.
And of course, all of these compounded crises are having an effect like a domino or snowball effect to that is worsening the situation.
Thanks, Efren, please.
Thank you so much.
My name is Ephraim Kosefi with Arab News Daily.
I have two questions.
The first one.
When you talk to people across Afghanistan, how aware are they of the international community's stance towards their country? What do they expect from the international community? What do they tell you? Are they bitter about it? Are they hopeful about it? Then I'll ask you another question.
Thank you.
Well, you know, it's very interesting because I have I cannot think of a time where I've actually faced any sort of bitterness or any kind of resentment or any sort of negative reaction.
I have, as I mentioned, I've worked in Afghanistan before, and the kind of the level of hospitality and the level of friendliness of people is really remarkable here.
And I think in terms of what they expect, I think they expect to not to be ignored and not to be forgotten and not to fall by the wayside because their situation has been really unbearable in many ways for decades.
And what they want to make sure that people outside of the country know how difficult it is for them.
And again, as I mentioned, almost no one expects a handout.
What they want is a path to recovery and a way to sustain themselves so that they can actually have a livelihood to support their family and not worry about going into debt to treat their child.
You just gave us a very fair, complete picture of the humanitarian situation there.
As a matter of fact, we've been having briefings for the past five years here in this room about the situation and hardly any progress is ever mentioned.
Unfortunately, what do you think, if you can use your own insight, what specific steps are needed to break this vicious cycle to get the international community into action to change the status quo instead of just continually just reporting or documenting the decline of the situation.
Well, I think there are several steps that need to happen.
I mean, of course, funding is a big issue.
But again, funding and the humanitarian assistance as far as we can the things that we can achieve just through humanitarian assistance isn't going to be enough.
What needs to happen here is that people suffering should never be normalized.
And there's there's sort of what I have kind of seen over the years is a sort of, like, a tendency to rank human suffering.
And if we if people maybe think of Afghanistan today, they think, because there's not such an intense conflict anymore, then things are fine.
But a life lost is a life lost, whether it's from hunger or from a natural disaster or from conflict.
And we as humanitarians, try to do everything we can to establish conditions that help people get on that path of recovery.
But then there's, of course, other components that have to follow.
And that is kind of long term and medium term solutions for people to get on their way.
Namo please.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Olga, for this briefing.
In June, OCHA told the Security Council that humanitarian organizations in Afghanistan face pressure to influence who receives aid.
Can you be specific about what that pressure looks like on the ground, please? Thank you.
Sure.
So we have a snapshot that we publish regularly with different incidents where we face various forms of interference, and this is something that does take place here.
And of course, we as humanitarians, we work with all relevant parties and with the stakeholders and the local communities and the authorities to make sure that the assistance is provided on the basis of need alone and that this interference does not take place and that humanitarian principles are respected and that we have humanitarian access to the most vulnerable communities.
Thanks.
You, please go ahead.
Thank you.
Murad Hashim A Jazir Abe.
You said that humanitarian assistance can't resolve this crisis.
What should be done more? Could you elaborate more on what should be done? Sure.
Sure.
So, you know, humanitarian assistance is there to resolve an immediate need and to attend to a crisis that is happening and an emergency that is happening.
It by its nature, it does not have in it a planning towards a long term solution or a medium term solution even.
Once that crisis is resolved and that emergency is gone, if these longer term solutions are not implemented, then the crisis will happen over and over again.
And so what I'm getting at is that people besides needing emergency food assistance and emergency health care assistance and shelter when these disasters strike and these kinds of items, they also need opportunities to get jobs, and they also need opportunities to be able to go to school, not to downplay the restrictions against girls' education, but there are many remote communities in Afghanistan where boys also do not have access to school because either it's too far away or if they happen to be in the border areas, it's been damaged and it is too risky and you name it.
And of course, poverty is a massive element to all of this because even if a public school is unavailable, perhaps a private school could be an option, but for most people, it isn't an option here because poverty is so pervasive.
I have another question.
Yes, please go ahead.
Another question is with the large numbers of Afghans returning or being deported from neighboring countries, how do you describe their situation? Do they receive any assistance? Thank you.
That's a great question.
So yes, there are thousands of people coming back every day.
Just in last month, actually, around 44,000 people, I believe, came back from Pakistan alone.
And of course, we have people coming from Iran and Taikhsan and other regional countries.
And we have reception centers at these crossing points where some basic assistance is provided and some basic services are provided.
But again, you know, I've gone to a couple of these crossing points and I've spoken to some of these people.
Some of them are coming into a country that is completely new for them because they may not have even ever lived in Afghanistan.
And I've spoken with women who are extremely concerned to come here without a prospect of work and without a prospect of a livelihood.
And and and, of course, We're already talking about a society that is overstretched and the resources are overstretched, and these returnees are coming to these communities where resources are so scarce.
And it is creating yet another layer of pressure.
And, of course, we do what we can as humanitarians, but longer term solutions to combat poverty, to combat, lack of access to education, and lack of livelihoods and these opportunities need to be in place.
Thanks, please.
Thank you very much, Olga.
This is Muna Aul with Al Kal Abi.
I also have a question on funding cuts.
What specific programs, especially those supporting children, education or development, have had to scale back or completely shut down? Based on your own experience, how are this program helping children before and what are you seeing happen to them now, to the children now that the funding is being cut? Thank you very much.
Thank you.
That's a really good question.
So, you know, we talk to our partners on the ground everywhere, and we hear the same refrain everywhere, and that is that these funding cuts are affecting programs across the board, be it nutrition, be it health, be it education, be it a Really anything.
One of the areas that I can think of that is really crucial is mi action.
And Afghanistan, in terms of casualty numbers, still has the third highest casualty number from unexploded ordnance globally.
But the number of teams operating across the country has had to reduce by several times, and their funding is is extremely insufficient.
And so these programs are being cut.
And I have seen myself these kids who have been injured by unexploded ordinance, and there's just no resources to ensure that there's mine education, that there's clearance, that there is these assessments that are being done.
And so we are constantly being asked to do more with less.
And this is what we're facing here.
And the important and the alarming thing is that it's happening against this background of these indicators getting worse, not better.
Thank you so much.
Do we have any further questions, please at the back.
Hello, Olga.
Thank you for the briefing.
I'm Zina Abgasan for IM Free and Homeland News and the AP 360.
My question is, what is the improvement that the United Nations did over there? If all the rules are deteriorating with Taliban's government, Not just for ladies, even for men, even the school, they were banned.
Midwives, they are not allowed to work and they are just chasing them to stop them from working.
Men, they are not allowed to use even musical instruments.
What's the improvement that you are looking for extra fund for their Well, it's very simple.
For us as humanitarians, working here, our main priority is to reduce the number of preventable deaths.
Things like malnutrition, things like deaths from unexploded ordinance, things like access to safe water, all of these they are if deaths happen because of these, they are preventable.
And so we have a role to play.
And in order for us to play that role, we have to have sufficient resources, and we have to have sufficient funding because these preventable deaths are a tragedy, whether they're one or they are hundreds of thousands.
And so we are here to make sure that at least we are able to do what we can to prevent more deaths from happening and to prevent the situation from getting worse.
Thank you so much.
Do we have any follow up question, please.
So the United Nations is just there to serve or to maximize the number of people to let people survive, right? No.
I am speaking, as you know, I work for the Humanitarian Coordination Office.
We are the humanitarian community, and we work with all of our partners to make sure that these things happen that I've just mentioned.
We have other partners on the ground.
We have development agencies on the ground.
We have a political mission here.
And so everybody has a different role to play.
And we are here, again, playing these multifaced roles.
But again, for us to be effective and for us to really help people and ensure that they have the resources they need, we need the resources to work together to help them.
Do you have any request that got approved by Taliban from your team, yourself, team there that you asked them to do and they approve it? They allow you work independent.
We work independently, and I've just spoken about traveling throughout most of the country.
So again, our job here is to make sure that we provide the assistance to vulnerable communities based on the needs alone.
And I I mentioned that we are working in the provinces that were just recently hit by floods.
We're working across the country on the basic to ensure that basic needs are provided and basic services are accessible for the most vulnerable communities.
I think we don't have any further questions.
Olga, with that, I want to say thank you so much for joining us here today and bringing all this important information from Afghanistan.
You are always very welcome here.
Thank you so much again.
Have a good afternoon.
Olga, just a second.
I think we have a question online.
Two questions, okay.
Okay.
So Abdel Ham, please, you can Thank you.
Go ahead of your question.
Okay.
Thank you so much.
It's nice to see you, Olga.
And I have a question out of the box, if you don't mind.
I mean, you just concluded some work in Gaza and you come into another conflict area of Afghanistan.
Do you have some thoughts about your experience in Gaza which you may deploy or benefit from in Afghanistan? That's my first question and the second Regarding Afghanistan order, it has been under occupation, foreign occupation, foreign domination for 20 years.
So all these ills that you see in Afghanistan, why it is attributed only to the de facto government.
But there are others who have been inherited from 20 years of foreign domination.
How do you see things referring to that period or lingering issues from the years of occupation? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Abd Hamilton.
Nice to see you as well.
Well, you know, of course, my experience in Gaza and other countries I worked in, I think even though the context everywhere is very different, what remains the same is that humanitarian crisis and conflict and chronic poverty and hunger, all of these, they affect civilians on the ground, and the civilians on the ground, they bear the brunt of all of these crises and these challenges.
And about attribution, there's no attribution.
The fact is that Afghanistan has faced these multiple crises and they have faced the chronic poverty, the hunger crisis, the malnutrition, the access to services.
What I am here to do is tell you the situation and the reality as it is now, as it stands now.
And what I'm telling you is that as humanitarians, we are seeing a number of indicators becoming worse, and that is what is alarming for us because that means that we have to work even harder to make sure that we don't undo the progress that has been made and that the situation doesn't become even worse than it is.
Your question? Thank you.
This is Efakli from Associated Press of Pakistan.
Thank you very much, Olga, for this briefing.
Most of the questions have been asked, but I'd like to ask you whether the Torkham border, which is the border with Pakistan, is open and the United Nations is getting its supplies.
Are there any difficulties in getting the supplies? So the border remains closed, but we have managed to we continue to actually work with relevant authorities and with relevant stakeholders on both sides to make sure that assistance does reach the people in need, and several 100 trucks have crossed over the past days.
Or weeks rather.
And we of course, continue to work with all parties on the ground to make sure that this assistance continues and that aid can reach people in need.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Ivar.
Thank you so much, Olga, again, Olga, who is the Olga Servo, who is the spokesperson for OCHA was briefing us from Kabul.
Thank you so much once more for joining us online today.
Thank you.
Good afternoon.
Thank you.