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My name is Fawad Latifi, and I have been working for the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ since 2012. My career with the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ has taken me around the country; but today I am working in Afghanistan’s Helmand province as part of our cash programme.

A typical working day for me begins at 8am. I usually do a brief stint at the office so I can plan my day, but my real work begins when I leave the office and go out to meet people ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ supports. In my job, I often bear witness to the consequences that conflict and natural disaster are having on people’s everyday lives.

Many people in Afghanistan have been affected by conflict. Even me: I am 30 years old and I can’t remember a time when my country was at peace. Most recently, environmental disasters have also caused havoc for local communities.

Last year, we witnessed one of Afghanistan’s most severe droughts in decades. In the beginning of 2019, flash flooding across Helmand province led to further devastation. Flooding has caused huge damage to people’s everyday lives: it has displaced communities, destroyed homes, ruined acres of farming land and shattered people’s livelihoods.

When do I find my job the hardest? It is when I meet people and hear their stories. I remember meeting one man called Abdul*, who lived in Helmand province with his wife and children. One night the floods came without warning, and his home was quickly washed away. Abdul tried to escape with his family. He spent a whole night in a tree, as the waters raged below. Sadly, his youngest 1-year-old son did not survive.

The project that I am currently working on, which is supported by ECHO, is providing cash relief to help people recover from the impact of flooding. Cash relief can give people the opportunity to restore a sense of normality in their lives. People spend cash on all sorts of different things. They may have debt to repay, or houses to rebuild. Or they may want to use the cash to buy life-saving medicine or food for their families.

I have witnessed first-hand how cash can change peoples’ lives. I recently met Aziz*, who lost his home in March this year when flooding hit the district he was living in. After our team spoke to him to understand the impact flooding had had on his life, the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ gave Aziz support in the form of cash, which he used to rebuild his home. ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ engineers gave Aziz, and many like him, guidance on making their homes stronger and more resilient to flooding in the future. Fazal told me that now his house is rebuilt he feels secure and happy.

Stories like these give me hope.

*The names of people mentioned in this story have been changed for protection reasons.