Donations to the DEC Afghanistan Crisis Appeal are a lifeline for families who continue to face catastrophic hunger across Afghanistan. Here’s how DEC charities and their local partners have been helping over the last six months.

DEC member charities are already on the ground delivering life-saving aid.

HRH The Prince of Wales has issued a message of support for the DEC’s Afghanistan Crisis Appeal which has now raised more than £17.5 million in under a week, with aid already being distributed on the ground. 

The people of Afghanistan are facing a crisis of catastrophic proportions. 22 million face acute hunger; over eight million are on the brink of famine. Lives are already being lost. With snow falling in Kabul and the cold about to set in to block off supply routes, aid workers say there is an urgency to save lives. 

Leading UK aid agencies will launch a joint fundraising appeal on Wednesday 15 December as a catastrophic rise in severe hunger sweeps Afghanistan, with eight million people at risk of starvation over the harsh winter months. Children are already dying, and a million more are at risk. 

Children are dying of hunger today as families cannot afford to buy food. Health services are struggling to treat malnourished mothers and children as they lack medicines and supplies. We must act now before the freezing winter sets in, putting many more lives at risk.

Donations to our appeal are now funding work in Afghanistan, DR Congo, India, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Yemen and the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh.

Aid workers say the situation in the world's most fragile state is the worst it has been for the whole of the war.

Years of drought have cost people dear, and the pattern of the seasons is no longer a foregone conclusion.