Our Work
Through partnerships with local and international NGOs that work with local communities in Mazar-e-Sharif, we aim to improve health services and provide educational resources available to the people of Mazar-e-Sharif and its surrounding area.
In Australia it is hard to imagine the consequences of dire poverty and damage caused by thirty years of war and unrest. However, the reality is that every contribution that we make – small or large – can help improve the situation of the people in one of the poorest and most unstable countries in the world. AusGhan Aid is committed to best practices in all of its work, both in fundraising and in implementation of health and education projects on the ground in Afghanistan.
16th August 2021 Update:
Like people across the world, AusGhan Aid has been watching with increasing unease the unfolding situation in Afghanistan.
As we know, America and its allies including Australia have pulled out in an unceremonious manner, and protecting and supporting those people who worked with the Allied forces has been bureaucratic and slow.
Our sources suggest that the future of the education of girls and young women in Afghanistan appears to have gone back two decades.
The future of our ambulance and its support of sick people in the villages around Mazar-e-Sharif is also uncertain.
The people who worked with AusGhan Aid in Afghanistan to ensure that our plans were enacted have fled, are in hiding or are keeping their heads down
With all this uncertainty in mind, AusGhan Aid is moving towards supporting the large number of displaced people in Afghanistan, hopefully while still maintaining its focus on health and education.
If you wish to donate to AusGhan Aid, you are very welcome to do so here.
For its part, AusGhan Aid undertakes to spend this money as wisely as possible, given the current situation, in health, education and humanitarian assistance.
AusGhan Aid thanks you all for your generosity of heart.
Current Projects
Ambulance
AusGhan AId raised sufficient funds to purchase a heavy duty ambulance to enable safe and comfortable transport for people in need of medical care who would otherwise be dependent on rudimentary forms of transport. The ambulance was purchased in Dubai in 2011 for USD $36,000 and shipped to Mazar-e-Sharif.
The four-wheel-drive heavy duty Toyota vehicle was chosen to cope with the rough terrain around Mazar-e-Sharif.
Najaf is seen here with the ambulance at time of purchase.
Currently, the ambulance is the only one in operation among the 76 villages in Balkh province. To date the majority of the ambulance transfers are from Shar Shar Clinic in Najaf’s childhood village to Mazar-e-Sharif, 50 kilometres away and because of poor road conditions this trip can take between one and a half to four hours. Prior to the ambulance servicing the area, people had to make the journey by donkey or horseback which can take 12 to 14 hours to reach the hospital in Mazar-e-Sharif to seek medical attention.
Since commencing the service in 2012, the AusGhan Aid ambulance has transferred on average 8 patients a month. The funds raised by AusGhan Aid are used to support the day-to-day operations of the ambulance that is a free service. We require in the vicinity of AUD $600 per month to cover the following expenses
- Staff on the ground in Shar Shar village
- Coordinator, Zainab
- Treasurer, Kazim
- Driver, Noor
- Fuel
- Ambulance repairs
- Equipment repairs
- Office expenses
Education
Since the launch of the AusGhan Aid ambulance and aid work, we had the goal and dreams of working towards education. We believe education is the most important tool for the young and a right for every human being. Being educated is not a privilege Najaf had growing up. He remembers being a young kid and getting kicked out of school because his family couldn’t afford to buy him pen and paper. Since that day, he knew that when he had the means and power, he would try my best to make a little difference so that no child felt the same way.
 |
 |
 |
Recently, we achieved that goal. AusGhan Aid’s overseas committee (known as MDASO in Afghanistan) personally handed out school supplies to over 1150 students. This spread over to the 15 different schools in the rural Charkent region of Mazar-e-Sharif, some of these areas had recently been attacked by the Taliban, our team at times put their own life at risk to make sure that every single child got a stationery kit.
It costs around AUD $9 per semester, per child to pay for their stationary kits. In the kits, they received: a waterproof bag, pencil case, notebooks and general stationary. This may seem like basic items for us, but the reality is that most kids don’t even have the essentials for their education. This is just the start. We are going to work towards improving their educational journey in any way we can.