Humanitarian Aid; Destruction of Self-esteem and Human Dignity

Afghanistan, as an impoverished and backward country, has been in need of receiving humanitarian aid from the countries of the world for many years. The level of poverty and scarcity is such low that millions of people are unable to meet their living expenses and are directly dependent on food and non-food aid from foreign countries and international aid agencies.

Twenty years of the republican government, however, set the conditions in such a way that foreign aid reached its peak and tens and maybe hundreds of billions of dollars flowed into Afghanistan during these two decades. A part of this huge amount of money was distributed among the citizens in the form of humanitarian aid with the aim of helping the poor and vulnerable sections of the society for free and in cash and non-cash form.

However, despite all the advantages and positive effects it has had on people’s lives, especially the poor and underprivileged, and besides changing people’s lives, it may have saved millions of people from death, there are also many negative and destructive effects and consequences in the society.

The implementation of thousands of aid projects in different areas and sectors, over many years, has made people and citizens unconsciously dependent on these aids. Millions of people living in Afghanistan are accustomed to live their lives using the aid received from institutions and think of it as a permanent source of income.

On the other hand, the distribution of these large amounts of aid has led the society to some kind of cultural damage. In the sense that the citizens of Afghanistan, under the name of “Afghan culture”, consider any kind of begging and reaching out to receive free help from others, especially from foreigners, as a disgrace and express their hatred and disgust for it, but in practice, many of citizens have completely violated this cultural value and all their grief is how to receive help from institutions. There is a large group of citizens, including men and women in the society who stop trying to find a job, get employment, and receive a source of income and spend their whole lives behind the gates of institutions. In this way, there are many people who use many different tricks to deceive institutions and attract their attention in order to receive help. The author himself has witnessed that a woman with a husband, children and family has been posing as a “widow” for many years and with this trick, she goes from one street to another every day and knocks on the gates of institutions to get through to be able to receive aid packages.

However, despite the fact that everyone knows that aid is for poor, needy and vulnerable people and families, and others have no right to it, but people’s greed and extravagance have caused this principle to never be respected. In many regions, local councils have been established, in which several subgroups have been built. Social problems and conflicts over how to distribute aid have formed a process in which all the residents of a village take part in aid. In other words, any aid that is going to be distributed in a village should be distributed through the local council and the representatives of the groups in a way that everyone will take part of it regardless of their living conditions and income. In this process, however, the role of council presidents and group representatives is very prominent, because they never follow the agreement made within the council. First, they set aside a special share of aid for themselves, and in the second step, even if possible, they include their friends and relatives in receiving aid, and in the third step, those whom they do not consider suitable for any reason and with whom they do not have a good relationship, with all kinds of tricks and deception prevent them from receiving help.

We all have seen that during the distribution of aid, around the distribution area becomes a place of crowding and accumulation of all kinds of vehicles, including luxury and expensive cars. This shows that the lack of proper understanding of the nature of aid, lack of respect for the deserving and needy people, corruption and selfishness, as well as the greed and extravagance of people, especially those who have influence and high social status in the society, have caused more rich and needy people should receive the aid, and the real deserving people of the society, whose hands do not reach anywhere and no one hears their voices, should be deprived of receiving it.

According to what has been said, it is concluded that the distribution of foreign humanitarian aid that has been going on in Afghanistan since decades ago, along with the fact that it has caused and created widespread social conflicts and brought people together, culturally It has also caused many damages in the society. The habit of “eating for free”, avoiding the responsibility of life and being attached to the humanitarian aid of institutions, can have many negative consequences for people and society in the future. On the other hand, citizens trample on their self-esteem, human dignity and honor in this way, which will eventually lead to excessive cultural backwardness and the devaluing of human beings and human rights.

So, before it is too late and the human culture of the society has not been destroyed, efforts should be made to return this process to its right and rational path and to prevent further social and cultural damage.