Mahjabeen* is 35 years old. She lives in Afghanistan, in an area that was badly affected by the 6.0-magnitude earthquake on 31 August and the two large ones that followed in the next few days.
The personal losses Mahjabeen has experienced, like so many of her neighbours, are devastating.
‘I will never forget that horrible night’
She tells us, ‘At midnight, everything shook heavily, and my house was destroyed. A big rock rolled from the mountain, fell on my husband and killed him. My two daughters were injured. We felt like it was the end of the world and our lives were over.
‘I will never forget that horrible night in our lives.’
Now, Mahjabeen lives in a temporary camp along with her surviving relatives.
Meanwhile, regular earthquakes continue to shake the region, bringing further terror to people traumatised by the three major ones that caused so much destruction and heartache.
‘The frequent daily earthquakes have tortured us,’ Mahjabeen shares.
One of the ways Tearfund has been responding to support people like Mahjabeen is by providing cash assistance, distributed by our local partner who carried out assessments to make sure that people in greatest need received it.
At times like this, cash is a dignity-protecting, hope-restoring way to help people who are facing such catastrophic loss, allowing them to take back some control over their lives.
‘Thank you to the donors,’ says Mahjabeen. ‘We really needed cash to buy the things which are important for our survival.’
