How the EP are supporting the arriving Afghan evacuees
In August 2021, the political situation in Afghanistan necessitated rapid evacuation of thousands of people from the capital city of Kabul. The UK government airlifted over 15,000 people out of the country before the end of the month, including both British and Afghan nationals. Most were forced to leave their belongings behind, arriving in the UK with very little.
The Emergencies Partnership (EP) was contacted by the Home Office and the Department of Health and Social Care to help with getting vital aid such as food, clothing, baby supplies, toiletries and medicines on an urgent basis as the evacuees were arriving at various airports around the UK. Many of our partners responded across the country, providing specialist emergency support, as well as championing and supporting the integration of the Afghan families into communities.
Spotlight on our impact in London
Over the August bank holiday weekend, working with London Plus, one of our local partners in London, the Emergencies Partnership began to put calls out to our extended networks to find out who would be able to help with these numerous and urgent requests. A number of London-based organisations including RE:ACT, British Red Cross, Team London, the Lewisham Donation Hub and Little Village came forward as a result of that call. Together, we surveyed the situation, explored the existing network and introduced new organisations to each other and the partnership, enabling rapid and efficient ways to work together to respond.
What we did
While the Government department had been working on getting initial needs assessment forms filled in by the arrivals, the EP, now made up of veteran and new organisations designed a four-step process to make sure civil society organisations were able to work effectively together and deliver a human-centred response to this crisis. With different partners taking on different steps and handing off between each other.
The process involved
Step 1: Sourcing donations
Step 2: Sorting donations
Step 3: Collection and delivery to the quarantine hotels
Step 4: Distribution at the hotels
“Those early conversations were so reassuring, particularly with the central team, there was a real confidence, particularly when we were having evacuation flights coming in at the
weekend and we were standing up hotels on a Friday knowing there were going to be evacuees landing on Saturday.
I didn’t have anyone to go into those hotels to welcome people and the local authorities hadn’t yet been stood up. I reached out on Saturday morning and they were out that afternoon – that
was incredibly valuable that there was someone offering a helping hand to these evacuees straight out of Afghanistan into a hotel.”