Toronto Afghans struggle to raise funds for earthquake victims back home

Nooria Kamran says the last two weeks have been some of the most difficult in her seven years helping Afghan children.

Kamran is executive director of the Toronto-based non-profit Children Without Borders, which works to end child labour in Afghanistan. She says she was at home when her father called about the first earthquake.

She says she immediately thought of the families in Herat province that Chidlren Without Borders sponsors long-term. 

"Our first instinct was, how are they doing? And are they safe?" Kamran said.

That 6.3 magnitude earthquake on Oct. 7 killed over a thousand people. 

Then, just four days later, a second earthquake hit in the same region, with the same force, followed by a third earthquake of equal magnitude this past Sunday.

Numbers are still coming in, and vary by source, but the United Nations' initial estimate puts the combined death toll at about 1,500. The Taliban reports well over 2,000 people have been killed.

The U.N. also estimates 43,000 people were directly impacted by the earthquakes and 3,300 homes were completely destroyed.

Donations slim compared to 2021 fundraisers

Children Without Borders began fundraising specifically to help families displaced by the earthquake — focusing on widows and children. Kamran says the organization's goal is to raise $10,000 and provide at least 100 families with $100 each to help with medical bills, food and supplies.

The charity wires money to people it works with locally on a regular basis, Kamran said, and the money is then delivered directly to families in the area who need it.

But donations have been slow. Kamran says Children Without Borders raised $400,000 in four days when the Taliban took back control of Afghanistan in 2021 after the United States and other NORAD countries withdrew their troops.

But in more than a week, Kamran says the charity's GoFundMe page has raised just shy of $7,000. She says that money has made it to 60 families.

"I know there's a lot going on," she said. Humanitarian crises are unfolding in Gaza and Ukraine. But Kamran says people in Herat province need outside help desperately.

"There are families that have lost more than seven family members, there are children that have lost their parents or their breadwinners," she said. 

"It's really heart-wrenching listening to those stories and how their lives have just turned upside down."

Earthquakes worsen already difficult situation, says activist

Freshta Karimi, a lawyer and women's rights activist who came to Canada after the Taliban took power again, has similarly struggled to fundraise. 

She says Afghans have already been dealing with poverty and human rights abuses and they need the international community's help more than ever.

"We were expecting them to have a quicker response than what is happening now," Karimi said. "(Afghans) are right now in a devastating situation, and they need urgent support."

Most of the funds she's raised so far have come from people in the Afghan community, she said, and that's not enough. She says the people she's spoken with back home are "not very hopeful." 

On Sunday, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly took to social media and said her heart is with those affected by the earthquakes and "Canada stands ready to support."

In an email Tuesday, a Global Affairs Canada spokesperson said the government is "in contact with key humanitarian partners on the ground, and will continue to monitor the situation and respond as appropriate."