Education & Awareness Mini Case study
Afghanistan
The village people in Kandahar are not familiar with the concept of Disaster
Management. They have a low level of education and religious beliefs inform most of
their thinking. Such beliefs are informed by local mullahs who themselves are rarely
able to read the Koran. The majority of people therefore believe that all disasters are
the will of God and that it is beyond the capacity of mankind to cope with them or do
anything against them. It is against the will of Allah to do anything to mitigate
against natural disasters. One 70 year old man from Momand village in Dand district
said “Disasters are the will of God, why are you trying to interfere with God’s will?”
Tearfund’s local team had anticipated this from the community and had already
explored ways of addressing this attitude. The team supervisor responded by telling
the story of Nu Allai Salam from the Koran who listened to the will of God and
prepared for the coming disastrous flood and saved himself and his family and all the
animals. This was acceptable to the old man who was impressed at the Koranic
knowledge of the team and how they wanted to use it to inform their project
activities.