A catastrophic 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan just before midnight on 31 August 2025, claiming thousands of lives across four provinces.
Subsequent aftershocks, including a 5.6 magnitude tremor on 4 September, have caused additional casualties and destroyed more homes.
Afghanistan's mountainous terrain presents enormous challenges for aid delivery to remote villages and its location along major fault lines makes it particularly vulnerable to seismic activity. This latest disaster compounds the suffering of a nation that has endured almost continuous warfare since the 1980s.
Christian aid organisations, including Stewardship partners, are mobilising resources to reach the most affected communities, drawing on established networks to provide immediate relief.
Here’s three of our partners who are actively responding to the crisis:
Christian Aid
Christian Aid is working closely with their networks to carry out assessments and to identify the extent of the damage and the risk to the most vulnerable, especially for women and girls. They observe that even before the earthquake, almost half the population required humanitarian support to survive.
Their partner – OCHR (Organisation for Coordination of Humanitarian Relief) – maintains a strong operational presence in the East, particularly in Kunar Province.
Christian Aid made an initial £50,000 available which will aid an emergency humanitarian response consisting of food parcels, water kits, shelters, and cash for essential supplies. Your donations will help them continue this support, to prevent malnutrition, and keep people warm as the country heads into the winter months.
Medair
"The earthquake happened in the middle of the night. We were all asleep – our village has been destroyed entirely. I have lost 11 members of my family. My uncle's family has also been killed entirely, they lived in the neighbouring village. All we have received is one tent for the whole village. I wanted to offer you something to drink as you are a guest here, but I am sorry we have nothing to offer"
said Dawod* to the Medair Emergency Response Team.
The Medair team on the ground in Afghanistan have identified an extremely hard to reach area of villages where we will prioritise our response.
In Noor Gal district a collection of villages has been completely destroyed by the earthquake, which claimed lives and has left hundreds of people without shelter or food.
These villages are remote and only accessible on foot, hiking through mountainous terrain. As yet they have not been reached by any other NGO.
Your gifts today could help provide the affected villages with:
- Emergency Shelter
- Sanitation & Hygiene
- Essential Medical Care
Tearfund
Tearfund have quickly opened a dedicated earthquake appeal to provide vital aid into the situation. They are reporting that people are needing to dig families out of rubble with their bare hands, and report similar challenges accessing the remote villages affected by the crisis.
They are working with partners to meet these needs, and are particularly focussed on:
- Clean water, sanitation and hygiene kits to stop the spread of disease
- Emergency shelter for people who’ve lost their homes
- Cash assistance so people can buy food and essentials
Find the causes closest to your heart
The Stewardship CauseFinder helps you identify the causes that matter the most to you, and discover charity partners who are making a difference in Jesus’ name in each area.
Discover more International Aid & Development charity partners
We’ll be updating this list of our charity partners and fundraisers that are responding to the Afghanistan Earthquake crisis as we receive more information. If you are a registered partner and would like to be added to the list please contact us.
Gifts to support charitable organisations will normally be applied to their general funds. However, you may request that your gift is allocated to a specific purpose by selecting a partner’s project fund or providing a specific reference in the ‘message of support’ field. We ask our partners to give consideration to the giver’s request and, where possible, use the grant for the purpose intended.
Be the first to hear
Join thousands of people who receive the latest news and blogs through email.
Clare Walker
Clare is part of the Opportunities Team, growing and developing new relationships with Churches and Charities and joined Stewardship in 2023.
Clare is excited to support causes to flourish and achieve more Kingdom impact, through joyful generosity. Previously Head of Engagement across England for Home for Good and a teacher for more than 20 years, Clare has also been a Trustee of Scripture Union and her local church. Clare has always been part of tiny rural churches and loves the richness of community that can be found living in a Somerset village.
