“That night was unforgettable as our house was inundated within minutes. We had no other option but to leave at once."
Bahadur, one of over 2,000 Afghan refugees living in Kheshgi Refugee Village in Pakistan’s north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Bahadur’s Story
Bahadur Khan and his family had only minutes to flee their home before it was swept away by flooding.
Originally from Kunar province in Afghanistan, Bahadur is one of more than 2,000 Afghan refugees living in Kheshgi Refugee Village in Pakistan’s north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
“That night was unforgettable as our house was inundated within minutes. We had no other option but to leave at once,” says Bahadur.
Bahadur and his family had weathered the torrential downpours of Pakistan’s annual monsoon since its onset in June. When the waters broke through a nearby embankment of the Kabul River in the early hours of the morning, he had only 10 minutes to evacuate his loved ones to the safety of higher ground before his home was swept away.
It was the third time the 60-year-old grandfather has been uprooted in his life.
“We fled Afghanistan when civil war broke out in the early 1990s. Then I had to move again when my house was completely destroyed after floods washed it away in 2010,” he says.
“When we left our homes, we went to the nearby higher grounds where we spent the night in the open,” he says. The following morning UNHCR arrived and provide his family with a tent and other essential items.
Your donation in action
UNHCR is providing emergency relief items for families displaced by the floods in Pakistan, such as tents, tarpaulins and sleeping mats. With our sister agencies, UNICEF and UNFPA, we are also providing psychosocial support, distributing sanitary products to women and girls, and supporting family tracing.
Your gift can provide essential items like mattresses, solar lamps, blankets and kitchenware.
Your gift can provide vulnerable families with cash to buy food, medicine and other essentials.
Your gift can provide temporary shelter for refugees forced to flee their homes.
Our fundraising impact
The majority of funds raised by Australia for UNHCR are directed to UNHCR’s emergency operations, providing the ready funds and resources to respond quickly and effectively in situations of crisis and disaster.