Where to give after the Parun flood, what the valleys need before winter, and the ways to help that do not involve money.
Nuristan is one of the most disaster-prone provinces in Afghanistan. Steep valleys, summer monsoon rain, snowmelt and settlements built along the rivers mean that floods and landslides come most years, and the province is a long way from the help that arrives quickly elsewhere. On 20 July 2026 a flash flood came down the Parun river through the provincial capital and destroyed its market, killing dozens of people. This page exists because of that day, and it will stay up for whatever comes next.
It sets out what the valleys need, which organisations have staff on the ground and take donations, and the other ways to help that do not involve money at all. We update it as the situation changes.
Two months after the flood the emergency phase is over. The next phase is harder and less visible, and it has to happen before the snow.
Dozens of families in Parun lost their houses, and winter comes early at 2,500 metres. They need rebuilt homes or solid winter shelter, not tents that will not last the snow.
The flood cut the water supply serving around a thousand households. Until the network is rebuilt, families are relying on trucked water and purification tablets.
Four bridges and six stretches of road were damaged. Each one that stays broken keeps traders, patients and schoolchildren from moving, and slows every delivery of aid.
Around seventy shops, eleven hotels and forty vehicles were lost. Shopkeepers need capital to open again, which is why cash grants do more good than parcels.
Parun's bazaar stood on the riverbank with no flood wall and no warning beyond people shouting. The town needs both, so that the next flood costs money and not lives.
Each of these has staff or partners in the province and a public record of what it is doing. Give money rather than goods: it moves faster up a broken road, and it lets families buy what they need in the local market.
We have no connection with any of them, and any other official organisation you trust is just as good.
First on the ground in Parun. The IFRC runs an emergency page for the Nuristan flood.
The Red Crescent is Afghanistan's national humanitarian society; the IFRC is its international federation.
Visit their appealSet up the field clinic in Parun and runs mobile health teams in the surrounding villages.
The United Nations children's agency, with a long-standing country programme in Afghanistan.
Visit their appealFunds cash grants of 170 US dollars to flood-hit households in Nuristan and Nangarhar through Community World Service Asia.
A group of Canadian aid agencies that pools appeals for disasters, with matching from the Canadian government.
Visit their appealNuristan flood emergency appeal for tents, blankets, water purification kits, medicine and food packs.
A Muslim-led charity with relief programmes across South Asia.
Visit their appealCoordinates the whole humanitarian response and publishes the situation reports we rely on.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. It does not take public donations itself but runs the pooled fund that many agencies draw on.
Visit their appeal
Our team lives and works in the province. When a village needs something specific, a family that lost its roof, a school without books, a clinic short of one medicine, we hear about it directly, and we can put donors in touch with the people who will carry it up the valley.
We do not handle money ourselves. What we can do is tell you honestly what is needed, where, and who is already doing it well.
This machine is at work above Parun itself. Roads, bridges and flood defences do not repair themselves in terrain like this: equipment has to be brought up the same broken roads it is meant to fix, and every stretch reopened saves the next delivery of aid a day or more.
This is the unglamorous half of recovery: no single dramatic moment, just months of the valley being put back together piece by piece.
Parcels have to travel two days up a broken mountain road. Cash lets a family buy what it needs in the local market, which also puts income back into a town that lost its shops.
Walnuts, morels, rugs, carved cedar and the pakol are made by families in the valleys. Buying from them is the most direct income there is.
Tourism spends money in guesthouses, on drivers and on food. Travel with our team from the province and it stays in the villages.
Nuristan rarely makes the news, and when it does it is gone in a day. Ask your local paper, your mosque, your council or your employer to notice. Share the figures on our flood page rather than rumours.
If you have family in the valleys, or you are organising help and want it listed here, write to us. We check what we can and we update this page.
A dated log, newest first. We add to it as verified information reaches us.
Two months after the Parun flood, the emergency phase is over and rebuilding has to happen before winter. We have published a full account of the flood and will log developments here.
Read the full accountHeavy rain and flooding in Waygal district damaged orchards and crops during a wider spell of floods across eastern Afghanistan.
Floods in the Dehand Rahra area of Mandol district injured about 30 people and destroyed houses, water mills, roads and seven irrigation canals.
ANDMA confirmed 23 dead, more than 80 injured and over 100 missing in Parun, with the mayor among the dead. UNICEF began setting up a field clinic and India sent food and tents.
At about three in the afternoon a flash flood came down the Parun river through the provincial capital, sweeping away the bazaar, hotels and houses along the river.
A question, a correction, or something you can add to this page: your message goes to Obaid, who is from Nuristan, and his team in Afghanistan and the UK. We reply to every message.