RESPONSE - REturnees Support through POtable Water, NFI, Safe Education IRC proposes to assist 12,000 individuals in Kabul, Nangarhar, Logar and Laghman provinces by providing cash for rent, increasing access to potable water and hygiene promotion and access to education by establishing 70 Community Based Education (CBE) classes. IRC will distribute cash for rent for 3 months in 3 installments of 60 USD to vulnerable returnees, who are living in rented houses or apartments (60% of returnees assessed) but who can’t afford to pay the rent and risk to be evicted. Disbursements are in line with the industry standard practice of the cluster group and are comparable to the practice of other INGOs in Afghanistan. To complement previous market and needs assessments in Dec 2016 and March 2017 IRC teams will conduct an updated monthly assessment in the target provinces to monitor cost of rent and fluctuations in the market, 60% of beneficiaries will be female heads of household. Based on ESNFI cluster recommendation, IRC will implement cash for rent only in Kabul. All cash distributions will be supervised and audited by multiple team and community members to ensure that all community members’ needs are considered, including those with significantly lower social profiles

To respond to the increased need for potable water, IRC will dig 50 new bore wells in Nangarhar, Logar and Laghaman and will connect them to water points through pipes. On completion of the wells IRC staff will chlorinate and undertake biological and physical tests on the water quality and pressure of all water points before handover to the community for management, achieved through establishment and training of Water Management Committees (WMC), IRC will ensure that women are represented in the WMC. IRC will also conduct hygiene education campaigns in the selected districts targeting 10,000 beneficiaries. It will hire and train Community Health Volunteers (CHV) of which70% will be female, to ensure women participation. IRC is currently implementing hygiene promotion through CHV in other emergency responses (funded by OFDA and SIDA) and training curriculum and awareness materials are already available to be used by the team. CHVs training will last 5 days and enable the CHVs to provide hygiene promotion sessions to their communities. IRC will also conduct WASH in school activities, as a component of the EiE activities. 

In Kabul, Nangarhar and Laghman IRC will improve access to effective and responsive quality education, including providing education in emergency situations as well as Community-Based Education (CBE) to promote children’s wellbeing. These programs will ensure returning children (60% will be girls) have access to the education services they currently lack. The project will provide children with quality, holistic education in a safe stabilizing and restorative environment, and ensure that boys and girls have the foundational academic skills (literacy and numeracy) and the social and emotional skills (SES) to recover, persevere, learn and be resilient in the face of adversity. CBE classes will be equipped with necessary teaching and learning materials. IRC has been coordinating with Provincial and District Education Departments (PED and DED) who have agreed and approved the establishing of 9 months CBE classes (instead of the required 3 years) as an exception to the CBE Policy, motivated by the current returnee crisis and the increasing educational needs of returning children. Beneficiary families will be identified during joint assessments in consultation with community representatives, including CDCs/Shuras.