A young mine survivor’s journey to recovery

Afghanistan | 2024 | CBPF

Afghanistan, Qalat district. It only took seconds to turn Nasibullah’s life upside down. In 2021, the 8-year-old was on his way to his father’s workplace in Niazian village, Qalat district, when he stepped on a roadside mine. The blast blew off his right leg below the knee, leaving him severely injured and critically handicapped for the rest of his life.

Before the accident, Nasibullah was an active boy. Now aged 12, he says, “I was able to go to school and could do everything for myself.” Since the day of the blast, however, he has had to depend on his family, especially his brothers and sisters. Due to his limited mobility, he couldn’t go back to school even after his amputation had healed.

Southern Afghanistan’s Zabul province is one of the areas worst contaminated with explosive ordnance. Twenty years of war had a profound impact on infrastructure, including the public health system, leaving most adults and children without appropriate access to treatment and rehabilitation services. As a result, people living with disabilities often remain fully dependent on family members, unable to participate in social life or carry out daily activities by themselves.

The Afghan organization Health Disability and Development Organization (HDDO) provides physical rehabilitation services, like physiotherapy and psycho-social counselling, produces new prostheses and orthotics, and distributes wheelchairs and other assistive devices, in four rehabilitation centres across the country.

Acknowledging the dire situation of the many victims of war in Afghanistan and the importance of physical rehabilitation and psycho-social support, the Afghanistan Humanitarian Fund prioritized funding for a ‘mine victim assistance’ project implemented by HDDO in Baghlan, Ghazni, Takhar and Zabul provinces.

Through this project, Nasibullah was able to receive his first prothesis in February 2024. After HDDO had the funding to accept new patients, his family received a referral from a community centre they frequently visit. They didn’t believe it at first.

Medical and technical teams at the physical rehabilitation centre guided Nasibullah and his mother through the next steps with empathy and professional expertise. Nasibullah still could not fully grasp the positive change he was about to experience. Only six days after his initial consultation, the medical team had adjusted his new prosthesis, and he was ready to start physical therapy to strengthen his legs. At first Nasibullah struggled with the prosthesis as ‘it did not feel like real walking’, but he did the exercises and embraced his newly gained ability to move.

A few months on, Nasibullah has gained the ability and strength to attend school again and to go about many everyday activities without needing support from his mother or siblings. The HDDO team discharged him in high spirits and Nasibullah is confident that he will be able handle life with his disability much more positively.

For more information: visit the Afghanistan Humanitarian Fund web site, and for real-time contribution and allocation data go to the Pooled Funds Data Hub.

This story was first published in the AHF 2024 Annual Report.

Posted May 2025.
Pooled Fund impact stories