An international humanitarian organisation whose director was previously imprisoned in a freezing cold metal container by the Taliban has become the first Christian group permitted to return to Afghanistan.
Shelter Now International (SNI) has been invited to return by the hardline Islamic regime to help with relief efforts in the country. And it has already provided humanitarian aid in the provinces of Khost and Paktika after severe earthquakes struck there recently.
Germany-based SNI’s International Director is Georg Taubmann (on left in photo), a German citizen who, with seven SNI colleagues, spent three months in five Taliban prisons (one three metres underground) in 2001 for promoting Christianity. On their way to Kandahar, where the Taliban would have killed them, they were incarcerated in a freezing cold metal container before being rescued and flown by helicopter to Pakistan by US special forces, a story that made headlines throughout the world.
Afterwards Taubmann denied they had been proselytising, saying: ‘Afghans questioned us, wanting to know more about us. And since we are Christians, we talked about it. And we always emphasised that people have a right to hear … You don’t have to go out and do what we call evangelistic things. You just need to live your life as a Christian, and this attracts people, and they want to know more about what you believe in’.
SNI staff fled Afghanistan when the Taliban seized power in August 2021, but in October Taubmann asked the new rulers if they could return. Persecuted church agency Open Doors now rates Afghanistan as the most dangerous place in the world to be a Christian, ahead of even North Korea. The Taliban agreed only because, he says, SNI has a decades-long, unblemished record of committed relief work in the country. Afghanistan is now in the grip of an economic crisis, so SNI’s efforts are vital if those living in the earthquake regions are to avoid starvation.
The priority was to send survey teams to Khost and Paktika, which border Pakistan and which SNI know well. The first team arrived just three days after the first earthquake – the worst for 20 years – with everything chaotic, as there had been no organised disaster response from the Afghan Government. Well over 1,000 people are known to have died, with many more injured. Some local people came to help and tried to carry dead and injured bodies out of the rubble. In the midst of such widespread devastation and desperation, SNI was able to distribute food and igloo tents. The next teams identified the most needy; in six villages 250 families’ homes were completely destroyed and they had no shelter whatsoever. They were given tents, blankets and food supplies.
One woman ran after one of their vehicles, pleading with them for help. She is a widow with six children but had not received any distribution aid from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. This was because she is from Pakistan and even though her husband had been an Afghan, she was omitted. Her family is now receiving aid from SNI, together with the other 250.
SNI’s next task is to provide basic subsistence for a further 750 families, especially widows and orphans. In addition to emergency shelters and blankets, the key needs are for flour, rice, dried beans, cooking oil, sugar and beans. SNI also wishes to reconstruct its concrete factory ensuring that new homes are rebuilt earthquake-proof.
Taubmann commented: ‘It is our responsibility as Christians to share God’s love in practical ways to the suffering people of Afghanistan. We are called by our Lord to minister to the needs of the hungry, oppressed, needy and poor. We have noticed that many Muslims have a wrong understanding of what Christians are and what they believe. By us living and working amongst them, we represent Christ and His teachings in their midst.’
