Following the Taliban’s control of several densely populated districts, thousands of Afghans have been accepted as refugees in other countries. As a result, numerous humanitarian groups are now collecting cryptocurrency donations.
Thousands, if not millions, of Afghans, have attempted or are attempting to abandon their homes, fearful of what the Taliban would do now that they have largely taken control of the country.
Organizations that assist refugees and people on the ground have issued a call for funding to help Afghans who arrive in foreign countries with little more than the clothes on their backs.
Hearts & Homes for Refugees, a grassroots organization established in New York, is presently seeking funds to help the about 20,000 Afghans who remain in the country while waiting for special immigration visas to be processed by US officials.
Through its integration with the Giving Block, the organization hopes to raise enough funds to relocate Afghan families to Westchester County.
It currently accepts Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), ZCash (ZEC), Gemini dollar (GUSD), BAL, Yearn.Finance (YFI), Polygon (MATIC), Synthetix (SNX), and Bancor (BNT).
According to CARE, a global organization that fights for women and girls, 393,000 Afghans have been displaced as a result of the Taliban takeover and are in need of immediate relief.
The creator of consultancy firm Visualize Value, Jack Butcher, has developed a series of a nonfungible token, or NFT, “care packages,” each of which is targeted at matching the organization’s anticipated cost of covering a single family’s emergency needs for a month.
Butcher stated that the 0.028 ETH earnings from each NFT sale, which totalled $124,576 as of Aug. 19, went directly to CARE to aid Afghans.
195 of the individual NFTs were still available for purchase at the time of publication. Crypto users can also buy ten at a time for 0.28 ETH (approximately $914) to aid ten families till the end of September.
Some organizations with activities on the ground in Afghanistan are still in communication and requesting assistance via social media.
Code to Inspire, a school dedicated to teaching Afghan girls coding and robotics, is taking cryptocurrency donations through the Giving Block. Fareshteh Forough, the company’s founder, said Thursday that pupils were “still coding at home.”
Although the situation in Afghanistan is still evolving, there have already been allegations of assaults, murders, and human rights violations as the Taliban expand their territory.
However, well-intentioned crypto users should be cautious about who they donate to; others fear that scammers will take advantage of the media attention by taking funds intended for Afghans.
