By Hannah Williams | September 13, 2021

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa —  On Monday at the international aid Geneva Conference, top United Nations officials warned members that millions of Afghans could experience a nationwide famine by winter if aid doesn’t come quickly. The nation’s collapse of their public services has resulted in the increase of poverty and homelessness, and has put one million children at risk of starvation and death.

This call to action by the U.N. targets every country that is part of the humanitarian effort. As many Afghans struggle to feed their family, UN officials urge countries to stand in solidarity with the people of Afghanistan and commit to delivering basic and essential resources.

Public relations (PR) will play an instrumental role in handling every aspect of this support. The situation will involve all sorts of  PR: government relations, community relations, crisis management and basic marketing communications.

The deepening crisis brings new challenges for other countries as they try to navigate working with the Taliban, who has a known history of brutality and human rights abuses. Since the Taliban’s takeover last month, the nation has experienced new lows of poverty, homelessness, economic grief and food shortages.

“After decades of war, suffering and insecurity, they face perhaps their most perilous hour,” Secretary General António Guterres said. Gueterres who spoke as one of the high-level U.N. officials urged all who were present to aid in pledging funds and resources to the cause.

In terms of government relations, it’s important to target an audience that represents the government’s brand and policies. As a government PR person, I would ask the question, how will this impact our government in the short-run, but most importantly in the long-run. For example, take America and their problematic history with Afghanistan, if they were to send aid they would have to think of the pros in cons of getting involved…again. The questions they would need to ask are: how can we protect ourselves, how can we get public favor, is this a way to clean up America’s image with Afghans.

As a PR representative, I would also focus on boosting internal relations amongst aiding countries as well as humanitarians working in Afghanistan. The internal relations needs to focus on counseling employees within the organization, advising them on courses of action and overall creating and implementing a strategy plan. In a high risk situation like this it is important to have a strategy, whether that be a crisis management plan or a backup plan.

In regards to this story, it should be dubbed as a negative one because it discusses a country’s steep decline and dire need for support. Although this New York Times story targets the everyday American who may be interested in the state of Afghanistan, it also serves as a strategy to bring awareness to those who aren’t informed. In America, there ‘s an assortment of differentiating views on America’s presence within Afghanistan. Therefore, I see this article as a mean to bring this issue to a basic human rights level, this article isn’t about the Taliban (who are normally the main topic of conversation in regards to Afghanistan) but this article is about a country that needs immediate relief.

It’s simple, people are dying, children are dying.

The people of this country have suffered from the poor calculations of their leaders and the people in power, it’s time to help them; and I don’t mean another war. The next humanitarian step is coming up with a plan to provide immediate relief before it’s too late.

For more information read the New York Times Article: A Million Afghan Children Could Die in ‘Most Perilous Hour,’ U.N. Warns

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