"From Despair to Hope" by Farid Daya: An Effort to Preserve AKDN’s Humanitarian Legacy for the Digital Age

For a humanitarian worker, life often means traveling to volatile regions, responding to emergencies and enduring long absences from loved ones. Over the past 20 years, while working across Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe, I have experienced this reality firsthand. Despite this, I still try to stay connected with friends and old colleagues if not every month, then at least with warm NewYear’s greetings when the year draws to a close.

Just days before 2026 began, I tried to get in touch with Farid Daya, the mentor who profoundly influenced my formative years with Focus Humanitarian Assistance in Afghanistan between 2004 and 2006. After exchanging new year wishes, Farid shared some good and exciting news- the publication of his memoir, "From Despair to Hope”. The book chronicles his extensive humanitarian career with FOCUS Humanitarian Assistance - an agency of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), spanning assignments from Afghanistan to Russia, Syria, India, and Mozambique. Farid urged me to look it up on Amazon. Having worked with AKDN agencies and walked similar paths in many of the same countries, I felt an instant bond with the path he had walked. I ordered the book immediately, as I was very eager to dive in over the long Christmas and new year holidays. When the book arrived two days later, I opened it immediately, excited to discover Farid’s reflections on our shared experiences in Afghanistan.

When I started reading the first chapter about Afghanistan, I felt like I was stepping back into my past. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, while I was studying medicine in Pakistan, Afghanistan was going through a worsening governance crisis. When the Taliban took control of most of the country, leaving only Badakhshan and Panjshir under the Northern Alliance, millions were displaced, and many fled across the border into Pakistan.

It was then that His Highness the Aga Khan IV offered hope by pledging support for Afghan refugees in Pakistan and sending emergency food aid to people still trapped in a country suffering from war and drought. In response to the growing crisis, FOCUS Humanitarian Assistance was established, eventually becoming one of the largest humanitarian operations in the history of the Aga Khan Development Network. Teams operated across Pakistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan and delivered humanitarian aid to northern provinces, Kabul and beyond. It was the moment Farid Daya set foot in Afghanistan to stand with the team on the ground.

In April 2004, nearly ten years into Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis, I was invited to interview with Dr. Salim Sumar - the executive officer of FOCUS Europe for a role leading humanitarian response in Badakhshan Afghanistan.  At that time, I had just finished my master’s degree at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and was working for the NHS in London. It was unbelievable to join a humanitarian mission in a country I had only seen through grim TV reports and newspaper headlines about its growing crisis.

When I first arrived in Badakhshan, Afghanistan, in July 2004, the worst of the humanitarian crisis was over, but its effects were still very visible. The Taliban regime had been replaced by an interim government headed by Hamid Karzai. Along with FOCUS, other AKDN agencies such as the Aga Khan Education Service, Aga Khan Health Service, The First Micro-Finance Bank, and Aga Khan Foundation were beginning early recovery and development work in many provinces. During my initial visits to various districts, I saw clearly how people still urgently needed food, shelter, and basic health care. One of the most heartbreaking moments I will never forget was visiting a household in the remote Wakhan district, where opium use was rampant in those days. I met a family in Qazidey village where every adult smoked opium, even blowing it into the nose of their one year old child. Stunned into silence at first, I then asked why. The head of the household explained that Wakhan is an extremely cold and remote place. Although they grow wheat, their harvest only lasts 4-6 months. Because of this ongoing food shortage, they used opium and gave it to the child so everyone would sleep more, eat less, and make their limited wheat supply last the whole year.

Many humanitarian agencies were providing humanitarian support in Badakhshan, but the name FOCUS echoed everywhere I went. Everyone I met spoke of Aly Mawji, Farid Daya, Aziz Ahmad, Faiza Janmohamed, Ghulam Panjwani, Iqbal Kermali, Farah Motani, Salim Sumar and other FOCUS colleagues and shared stories of their lifesaving work during the darkest days. I recalled a lesson from my school days: one never forgets the hand that reaches out when one is drowning. That saying proved true as I met vulnerable families in many conflicts affected districts of Badakhshan.

Farid Daya’s memoir describes how FOCUS supported people with food, shelter, clothing, and medicine, especially in remote districts like Darwaz, Khwahan, Shughnan, and Wakhan, where no roads existed. The FOCUS team operated from GBAO Tajikistan under a special permit granted to them due to the Aga Khan IV’s longstanding humanitarian commitment to and influence in bring peace and prosperity to the region. The nineteen unofficial crossing points along the Panj River, which were established in the late 1990s, were used to transport relief supplies from GBAO Tajikistan to the remote districts of Badakhshan, Afghanistan, by boat. At the time, Afghan Badakhshan was a common route for drug smugglers, and the Tajik government under the watchful eye of security services maintained strict border controls. Yet despite these obstacles, both Afghan and Tajik authorities placed great trust in AKDN agencies. For over a decade, FOCUS used these unofficial cross points to deliver food, essential supplies and medicines to Afghanistan.

Farid Daya (left) with Khurrum and Tolik in Afghan Badakshan during relief distribution in 2001.

Farid Daya, in his book, has pinned down the difficulties and challenges that the FOCUS team encountered while delivering humanitarian aid to many inaccessible districts in Badakhshan.. People walked for hours or even days to receive food. Even during my deployment there, the three Afghan border districts still had no roads. The FOCUS team was always searching for donkeys to transport supplies from the Panj river to the remote villages. I remember my colleagues, Habiba Begum and Nooruddin, joking with me in Khorog about the glamour of our work. "Dr. Sahib," they would say, “our lives are nothing but a search for donkeys." It wasn't a joke. In a land without roads, the donkey was the most precious means of transport. We hired hundreds to deliver food to homes and medicine to clinics.

In the early 2000s, The Aga Khan Development Network, under the guidance of Aga Khan IV, initiated long-term development projects in Badakhshan Afghanistan and GBAO Tajikistan, with support from the governments of both countries. The five bridges built and restored across the Panj River connected the two Badakhshan and paved the way for significant transformation in the region. Bozori Mushtarak—a joint cross-border market—was another milestone. It allowed Afghan traders to cross into Tajikistan and sell handicrafts, carpets, saffron and dried fruit. Tajik merchants, in turn, offered manufactured goods, household items, construction materials and staples like tea and flour. The market played a key role in boosting trade and economic ties between the two countries.

The book also explores the dire health and nutrition situation in Afghanistan during its years of conflict, detailing how chronic food shortages led to a high prevalence of malnutrition. The author highlights a health facility in Bamiyan that was handed over to FOCUS by another humanitarian organization, in hopes that the Aga Khan Development Network would raise the standard of care. Today, that clinic has been converted into an ISO certified tertiary care facility by the Aga Khan Health Service and operates as a teaching hospital for nursing and midwifery students.

The journey from despair to hope is long and uncertain, but it is never beyond reach. In the late 1990s, FOCUS planted a seed of hope in Afghanistan through its humanitarian work. Today, that seed has grown into a tree with branches reaching across borders. This progress wouldn’t have been possible without the tireless dedication of FOCUS teams in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Tajikistan.

In Afghanistan, no acknowledgement is complete without thanking Abdullah Sherzad, Eng. Qudus, Boz Mohammad, Late Amir Jan Haideri and countless others who worked day and night to provide humanitarian support to the vulnerable Afghan population—not only in Badakhshan but across Afghanistan. Equally vital was the unwavering support from the FOCUS team in GBAO, Tajikistan—Khurrum, Tolik, Soro, Salim, Latifa, Marzia, Late Mamnoor and others—who stood as a lifeline for the people of Badakhshan during its darkest days. The FOCUS team in Pakistan consisting of Dr. Nayamat Shah, Manzoor Hussain, Faiza Janmohamed and many others will always be remembered for their tireless cross border humanitarian support from Islamabad.

From Despair to Hope is more than Farid Daya's memoir. It is a history of the humanitarian contribution of FOCUS and the Aga Khan Development Network in Afghanistan, Syria, Russia and other countries. By documenting these decades of service, Farid Daya ensures that the institutional memory of FOCUS remains intact for the next generation of leaders. As I conclude the book, I find myself thinking about the people of Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Since August 15, 2021, Afghanistan's social and political systems have undergone a major shift. Many who once had hope are now facing despair again. The road out is long, but Farid’s memoir reminds us that the path forward, though difficult can be walked again.