Dr. med. Reinhard Erös: Kinderhilfe Afghanistan - 40 Jahre Erfahrungen am Hindukusch

Co-presented by Amnesty international Waiblingen & Waiblingen Alliance for Democracy

Dr. Reinhard Erös will speak on Thursday, October 15, 2026, at 7:30 pm at the Kulturhaus Schwanen Waiblingen about "40 years of experience in the Hindu Kush: The political and social situation under the Taliban". The lecture is co-presented by Amnesty International Waiblingen and the Waiblingen Alliance for Democracy. Free admission, solidarity tickets from 5 to 15 euros are available.

The Erös family has been involved with Afghanistan for more than four decades. Their involvement began in the 1980s during the war against the Soviet occupation. At that time, the German army doctor Reinhard Erös provided medical aid for Afghan resistance fighters and lived with his family in Peshawar, at the foot of the Khyber Pass. Even during the first Taliban period in the 1990s, the family remained active and supported women and girls in particular with small school projects.

After September 11, 2001, Erös left the German army because he did not believe that a military mission in Afghanistan would be effective. Instead, the Family Initiative Children's Aid Afghanistan set up educational projects: more than 30 primary and secondary schools, computer schools and training programs, especially for girls and women. After the withdrawal of Western troops in 2021, Children's Relief Afghanistan will continue its work in the country - with school and training projects, medical aid, support for the university hospital in Jalalabad, the construction of a rural clinic and an orphanage.

The lecture provides insights into a country that often appears in the news as a crisis zone, but is characterized by people, families, a hunger for education and the will to survive. Erös reports from many years of experience on the political and social situation under the Taliban, on hunger, humanitarian aid and the question of what civilian involvement can achieve when military strategies fail.