Work Gives Life Meaning: Ayub and Ahmad’s Journey Back to Hope

Work Gives Life Meaning: The Toil of Afghan Returnees 

When Muhammad Ayub crossed the border back into Afghanistan after 35 years in Pakistan, he was deeply worried. Ahead of him lay so much uncertainty. With a large family of fourteen relying on him for their next meal, he felt overwhelmed.

Ayub is one of millions of Afghans pushed home in recent years, returning to a country still struggling with unemployment, fragile infrastructure, and limited essential services. For many, the dream of “going home” has collided with the reality of starting over from nothing.

A Country Stretched Thin

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), nearly 2.7 million Afghans have returned home from Pakistan and Iran, in 2025 alone. This influx places severe strain on communities who are already grappling with poverty, high unemployment and increasing vulnerability to climate change and natural disasters. Even those who never left the country have found themselves competing for scarce work. Similarly for the returnees, the first priority is to secure a job or employment.

Mohmmad Ayub standing along the other workers waiting for the work to begin. @FP CDDO

 A Job, A Road, A Chance to rebuild

Ayub’s village in Zurmat district of Paktia province  was earmarked for subproject implementation through the Community Resilience and Livelihoods Project (CRLP). In keeping with the inclusive aid delivery approach that Community Representative Groups formed by the project are trained in, Ayub was identified as a vulnerable newcomer in the village and registered as a worker to provide unskilled labor.

His voice softens as he remembers the moment: “For the first time since returning, I felt relief.”

Mohammad Ayub joined the project, earning 450AFN on a daily basis. The job was simple—earthwork, digging, clearing pathways. To Ayub, it meant everything. With his first payment, he purchased food for his family. His wife could prepare meals for their children. At night, she was once again able to sleep peacefully, knowing there was food in their home for the next day.  

And as the days passed, the new road became a beacon of hope for Ayub and his community: a connection to markets, health facilities, and other villages. 

In Paktika, Another Story of Survival

Hundreds of kilometers away in Gadali Loye Jumat village, Ahmad Khan rises before the sun. As the only breadwinner for a family of twelve, the burden of responsibility bears on him. The short-term job he was offered by CRLP working on road rehabilitation is keeping his family afloat.

“It’s not a lot,” he says, “but now we eat. And the road that we are constructing will help everyone.”

Beside him, fellow worker Hamayoon nods. “This gave me confidence,” he says. “I know I can support my family now.”

Ahmad Khan working along other laborers on road rehabilitation. @FP CDDO 

More Than Wages

CRLP, supported by the World Bank and ARTF, and implemented by UNOPS, was designed to help the most vulnerable—returnees, displaced families, women-headed households and people with disabilities. The work is physical and sometimes exhausting, but for many, the chance to earn a first steady income, even for a few months, is incomparable.

The project gives beneficiaries something less visible, too: dignity. As Ayub puts it, “Work gives life meaning. Through this project, I found hope—for myself, my children, and my homeland.”

In villages where everything else feels uncertain, the simple offer of a job can be life-changing. It can turn a returnee into a provider, a laborer into a community builder, a worried father into a hopeful one.

69% of the subprojects implemented in rural communities through the CRLP strengthen road networks and connectivity. Nearly 1.1 million rural households have benefitted directly as laborers on these subprojects; 23,000 of them being returnees and IDPs. CRLP has improved access to basic services to nearly 10 million people in rural areas in 94 districts across 29 provinces of Afghanistan.  

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