Until the recent horrific events in the United States, international concern about Afghanistan was largely confined to those members of the international donor community, including Ireland, who were directly engaged in providing humanitarian assistance.
Over the past two decades, the Afghan people have suffered from horrendous levels of famine and this has been made more acute in the last few years by drought.
They have also suffered the consequences of enduring internal conflict and related human rights violations.
In all of the traumas of the past couple of weeks, we must not lose sight of the suffering of ordinary Afghans and, indeed, innocent people in all conflict situations.
Bonds of common humanity link us to their fate. This common humanity is the cornerstone of our civilisation. It is the primary motivation behind the great outpouring of sympathy which we, as Irish people, have shown to the bereaved and traumatised people of America and of other countries, including our own. It is also the motivation behind our concern for those who remain at risk from conflict and starvation in Afghanistan.
In sheer humanitarian terms, we are all standing on common ground. As with our sharing of grief with the American people, the emergency assistance provided by Ireland Aid to Afghanistan reflects the humanitarian concerns of the Government and people of this country. It has grown, incrementally, from £160,000 in 1996 to a total of £1.6 million over the 12 months since last October.
In order to alleviate further suffering, particularly with the onset of winter, I have announced on behalf of the Government an additional aid package of £2.8 million for Afghanistan. This is the largest ever package provided by the Government for a single emergency. It brings the total emergency assistance provided by Ireland Aid to Afghanistan during 2001 to £4 million.
From the work of Concern in North-East Afghanistan, which Ireland Aid has been supporting, we know that children will be particularly vulnerable with the onset of winter. Having sold off blankets and other household essentials to continue feeding their families, parents will struggle against the elements to keep their children warm. But without food, their children will be unable to maintain body temperature leaving them vulnerable to exposure and death.
From the similar work of GOAL, Christian Aid Ireland and Tr≤caire, we know that this painful tragedy is not confined to just one valley but is part of the nationwide winter struggle of the Afghan people.
Further assistance has been provided in the form of emergency food assistance. We have also been supporting a traditional birth attendant programme - one in four children in Afghanistan die before the age of five.
In response to recent developments, Ireland Aid has been giving its implementing partners flexibility in how they utilise our funding to improve the overall quality of the Irish response to this tragedy.
We are now on the threshold of a bleak winter in Afghanistan. Yet, before the world chose or was forced to notice, there were already upwards of 700,000 internally displaced people within the country and a refugee population of over 4 million people dispersed across its borders.
Many scenarios are being contemplated, yet this is a humanitarian challenge which the world should, in any event, have been facing.
The Government is now actively supporting Irish NGOs and other international humanitarian partners in Afghanistan to unprecedented levels. This represents a continued engagement which pre-dates the latest crisis. While the circumstances in which the world has been forced to sit up and take notice are the last we would have wished for, there is an opportunity to redress some of the past neglect. I see no earthly reason why our desire to help prevent another Twin Towers atrocity and our desire to help the vulnerable people of Afghanistan should be mutually exclusive. The light of these shared human endeavours will long outshine the darkness of the outrage perpetrated against the people of America.
Liz O'Donnell is Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs with special responsibility for overseas development assistance and human rights