Harry and Meghan donate to Afghan charity in support of efforts to 'evacuate and relocate' families

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, who had previously spoken about being heartbroken at the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan, have now donated to a charity to help the evacuation and relocation of the citizens of the country.

Via their Archewell Foundation, the Sussexes donated to the Women For Afghan Women (WAW) organisation, the largest non-government Afghan women's rights group in the world. WAW took to its social media accounts on Sunday and wrote that they are "immensely grateful" to the Sussexes' foundation for supporting efforts to "relocate thousands of Afghan families."

The organisation posted a graphic saying "thank you Archwell," alongside a caption that read: "We are immensely grateful for the generosity of the Archewell Foundation in support of our efforts to evacuate/relocate thousands of Afghan women, children, families, including our staff."

WAW has over 850 local Afghan staff working tirelessly with strategic partners and local stakeholders to provide support services to women, children, and families. The organisation's ultimate goal in Afghanistan is to transform norms of violence and oppression into that of peace and equality.

Harry and Meghan had previously mentioned the organisation in a wide-ranging statement in which they said the Taliban's advance in Afghanistan had left them "speechless" and "heartbroken." The message released via Archewell's website called on followers to support WAW and other such organisations working for Afghanistan.

However, their statement had sparked a lot of criticism, with many social media users branding it "vague, publicity-seeking word salad." Many questioned why they have not mentioned what personal contribution they have made to the cause. A royal expert dubbed their statement "another attempt to form an alternate woke royal family."

Angela Levin, Prince Harry's biographer, told FEMAIL: "I think Harry and Meghan's grandiose, comfy and caring comments about the situation in Afghanistan, the disaster in Haiti and new Covid variants is another example of them trying to set up some sort of alternate woke royal family."

"Like most of their 'compassionate' gestures there is no indication about what they themselves will do and whether any donations will be going through Archewell Foundation. Their comment that they want to 'alleviate suffering among those we know and those we may never meet – that will prove our humanity,' sounds so similar to their recent comment we must be compassionate 'to those we know and those we don't know' that makes it sound equally phoney,'" Levin added.

The couple have shut down this criticism with their latest contribution to WAW, though the amount they have donated has not been revealed.