Children are hungry and mothers are desperate in Afghanistan’s latest crisis
A combination of decades of conflict, years of drought, and economic turmoil has led to a crippling food crisis and is pushing millions of children and their families into extreme poverty.
By ChildFund Australia
In the remote villages of Herat Province, where Afghanistan shares its border with Iran and Turkmenistan, hunger is a daily burden for many children and their families.
For widowed or single mothers such as Maliha* (pictured below) and their children, they are barely surviving.
Maliha lives with five of her children on a barren plateau in Herat. Her children, who are under the age of 12, and in urgent need of food and nutrition.
Maliha and her children have been living on bread and tea.
During the harsh Afghan winter earlier this year, Maliha lost her five-year-old son Amir*. He died in his sleep during a night when the temperatures dropped below freezing. Maliha found his little body, frozen, in the morning.
The days before his death, Amir had been undernourished because of a lack of food and sick with flu-like symptoms, but Maliha could not afford to take him to the doctor.
“I wish no mother to suffer the way I have,” Maliha said. “I lost a part of my heart, just because of poverty. What a mother feels in her heart after losing her children cannot be described with words.”
A combination of decades of conflict, recent years of drought, and worsening economic instability since late 2021 has led to a crippling food crisis in Afghanistan.
Nearly 9 million Afghans are at risk of starvation, according to the United Nations World Food Program and Food and Agriculture Organization. Two million children are already malnourished.
There are few job opportunities for women in Afghanistan, and for widowed or single mothers like Maliha the chances of earning a stable income to support and feed their children are almost impossible.
Maliha and her children have been surviving on a few dollars a week, which they earn from gathering licorice roots near their village.
The roots grow deep in the ground, and it is difficult for Maliha’s children to dig them out with their little hands so they often wait until a tractor works the ground and brings the roots to the surface.
It takes up to three days for Maliha and her children to collect four kilograms of roots, which is the amount they need to earn US$1 to buy basic foods such as bread, rice or sugar. If they are lucky, Maliha and her children eat rice once a week.
Desperate circumstances, heartbreaking choices
The United Nations Development Programme estimates that 97 per cent of Afghanistan’s population – almost 39 million people – could fall below the poverty line this year without emergency assistance.
In Herat Province, where Maliha and her children live, the impact of the food crisis is particularly concerning. A disproportionate number of households – 15 per cent – compared to the rest of the country (5 per cent) are run by women, mostly single mothers or widows, living with little to no income.
Not long ago in Maliha’s village there were about 100 families, many of whom farmed wheat for a living. Families who were better off would often give a third of their harvest to poorer families. This is how everyone in the community survived.
Years of drought have made it impossible to continue the agricultural and farming practices that once sustained communities like Maliha’s. Today, there are less than 30 families in Maliha’s village.
Many families have fled their homes. Those who can afford it have left their village in search for work and food elsewhere, while the poorest families like Maliha’s have had no choice but to stay.
Afghanistan’s economy, which has long been heavily dependent on foreign aid, is on the brink of collapse.
The withdrawal of international troops from Afghanistan in 2021, and the subsequent takeover of the Taliban, led to countries such as the US and Germany suspending aid, and the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund halting payments.
Basic services such as healthcare and education that were dependent on international support have been disrupted. Vulnerable families like Maliha’s, who once received support from the government, are now facing desperate circumstances and have been forced to make heartbreaking choices to survive.
Without money to buy food for their children, parents have been forced to take their children out of school to work or marry.
Maliha had no choice but to agree to an arranged marriage for her 13-year-old daughter to pay off a debt.
Young girls who enter marriages are more likely to face a future of isolation, poor mental health, abuse and sexual exploitation, and high rates of maternal mortality.
ChildFund Alliance member, WeWorld, is one of the few international humanitarian organisations working in Afghanistan in response to the crisis.
WeWorld’s National Coordinator in Afghanistan, Jailan, described the situation on the ground as “one of the worst emergencies” he had seen in the 12 years of working with humanitarian groups in the country.
“A lack of basic human and civil rights, and the impacts of poverty and drought have really broken people,” he said. “Families are desperate for food. Children are living in extreme poverty and do not have even a third of the food that they should be eating a day.”
“The stories are heartbreaking.
“When I heard of Maliha’s story I was shocked and devastated that this had happened.”
ChildFund Australia is working with WeWorld to respond to the crisis in Afghanistan by providing emergency cash transfers to vulnerable families in Herat Province, specifically women-led households with children.
*Individuals’ names have been changed.
The cash provided to families will be enough for them to buy food and water, and pay for health care for their children during the crisis.
Cash transfers have long been used as an efficient and trusted means to help families facing conflict and disaster.
They provide families with flexibility and uphold their dignity, allowing them to decide and buy the food – and other essentials – they need.
Your support can help save the lives of children in Afghanistan.
A month after turning 73 years old, Christine embarked on a 49-kilometre trek across western Tasmania to raise money for children living in poverty.
The grandmother of three walked up to 10 kilometres a day, five days a week, for four months to prepare for the trek, a week-long trip in February, hosted by ChildFund Australia and Inspired Adventures, through the Tarkine rainforest and surrounds.
The trek was the first of its kind for Christine. Despite some initial doubts from family and friends and straining a muscle in the lead up to the trip, Christine pushed through and raised more than $1300 for ChildFund Australia.
“When I signed up for the trek some people said, ‘I don’t know if you can do that’,” Christine says. “But if someone says something like that to me, I’m bound to prove them wrong.
“I did a lot of walking to prepare. Before I got my trekking poles, my husband gave me a sawn-off broomstick handle to use and when I strained my gluteus maximus and my physio gave me some exercises, I did them every day.”
The trek took Christine and five other ChildFund Australia supporters through a diverse range of landscapes – from moss-covered, lush rainforests to untouched, rocky coastlines – but the highlight of the trip, says Christine, was the people.
“I was the littlest and the oldest and they sort of all took me under their wing,” she says. “I was worried I was holding them up on the walks, but they were all encouraging.”
Christine (pictured in the middle, white hat) with other ChildFund supporters on the Tasmania community fundraising trek. “I was the littlest and the oldest and they sort of all took me under their wing,” Christine said.
Christine signed up to the trek to prove a point to herself and her loved ones that she could do it, but most importantly to raise money for children in need.
She had never taken part in a fundraiser like ChildFund’s Tasmanian trek before, but she was no stranger to getting behind a cause. Christine regularly donates to various Australian charities and has been supporting ChildFund since 1993. Initially, she signed up to show her sons, who were nine and 10 years old at the time, the importance of helping others. “I wanted my boys to learn that you can’t just think about yourself and that while you can’t help everybody, if you can help one child it can make a difference,” Christine says.
When her sons grew up, Christine continued her support because “the need was still there”.
“I would encourage others to support children overseas,” Christine says. “Small donations are better than nothing.
“A lot of people just think of their own needs. I think we’ve got to look out for everybody.”
Thanks to the generosity of supporters like Christine, ChildFund Australia’s Tasmanian Trek in February 2022 raised $21,000 for children living in poverty around the world.
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