image Source, BBC/Aamir Pirzada
Sohaila Niazi has spent the past few weeks serving tea to her youngest daughter.
- Author, Yogita Limaye
- Role, Afghanistan correspondent, BBC News
“The last time I was able to buy milk for my child was two months ago. I usually fill his bottle with tea. Or I soak bread in tea and then give it to him.”
These were the words Sohela Niazi spoke while sitting on the floor of her mud house atop a hill east of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan.
There is no road to reach where the woman lives, so you have to walk through steep mud paths, where sewage flows.
Sohaila is a widow. They have six children, the youngest being a 15-month-old girl named Husna Fakiri.
The tea the woman is referring to is a tea traditionally drunk in Afghanistan, made from green leaves and hot water without milk or sugar. There is nothing in it that provides nutritional value to your child.
Sohaila is one of the 10 million people who stopped receiving emergency food aid from the UN World Food Program (WFP) last year due to a huge funding gap.
This is a devastating blow, especially for the approximately 2 million female-headed households in Afghanistan.
Under Taliban rule, Sohaila cannot go out to work to support her family.
image Source, getty images
The situation for single mothers has worsened since the Taliban regained control of the country two years ago.
disturbing stories
“There have been nights when we had nothing to eat and I had to say to my children: ‘Where can I go to beg at this time of the night?'” the mother said.
,they sleep hungry And when they wake up I ask myself: What should I do? If a neighbor brings us some food and the children run around shouting: ‘Give me, give me’. “I try to share it among them,” he said.
The woman admitted that she gives her “sleeping pills” to calm her hungry child.
,I give it to him so that he doesn’t get up and ask for milk. Because I don’t have milk to give him. “After giving her the medicine, she keeps sleeping from one morning to the next,” Sohaila said.
“Sometimes I check whether she is alive or dead,” he revealed.
image Source, getty images
Ten million Afghans, the majority of whom were children, received food from the United Nations and other international organizations, but this aid has been reduced since the arrival of the Taliban.
When the BBC team was asked what medicine they gave to the little girl, it was revealed that it was an antihistamine (common anti-allergy). Sedation is a side effect.
Consulting doctors reported that, although it is less harmful than the tranquilizers and antidepressants that some Afghan parents give their starving children, the drug is given in high doses. can cause respiratory problems,
Sohaila said her husband was killed in a shootout between Taliban forces and those opposing them in Panjshir province in 2022.
After her husband’s death, the woman relied heavily on WFP aid: flour, oil and beans.
However, the UN program says it can currently provide supplies to only three million people, Less than a quarter of people suffering from intense hunger In Central Asian country.
Sohaila is completely dependent on donations from family or neighbours.
During most of the interview, Choti Husna remained quiet and passive.
She is moderately malnourished and is one of the most malnourished Three crore children suffer from this condition According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), in the country.
More than a quarter of those three million children suffer from severe acute malnutrition. The United Nations said, this is the worst incident to have happened in Afghanistan so far.
image Source, BBC/Aamir Pirzada
The Red Cross financed the only children’s hospital, but it would soon have to close its doors due to lack of funds.
from bad to worse
And while malnutrition is ravaging the youngest children, the aid that had prevented the country’s health care collapse has had to be withdrawn.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was paying the salaries of health workers and financing medicines and food. more than 30 hospitalsA provisional emergency measure implemented following regime change in 2021.
However, they no longer have the resources to continue and have had to withdraw help from most health centres, including the Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital in Kabul, the only specialized center for children in Afghanistan.
“The salaries of doctors and nurses now come from the government. Everyone’s salary has been halved.” Dr. Mohammad Iqbal Sadiq, the hospital’s medical director appointed by the Taliban, commented.
The center also closed its outpatient department and provides services only to those who require admission.
image Source, BBC/Aamir Pirzada
Little Mohammed is in the care of his grandmother, as his father died in a traffic accident and his mother died of illness.
The malnutrition ward of the hospital is full and for many days they have to keep more than one child in one bed.
Sumaya is sitting in a corner. At the age of 14 months, his weight is as much as that of a newborn baby. And his small face is wrinkled like that of an older person.
Next to him is Mohammad Shafi. His weight is half of what he would have weighed at 18 months. His father was a Taliban fighter and died in a traffic accident, while his mother died of illness.
As he passes by his bedside, his elderly grandmother, Hayat Bibi, comes to him curiously, wanting to tell her story.
He said the Taliban helped take his grandson to the hospital, but he doesn’t know how they will manage now.
“I trust in God’s mercy, but I have no place to go. I am completely lostHayat Bibi said, her eyes filled with tears.
“I’m struggling too. My head hurts so much I feel like it might explode,” he said.
image Source, BBC/Aamir Pirzada
The Taliban does not allow women to work and many widows have no way to support their children, so they rely on charity.
No response from the government
The BBC asked Zabiullah Mujahid, the main spokesman for the Taliban government, what he was doing to get more support from the international community.
“Aid has been cut because the economies of donor countries are not performing well. There have been two major disasters: Covid and the war in Ukraine. Therefore we cannot expect help from them. Talking to them won’t help us“, replied.
“We have to become self-reliant,” he said.
He said, “Our economy has stabilized and we are awarding mining contracts that will create thousands of jobs. But, of course, I am not saying that aid should be cut because we still have problems. “
Asked whether perhaps the Taliban’s policies were also part of the problem and whether donors might not want to give money to a country whose officials impose severe restrictions on women, he replied: “If aid is used as a pressure tool Islamic Emirate Will protect your values at any cost,
“Afghans have made great sacrifices in the past to protect their values and will also tolerate aid cuts,” Mujahid said.
image Source, getty images
According to UNICEF data, millions of Afghan children are malnourished.
in a dead end
The official’s words will not console many Afghans. Two-thirds of the population do not know where their next meal will come from.
In a cold, damp one-room house on a Kabul street the BBC team met a woman who said the Taliban had stopped her from selling fruit, vegetables, socks and other goods on the street.
The woman, whose husband died during the war and who had four children, also claimed that she was once arrested for going out alone. She does not want to reveal her identity.
“at least They should allow us to work and earn an honest living”, she declared crying.
“I swear to God that we will not go out and do bad things. We go out only to earn food for our children and they harass us like this,” he lamented.
The woman admitted that she was forced to send her 12-year-old son to work.
“I asked a Taliban brother: ‘What will I feed my children if I don’t earn anything?’ told me ‘‘Give them poison, but don’t leave the house alone’“, They told.
image Source, BBC/Aamir Pirzada
The Taliban told this woman to poison her children before going out alone on the road to feed them.
“On two occasions the Taliban government gave me some money, but it is not enough,” he said.
Before the Taliban came back to power, Three-quarters of public expenditure came from foreign money Given directly to the previous government. However, the flow of these funds stopped in August 2021, plunging the economy into crisis.
Aid agencies stepped in to provide assistance, but most of that money has already been exhausted.
It is difficult to overstate the seriousness of the situation that has been witnessed in the last year.
Millions of people survive on dry bread and water. Some will not survive the winter.
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