Kabul, 21 January 2022 (TDI): In a statement released on December 3, 2021, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, warned that 23 million Afghans, 55% of the population, are now facing extreme hunger, and nearly 9 million Afghans are at risk of famine, with the humanitarian crisis “escalating daily”.
The actual meaning of death can be understood when one wanders through Kabul, where blue faces are carried by emaciated bodies and tender features, displaying boundless fear. This fear came for different reasons and terrifying thoughts, a fear of a mother seeing her child die from hunger or cold.
Fathers who do not know what to do when their children are hungry, or fathers who don’t understand why their children are hungry. The future in Afghanistan has become darker than humanity can bear with this amount of darkness. Looking at the faces of the children of this sad country has become terrifying because of the state of humanity from the individuality and self-concern the world has reached, which has robbed the most important characteristics of human beings in their sympathy and compassion.
The lack of food, medication, and shelter leads to the deaths of 1,000 children every day. The UNHR is supposed to help humanity fulfil its responsibility, not to replace it. The world is responsible for all thehumans. Ignoring the deaths of children is not an appropriate response. Silence is not a solution.
Moments from Mullah Ahmed’s life
A smoky flame licks the inside of the family’s stove as they inhale the cold air with the ashes and exhale the feeling of death. Beyond the curtain door, which can’t keep anything inside the room except the cold, the chill of Kabul winter was one of the room’s inhabitants.
Their mud-brick dwelling emits a weak warmth. Warmth can be felt only in their brains and in their need to remain alive. When the old man removes a metal kettle blackened by a smoky fire, it emits a foul smell throughout the very small home.
The stove is made by hand from mud and rocks. He burned strips of old carpet and other flammable garbage he found on the streets. He understands that the smoke that comes out of it is very harmful. It is evident in the blue faces of his children and the harsh sounds of their coughs. “What can I do?” he wonders. “We can’t afford to buy wood.”
Afghanistan is a Famous Example of Adapting
Unfortunately, those old-man alternatives are dwindling. He and 14 of his family members have been displaced by the fighting over the past year. Although the violence has stopped, the ensuing collapse in the economy has left many internally displaced people facing an even worse disaster.
Assadullah, Mullah Ahmed’s 6-year-old son, coughs loudly when he breathes the smoke coming out of the stove. The baby, Umaid, a six-month-old grandchild, clings to Farzana, Mullah Ahmed’s 20-year-old daughter. The other room lacks heat, so most of the family assembles there despite the small space and heavy fumes.
His 3-year-old daughter, Aseela, chews on a scrap of bread she found on the floor, barefoot and wearing thin, torn clothes. Due to the end of the fighting and the availability of UNHCR assistance, some families have returned to their home districts, where they struggle to pay for adequate food and fuel and to repair war-damaged structures.
With nowhere to go and no work, Mullah and his family are in one of the most precarious situations. Humanitarian aid is their only hope to avoid a downward spiral of crippling debt and hunger.
Displaced families in Kabul caught in downward spiral : https://t.co/r1LbiHgF5p
— UNHCR Ireland (@UNHCRIreland) December 17, 2021
Mullah was initially daily hired as a porter at the nearby bus station, but the job has gradually dried up. “I used to make 100 or 150 Afghanis ($1.50) a day helping people with luggage.” Now, it’s rare to make that much in a week. Meanwhile, the cost of basic goods like flour and fuel is going up, while the Afghan currency’s value is falling.
As with Haditha, he has been getting food on credit. However, local shops have stopped serving him. He says he still owes them at least 35,000 Afghanis (about $350) – an overwhelming debt for a family with no income.
With a painful expression, Mullah says, “I hide from the shopkeepers when I see them.”.
They are currently surviving on charity and the $265 they received from UNHCR for winterization. During the advance of the Taliban, the owner of the house they were staying in fled, asking his neighbour to take care of the small compound. For Mullah and his family, they were allowed to live rent-free by their neighbour.
Many of their neighbours also struggle and give them bread sometimes. Watching his barefoot children, he says, “I’m worried about the rest of the winter. If we do not receive more help, may Allah forbid, then we will have to beg.”
Story of Farishta
As 28-year-old Farishta waits in line at a building on the eastern outskirts of Kabul where UNHCR distributes cash grants to the most vulnerable IDP families, she says, “We live on cheap vegetables and bread.” “We haven’t eaten meat since we came to Kabul four months ago.”
After a UN assessment team visited the one-room home she shares with her 10-year-old daughter Rehana, 11-year-old son Aslam, and 20-year-old brother Salim, she was awarded two cash grants totalling the US $490. She will use the money to cover her rent and winterization costs, such as purchasing a stove and firewood, extra blankets, and clothes.
The help has come at the right time for Farishta, who is a widow. Her landlord had threatened to evict them because she had not been able to pay rent for three months. Other than Salim’s occasional earnings from odd jobs, the family has had to borrow to survive. “We have been getting all our food on credit,” says Farishta.
She plans on using the cash grants to pay off all her debts, but that will use up half of the money and she will not receive any more help for a while. Her primary concern is looking after her children. Farishta is originally from the northern province of Takhar, where Salim worked as a translator with US forces.
Farishta, her parents, siblings, and children-some 20 people in total-decided to flee Takhar this summer as the Taliban closed in on the city. They travelled to the southwestern province of Nimroz, hoping to make contact with the smugglers who smuggle Afghans without papers into Iran via Pakistan.
The result was that Farishta and Salim travelled to Kabul, while her parents and younger brothers stayed behind. But her family in Iran is struggling, with her brothers only able to find low-paid work as street sweepers. As she tries to care for her children, Farishta has had to send money to them, further putting herself into debt.
In a simple search, we will discover 350 US dollars are a small amount that may be spent on a meal, a bottle of wine, or a box of cigars for many of us.
“It’s difficult to ask for help. When your child is sick and you can’t afford medicine, or when a day passes by where your kids tell you that they’re hungry, but you don’t have enough money to cook for them or give them anything to eat. This is very difficult. I can endure it, but my children can’t…” Donate now
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