In the wake of a decade-long war, Afghanistan has been left in ruins. The country’s economy is in shambles and its people are starving to death. Now, as the nation sinks further into poverty, some parents have resorted to selling their children for a few thousand dollars each.
The orphanages in afghanistan during taliban is a story about how the children of Afghanistan are being sold to survive.
HERAT, AFGHANISTAN (Reuters) – Saleha, a housecleaner in western Afghanistan, is desperate to feed her family and has accumulated such an enormous debt that the only way she sees out is to give her 3-year-old daughter, Najiba, to the guy who loaned her the money.
The amount owed is $550.
Saleha, a 40-year-old mother of six who goes by one name, earns 70 cents a day cleaning houses in a more affluent Herat district. Her spouse, who is considerably older, is unemployed.
Such is the starkness of Afghanistan’s growing poverty, a humanitarian catastrophe that is rapidly deteriorating since the Taliban took control on Aug. 15, forcing the United States to freeze $9 billion in Afghan central bank assets and halting most international assistance.
One of the few methods to earn money is to collect plastic bottles and other garbage to sell for recycling.
According to the United Nations’ World Food Program, 95 percent of Afghans aren’t receiving enough to eat, and “people are being driven to the edge of life.” According to the United Nations, almost the entire Afghan population of 40 million people may slip into poverty in the next months.
Countless personal tragedies of families like Saleha’s lurk behind these numbers. She and her husband used to work on a farm in Badghis’ western region, but they lost their income two years ago due to conflict and drought in the area. They went to Shahrak Sabz in Herat, a massive encampment of refugees evacuated from neighboring provinces, and borrowed money simply to buy food.
Prices for essential food products like wheat and oil have risen since mid-August, as the banking system and commerce have been crippled by the Taliban takeover. The lender promised to forgive the debt if she handed up her daughter earlier this month.
Men queue up to collect food assistance at a World Food Program distribution site in the Herat suburbs.
People receive sacks of flour, lentils, and bottles of cooking oil from the World Food Program, enough to feed a household for a month.
They have three months to come up with the funds. Otherwise, when she reaches puberty, Najiba will labor in the lender’s house and be married off to one of his three sons. They are unsure which one it is. The oldest is now six years old.
“If life keeps being this bad, I’m going to murder my children and myself,” Saleha said from her cramped two-room home. “I have no idea what we’re going to eat tonight.”
Abdul Wahab, her husband, said, “I would attempt to get money to save my daughter’s life.”
Khalid Ahmad, the lender, acknowledged that he had made the offer to the couple.
“I, too, am cash-strapped. Mr. Ahmad, who was contacted by phone in Badghis, added, “They haven’t paid me back.” “There is no other choice than to take the girl.”
At the Shahrak Sabz camp, a guy gathered wood branches for cooking and heating.
Following the Taliban’s takeover, Pakistan and Iran, where many men from this group used to work as laborers, blocked their borders in anticipation of a refugee influx. Collecting plastic bottles and other garbage to sell for recycling is all that remains as employment. Residents claim that some families in the neighborhood have had to give up their children to settle debts.
Growing poverty may jeopardize the Taliban’s so far secure grip on power and act as a recruitment tool for Islamic State’s local affiliate, their only major opponent. Afghans will have to get accustomed to a limited life, according to a Taliban official in the country’s west.
“We endured for 20 years waging jihad, losing members of our families, being hungry, and then being rewarded with this regime.” So what if they have to suffer for a few months?” the official said. “For the Taliban, popularity is unimportant.”
Officials from the Taliban have said repeatedly that they welcome foreign help for Afghanistan but would not compromise their Islamic principles in order to receive it.
The humanitarian situation, on the other hand, has sparked a discussion among the international community over whether foreign aid should be conditional on the Taliban changing their ways and respecting the rights of women and minorities.
The Taliban appointed Afghanistan’s new health minister, a urologist who is one of the few non-clerics in the new government, appealed with the world community not to leave the country.
“This is the same mother, the same kid, and the same patient you helped before.” In an interview, Dr. Qalandar Ibaad said, “They haven’t changed.” “Governments in all nations change.”
A Taliban member stands outside a bakery in Kabul, waiting for money from ladies.
Emergency humanitarian assistance must be unconditional, according to organizations like the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations. While asking that the Taliban let women to study and work is essential, they believe that ensuring that women do not freeze or starve to death this winter is a higher priority.
According to some assistance experts, the United States and other Western countries that have spent the last two decades fighting in Afghanistan have a special duty.
In an interview in Kabul, Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, which operates in more than a dozen Afghan provinces, said, “These countries who have their fingerprints all over the sorry situation here have to at least disburse the funding we need so we can avoid people perishing in enormous numbers this winter.” “It would be absolutely immoral to halt lifesaving money because we’re still discussing gender rights.”
Mr. Egeland, a former director of the United Nations’ humanitarian relief agency, said his organization would not reopen male schools in areas where girls schools are prohibited, but it would not withhold life-saving assistance.
Donors had promised to judge the Taliban by its deeds, according to Heather Barr, associate director of Human Rights Watch’s women’s rights section, but the danger of starvation left them with no option but to give assistance anyway.
“The Taliban are kidnapping Afghans and playing chicken with the international world,” she said.
Common medications and basic supplies have ran out at Herat Regional Hospital.
Robbers shot Abdul Rahman in the orthopedic ward of Herat Regional Hospital for the motorcycle he was riding.
Prior to the Taliban’s takeover, 2,300 Afghan hospitals and clinics were reliant on international assistance. According to Richard Brennan, the World Health Organization’s regional emergency director, just 17 percent of those are currently completely functioning, and 64 percent are short of critical medicines.
Thousands of physicians, nurses, and teachers had their wages covered by international assistance, but they are now fighting to make ends meet.
Doctors Without Borders, a French organization, has had to increase capacity at an emergency feeding facility for critically malnourished infants in Herat. Respiratory distress, dehydration, and shock are common among newborns. Their moms aren’t receiving enough food, therefore they can’t make enough milk.
LET US KNOW WHAT YOU’RE CONCERNED ABOUT.
What more might be done to address Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis? Participate in the discussion below.
After four months of not being paid, the staff at Herat Regional Hospital has threatened to resign. Even standard medications like antibiotics and basic supplies like surgical gloves and bandages have ran out at the government hospital. There is a scarcity of oxygen. Patients must pay for their own medications, anesthetics, and other surgical supplies.
Dr. Mohammad Aref Jalali, the medical director, stated, “I hope we don’t go back to the scenario of 25, 30 years ago, when there were practically no health services in this nation.” “We may lose all we’ve accomplished.”
Abdul Rahman was resting on a bed with pins coming out of his leg in the orthopedic ward, where he had been shot by thieves for the motorcycle he was riding. Doctors informed the father of seven that the wound had grown septic and that he may have to amputate the leg.
Mr. Rahman, a 37-year-old worker, said, “If they take off my leg, there would be no one else to provide for my family.” “What will become of my little children?”
At Herat Regional Hospital, where staff employees have gone without pay for four months and are threatening to resign, a kid floats a kite.
—This essay was co-written by Jalaluddin Nazari and Ehsanullah Amiri.
Taliban Rule in Afghanistan
Saeed Shah can be reached at [email protected]
Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
The afghanistan map is a country that has been in turmoil for years. With the recent economic decline, many are resorting to selling children into slavery to survive.
Related Tags
- crocodile attacks 8 year old video
- ask amy
- afghanistan capital
