BBC World, in a report on poverty and unemployment in Ghor province, has written that Afghan families, out of desperation, are resorting to harrowing choices, such as selling their own children, to cover basic living costs.
Saeed Ahmad, a resident of Ghor, told the BBC that after his five-year-old daughter, Shaiqa, was diagnosed with appendicitis and a liver cyst, and he was unable to afford the cost of her treatment, he was forced to sell her.
He said: "I had no money to pay the medical expenses. So I sold my daughter to a relative,"
Shaiqa's surgery was successful. The cost was paid out of the same 200,000 afghanis (3,200 dollars) for which she had been sold.
Shaiqa's father said he had reached an agreement with his relatives whereby they would, for now, pay only the cost of her treatment, with the remaining sum to be paid over the next five years. He said: "If I had taken the whole sum at that time, he would have taken her away.”
Saeed says: “If I had money, I would never have taken this decision, but then I thought, what if she dies without the surgery? This way at least she will be alive.”
The BBC wrote in its report that men gather every dawn at a crossroads in Chaghcharan, Ghor, hoping to find work. They are only able to bring bread home for their families if someone comes to hire them; but on many days, they return home empty-handed.
Juma Khan, aged 45, said he had found work on only three days in the past six weeks, earning between 150 and 200 afghanis (2.35 dollars) a day. He says: "My children went to bed hungry three nights in a row. My wife was crying, so were my children. So I begged a neighbour for some money to buy flour."
Abdul Rashid Azimi, another Ghor resident, holding his seven-year-old twin daughters Ruqia and Rohila in his arms, says he is prepared to sell them.
Weeping, he added: "I'm willing to sell my daughters, I'm poor, in debt and helpless." "I come home from work with parched lips, hungry, thirsty, distressed and confused. My children come to me saying 'Baba, give us some bread'. But what can I give? Where is the work?", he said.
Holding Rohila in his arms and kissing her, this father says: "It breaks my heart, but it's the only way."
Kayhan, the family's mother, said: "All we have to eat is bread and hot water, not even tea."
Two adolescent boys from this family polish shoes in the city centre. Another collects rubbish, which the mother uses as fuel for cooking.
Rising child mortality
The report also highlighted a rise in child deaths in Afghanistan due to poverty and hunger.
Mohammad Hashim, who lost his 14-month-old daughter a few weeks ago, told the BBC: “My child died of hunger and a lack of medicine... When a child is sick and hungry, it is obvious they will die,”
A local elder said that child deaths, primarily due to malnutrition, have truly increased over the past two years.
The BBC wrote that, owing to the absence of any official records of child deaths in Ghor, it visited a local cemetery as the only witness to these events.
The report stated: “we counted the small and big graves separately. There were roughly twice as many small graves as big ones – suggesting twice as many children as adults.”
The report added that further evidence was found at the main provincial hospital in Chaghcharan. Among other things, the neonatal ward is the busiest part of the hospital, with some beds even holding two babies. Most are underweight and often struggle to breathe on their own.
Fatima Husseini, a nurse at this hospital, said that on some days as many as three newborns die in a single day: “In the beginning, I found it very hard when I saw children dying. But now it has almost become normal for us.”
The story of these families is one shared by many citizens inside Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. According to the United Nations, three out of every four people are currently unable to meet their basic needs, such as adequate food.
The report stated that unemployment has become widespread in Afghanistan, the health system is collapsing, and the aid that once met the most essential needs of millions has been drastically reduced.
The United Nations previously, in a report, noted widespread shortages of water, food, medical services, shelter, heating, and clothing affecting millions of families, and stated that more than 80 percent of households are in debt.
Hamdullah Fitrat, the Taliban's deputy spokesperson, responding to the report's findings, told the BBC: “During the 20 years of invasion, an artificial economy was created due to the influx of US dollars, after the end of the invasion, we inherited poverty, hardship, unemployment and other problems.”
Aid agencies and human rights organisations have consistently said that the Taliban's restrictions on women are among the main reasons for the reduction in aid and the reluctance of donors to support Afghanistan. However, Fitrat rejected this, saying humanitarian aid should not be politicised.
