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  • Gali Weiss

Desperate Struggle For Food


The desperation to feed their families is driving many people in Afghanistan to do things they would never have done before. This photo from Afghan Facebook was passed on to me by U. "These days, women who are the sole supporters of their families sell their basic household items at cheap prices in Kabul city to provide food for their children." U is seeing her homeland collapse with her people in dire situations and only makeshift solutions, if at all.


"With the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan, the country has become a burning hell for its citizens. Now nobody is safe, and people have no jobs or mental security. All girls' schools, universities and other academic places are closed. The Taliban have brought about so many limitations for people, especially for women and young girls. Most of the young girls and boys have suffered from depression, and a number of young people have committed suicide.


Unemployment, poverty, mental and neurological diseases, suicide, migration, the sale of young children, targeted killings, robberies … has increased day by day. Unemployment has forced most of the school and universities teachers and professors to take up manual labour jobs to feed their family. Some are selling fruit on the streets, and roadside workers are increasing every day. There are others who went to Iran and Pakistan to find work and support their families, but unfortunately, there they also have a difficult life.


Some families are starting to sell their children. In some villages, they exchange their children for food. These days most people in villages can provide only one piece of bread to their family in 24 hours. Many children have died of starvation in The Ghur, Badghis, Takhar, Badakhshan and Kabul provinces.


Another piece of shocking news, nine year-old Parwana was married to a 55 year-old man (though we see in photos that he is older than 55) in Badqhis province. Her family exchanged her for money and they said that poverty forced them to sell their daughter."


I say to U, it must be very hard for you to hear this news about your people. So much trauma and desperation, with no end to it in sight.

"Yes, it's so hard for everyone. It is very difficult to lose everything within a few months. Our country is destroyed and the power comes into the hands of a terrorist and illiterate group. They will never do anything good for our hopeless people."




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