Online Reporter
CHAGHCHARAN. – Afghanistan is facing record levels of unemployment and hunger and Ghor is one of the worst affected provinces.
In the communities nearby – bare homes scattered over barren, brown hills, set against the snowy peaks of the Siah Koh mountain range – the devastating impact of unemployment is clear.
Abdul Rashid Azimi takes us into his home and brings out two of his children – seven-year-old twins Roqia and Rohila.
He holds them close, eager to explain why he’s making unbearable choices.
“I’m willing to sell my daughters,” he weeps. “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?”
Abdul tells us he is willing to sell his girls for marriage, or for domestic work.
“If I sell one daughter, I could feed the rest of my children for at least four years,” he says.
He hugs Rohila, kissing her as he cries.
“It breaks my heart, but it’s the only way.”
Their mother, Kayhan, says:
“All we have to eat is bread and hot water, not even tea.”
Two of her teenage sons work polishing shoes in the town centre. Another collects rubbish, which Kayhan uses as fuel for cooking.
Saeed Ahmad tells us he has already been forced to sell his five-year-old daughter, Shaiqa, after she got appendicitis and a cyst in her liver.
“I had no money to pay the medical expenses. So I sold my daughter to a relative,” he says.
Shaiqa’s surgery was successful. The money for it came from the 200,000 Afghani (US$3,200) she has been sold for.
“If I had taken the whole sum at that time, he would have taken her away. So I told him just give me enough for her treatment now, and in the next five years you can give me the rest after which you can take her,” explains Saeed.
She puts her tiny arms around his neck. Their close bond is evident, but in five years, she will have to leave and go to the relative’s home.
“If I had money, I would never have taken this decision,” Saeed says.
“But then I thought, what if she dies without the surgery? This way at least she will be alive.”
Just two years ago, Saeed was getting some help. Back then, he and his family – like millions of other Afghans – received food aid: flour, cooking oil, lentils and supplements for children.
But massive cuts in aid over the past few years have deprived a large majority of this life-saving assistance. – BBC
