Afghanistan: “My children are collecting waste to feed themselves”

The nation-wide crisis is personal for Nafisa and her six children. “We don't have oil and flour. There is nothing to eat at home,” says Nafisa, who lost her husband amid conflict. “Every day, I go to the streets to beg but I don't even get 20 afghani (AFN) (about $0.20) because there are too many beggars in Kabul. If the neighbours bring us something, we eat it. If they don't, we all go to bed hungry. Sometimes, my children collect wasted food from a hotel to feed themselves. But they don’t succeed every day,” she shares. Living in extreme poverty, Nafisa cannot send her children to school. “They need notebooks, pens and pencils. I cannot afford it,” she adds.

“If we don’t receive assistance before winter sets in, there is no doubt that somebody from my family will die,” says Mohammad Hashem, who left Balkh province because of the dearth of jobs in the area. In Kabul now, he scours the streets for waste plastic, scrap metal and other such items to sell. “One kilogram sells for about 15 to 20 AFN ($0.20). I can’t find a proper job so I do this to feed my children. They are always hungry as I can only provide just enough that they don’t die of starvation,” he says. Hashem has not been able to buy enough bread to feed his family for three days now. “The price of staple food has been increasing. I am concerned about the coming winter. I don’t know what to do.”

At just 13, Musafir, who lost his father to an illness, must bear the burden of being the only breadwinner of his family. Instead of being at school, he now finds ways to feed his family in Kabul. “I polish shoes and sell plastic bags, but I don’t earn enough money to buy flour for the family. It is very difficult to even make as little as 100 AFN a day (about $1.1), which is what I need to buy five loaves of bread,” he says. Musafir is one of tens of thousands of children in Kabul engaged in hard labour, begging, cleaning shoes, collecting scrap materials and washing vehicles to be able to buy food. Most of these children have lost a parent to illness or conflict. Many still carry the hope of attending school, but with the load of providing for their families and the lack of financial means, it is a distant dream for them.

Breakfast for 65-year-old Mohammad Ebrahim’s family is half a loaf of bread and boiled water. Even on a good day, that is not enough for his nine-member family as it is the only meal they eat. “We are all very hungry,” says Ebrahim, who fled Logar province for Kabul because of the decades-long armed conflict in the region. Unable to find a job and weakened by years of hard work, he now sits along the roadside waiting for someone to help him. “I used to work as a mason earlier but I can no longer find work,” he says. Now, he collects and sells plastic bottles or looks for someone to help him buy bread for his family. “We can barely eat once a day. I do my best to earn about 100 AFN ($1.1), but it is not enough.”

Like many other people who lost their jobs, Mohammad Reza attempted to start a small business by selling plastic pots on the streets of Kabul to feed his family of nine. But customers are few as people struggle to make ends meet amid the deteriorating economic situation. “I work the whole day but I don’t even earn 100 AFN ($1.1). We have nothing at home. We don’t have flour, oil or rice,” he says, echoing what many others share. The coming winter is a particularly concerning time for Reza. With already limited customers, there will be even fewer buyers when it gets cold outside. “How will I manage,” he asks.