For families suffering in Afghanistan, the next meal is a matter of faith | Gallery News

As winter approaches, Afghan Afghan widow Kubra will have access to a single heater in an eight-family home in central Bamiyan. The flour they bought months ago is running out, so the food supply is running low again.

“We found two bags of flour last spring which we still use. After that, we must have faith that God will help us, ”said the 57-year-old girl in the locker room with bags of rice to keep it cool.

Their firewood was stolen as they left their homes amid the turmoil in Afghanistan, as the Taliban fled to Kabul on a roadblock.

Stories like Kubra abound in a land with severe droughts and money shortages.

Before the Taliban ousted a white-backed government in August, the economy relied heavily on foreign aid. But with countries interested in the group and the United States imposing sanctions on some of its leaders, support has come to an end.

The United Nations estimates that about 23 million Afghans – about 55 percent of the population – are facing severe hunger, and about nine million are at risk of starvation in the winter.

The lives of the poor in Afghanistan have been difficult; The Kubra family works on farms during the spring, earning potatoes instead of earning a living.

But it is getting worse. Vegetables such as cauliflower are inaccessible, and plastic sheets protect their home from the cold and snow. In one room there is so little space that Kubra sleeps with his sister at night.

He states: “My son was picking up pieces of metal but was not doing anything right.

Endangered already after months of severe drought and years of war that forced many to flee their settlements like the Bamiyan, Afghans are entering an undisclosed location.

“We have never had a variety of foods but in the past it was good, we had rice and cooking oil,” said Massouma, a 26-year-old mother of four children in the neighborhood of Maidan Wardak.

We cooked once a day and it was great. Now it was once a week and sometimes there was not even any bread to eat. ”

Bamiyan is well-known outside Afghanistan for establishing a Buddhist site that controls a small market town, 20 years after the Taliban bombed two large statues overlooking the valleys.

In winter, temperatures are below freezing, and temperatures drop below freezing and intense temperatures.

Work was delayed in the winter months, but the region was already in turmoil as pilgrims returning to the Buddhist monastery and the nearby Band-e-Amir lake disappeared as the Taliban threat reached its peak.

Taliban officials say they are aware of the plight of the poor, which they say stems from the effects of more than 40 years of conflict and mismanagement under the previous government.

He has repeatedly asked Washington to shut down about $ 9bn in central bank assets.

“We want to end this crisis,” said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid. “We know what people are going through.”