“I give him medicine so that he sleeps and does not ask for milk”: Afghan women who give sedatives to their children so that they do not suffer from hunger

“The last time I could buy milk for my child was two months ago. I usually fill his bottle with tea. Or I soak the bread in tea and then give it to him.”

Sohaila Niazi spoke these words as she sat on the floor of her adobe house on a hilltop in the east of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan.

There are no roads to the woman’s place of residence, so she has to walk along steep mud paths along which sewage flows.

Sohaila is a widow. He has six children, the youngest is a 15-month-old girl named Husna Faqiri.

The tea the woman is talking about is traditionally drunk in Afghanistan: it is made from green leaves and hot water, without milk or sugar. It does not contain anything that could provide nutritional value for your baby.

Sohaila is one of 10 million people who stopped receiving emergency food aid from the UN World Food Program (WFP) last year due to a huge funding gap.

This is a devastating blow, especially for the estimated two million female-headed households in Afghanistan.

Under the Taliban regime, Sohaila cannot go to work to feed her family.

“There were nights when we had nothing to eat and I had to tell my children, ‘Where can I go begging at this time of night?’ – said the mother.

“They sleep hungry and when they wake up, I ask myself: what should I do? If a neighbor brings us food, and the children run around and say: “Give it to me, give it to me.” “I try to split it between them,” he said.

To calm the hungry baby, the woman admitted that she was giving her “sleeping pills.”

“I give this to him so he doesn’t wake up and ask for milk. because I don’t have milk to give him. After giving her medicine, she sleeps from morning to morning,” Sohaila said.

“Sometimes I check to see if she’s alive or dead,” he said.

When asked about the medicine he is giving the little girl, the BBC team discovered it was an antihistamine (a common anti-allergy drug). Sedation is a side effect.

Doctors interviewed explained that while it is less harmful than the tranquilizers and antidepressants that some Afghan parents give to their hungry children, in higher doses the drug may cause respiratory distress.

Sohaila said her husband died in crossfire in Panjshir province in 2022 during fighting between Taliban forces and those resisting them.

After her husband’s death, the woman relied heavily on WFP assistance for flour, butter and beans.

However, the UN program says it can currently supply only three million people. less than a quarter of those suffering from acute hunger in this Central Asian country.

Sohaila is completely dependent on donations from family or neighbors.

For most of the interview, little Husna is quiet and inactive.

She is moderately malnourished and is one of the most three million children suffer from this disease in the country, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

More than a quarter of these three million children suffer from severe acute malnutrition. This is the worst thing that has ever happened in Afghanistan, the UN said.

And while malnutrition has a devastating impact on the youngest, the aid that prevented the collapse of the country’s health system had to be stopped.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) paid salaries to health workers and financed medicine and food in more than 30 hospitalstemporary emergency measure introduced after regime change in 2021.

But he now lacks the resources to continue and has had to stop care at most medical centers, including the Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital in Kabul, the only center specializing in treating children in Afghanistan.

“The salaries of doctors and nurses now come from the government. Everyone’s wages were cut in half.“, commented Dr. Mohammad Iqbal Sadiq, medical director of the Taliban-designated hospital.

The center has also closed its outpatient department and serves only those who require hospitalization.

The malnutrition ward is overcrowded and on many days they have to accommodate more than one child in a single bed.

Sumaya sits in the corner. At 14 months he weighs the same as a newborn baby. and his small face is wrinkled, like that of a much older man.

Next to her is Mohammad Shafi. He weighs half of what he should at 18 months. His father was a Taliban fighter who died in a road accident, and his mother died of illness.

As he passes his bed, his elderly grandmother Hayat Bibi approaches him anxiously, wanting to tell her story.

She said the Taliban helped her get her grandson to the hospital, but she doesn’t know how they will cope now.

“I believe in the mercy of God, but I have nowhere to turn. I’m completely lost– said Hayat Bibi, her eyes filled with tears.

“I struggle too. My head hurts so much that it feels like it’s going to explode,” he added.

The BBC asked the Taliban government’s chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, what they were doing to get more support from the international community.

“Aid has been cut because the economies of donor countries are not doing very well. There were two great disasters: Covid and the war in Ukraine. Therefore, we should not expect help from them. We won’t get help by talking to them.“, answered.

“We have to become self-sufficient,” he said.

“Our economy has stabilized and we are entering into mining contracts that will create thousands of jobs. But of course I’m not saying that aid should be cut because we still have problems,” he added.

Asked whether Taliban politics might also be part of the problem and whether donors would be reluctant to give money to a country whose government imposes strict restrictions on women, she said: “If aid is used as a tool of pressure, the Islamic Emirate will protect your valuables at all costs”

“Afghans have made great sacrifices in the past to protect their values ​​and will also endure aid cuts,” Mujahid said.

The official’s words will provide little comfort to many Afghans. Two thirds of the population do not know where they will get their next food.

In a cold, damp one-room house on a Kabul street, the BBC finds a woman who claims the Taliban are preventing her from selling fruit, vegetables, socks and other goods on the street.

The woman, whose husband died during the war and had four children to support, also claimed she was once arrested for going out alone. She doesn’t want to be identified.

“At least They should allow us to work and earn an honest living.– he said, bursting into tears.

“I swear to God that we are not going to go out and do bad things. We only go out to earn food for our children, but they oppress us so much,” he complained.

The woman admitted that she was forced to send her 12-year-old son to work.

“I asked my Taliban brother: “How can I feed my children if I don’t earn anything?” Tell me ‘Give them poison, but don’t leave the house alone.”“, he said.

“Twice the Taliban government gave me some money, but it was not enough,” he said.

Before the Taliban returned to power, three quarters of government spending came from foreign money delivered directly to the previous government. However, in August 2021, these funds dried up, sending the economy into crisis.

Aid agencies have stepped in to provide assistance, but much of that funding has already dried up.

It is difficult to overestimate the seriousness of the situation that has developed over the past year.

Millions of people survive on dry bread and water. Some will not survive the winter.

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