In brief
Ghulam Mohiddin and Nazo are devastated parents who lost three boys in two years to malnutrition, exacerbated by Afghanistan's severe hunger crisis. The couple, struggling with daily survival, share their pain and the urgent need for aid as the death toll rises among vulnerable children. The UN warns of escalating child malnutrition rates, as aid drops sharply following funding cuts to Afghanistan.
Gusts of wind blew dust up off the ground as Ghulam Mohiddin and his wife Nazo walked towards the graveyard where all their children are buried.
They showed us the graves of the three boys they lost in the past two years – one-year-old Rahmat, seven-month-old Koatan, and most recently, three-month-old Faisal Ahmad.
All three suffered from malnutrition, say Ghulam and Nazo.
Can you imagine how painful it's been for me to lose three children? One minute there's a baby in your arms, the next minute they are empty, says Nazo.
I hope every day that angels would somehow put my babies back in our home.
There are days the couple go without food. They break walnut shells for a living in the Sheidaee settlement just outside the city of Herat in western Afghanistan and receive no help from the Taliban government or from NGOs.
Watching helplessly as my children cried out of hunger, it felt like my body was erupting in flames. It felt like someone was cutting me into half with a saw from my head to my feet, said Ghulam.
The deaths of their children are not recorded anywhere, but it's evidence of a silent wave of mortality engulfing Afghanistan's youngest, as the country is pushed into what the UN calls an unprecedented crisis of hunger.
The malnutrition emergency is compounded by several factors including severe drought affecting agricultural incomes and policy decisions made by the Taliban government, which impact international aid. The UN reports that over three million children are at risk.
As winter approaches, the urgency of the disaster unfolding in Afghanistan cannot be overstated. Aid has sharply declined, and humanitarian funding is set to run out, with the World Food Programme warning of dire consequences for millions of families if help does not arrive in time.
