OPINION:
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The first thing I noticed as I walked into the internal displacement camp in Kabul, Afghanistan, was the smell.
Sewage channels jutted through the dusty roads, and the smell — amplified by the oppressive heat — was overwhelming.
I shouldn’t have been surprised. Thousands of people were living in that camp, sharing those hand-dug trenches, and the camp population had only risen since the Taliban takeover in 2021.
Flies buzzed everywhere, emaciated dogs lounged in what little shade they could find, and people shuffled in and out of their makeshift mud homes.
It looked like a wasteland, but it was quiet. No bombs. No tanks. No AK-47s constantly firing. None of the sounds that echoed across Afghanistan only a few years ago.
In their place, the hospitality overflowed. I heard children laughing, suddenly rushing out to greet us and shake our hands. (Visitors to the camp were rare, let alone Americans with cameras.)
At first glance, it would seem that these people were now safer than they were during the U.S. occupation, which ended two years ago in August 2021.
And in many ways, they are. Because the Taliban are in charge, it’s safer to travel the roads. There are fewer suicide bombings and fewer mass demonstrations of violence.
Of course, the loss of freedoms of the Afghan people cannot be denied. And as we began to visit those makeshift homes, I quickly learned that these families still face death every day — just in different ways.
One of the first houses we visited belonged to a single woman with four children. Since there were no job opportunities for her, the burden of providing for the family fell on the children. They spent their days collecting scraps of paper that could be recycled and selling it for 30 to 50 cents per day.
Their story wasn’t uncommon.
Food scarcity in Afghanistan is at a historic high: 22 million people — half the country’s population — face food insecurity, and 9 million are experiencing faminelike conditions.
Food prices are soaring. Children have to work so their families can eat. And there are no teachers at many of the schools due to lack of pay and a prohibition of women in much of the workforce.
It’s gotten so bad that the U.N. estimates that 1.6 million Afghan children are working. And from how prevalent it seemed on our visit, I’d guess that is a low estimate.
I can’t overstate the desperation of those families I met in Afghanistan. The desperation in the eyes of the man who told me that life in the camp makes it seem you’re “not like a human.”
Yet because there are no bombs, tanks or AK-47s firing day and night, Afghanistan is rarely in the news nowadays. Perhaps fighting is a more attention-grabbing story on the evening news than images of children whose bellies are bloated from hunger.
But hunger and poverty are the real killers in Afghanistan now.
One of our World Help partners recently said that Afghanistan is “one of the forgotten humanitarian crises in the world.” It’s critical that we remind this country — and especially its children — that we haven’t turned our backs on them and that we won’t look away.
The first step in making a difference for the people of Afghanistan is to tell their stories. It might be surprising — even shocking — for Americans to learn about the plight of Afghan men, women and children. Even these few facts paint a remarkable picture.
Many Afghans in these camps live in mud houses, enduring oppressive heat in the summer and below-freezing temperatures in the winter. They must burn fires inside these structures to keep warm — often burning rubber and plastic, which has led to prevalent respiratory illness.
Access to health care is nearly impossible; a woman dies every two hours from the lack of childbirth care and services.
Children officially have access to school, but even if they’re fortunate enough to have the margins to attend, there may not be teachers or supplies. Girls cannot attend beyond primary school since it’s now illegal for girls to be educated.
Women lose more freedoms with every passing month and are prohibited from attending school or working. Over 50 laws now prohibit women’s freedom.
This crisis isn’t going to be over in the next few months and probably not even in the next few years. But knowledge is power, and through awareness, we can effect change as we give our time and resources.
That’s why I’m so grateful for organizations like World Help, which are helping to spread the word and provide food, clean water, medical care, and other lifelines for the people of Afghanistan.
While I was there, our partners continued to ask us to go back home and share their stories now that we’ve seen it firsthand. They asked us to be the messengers for the people there who have critical needs and to not dismiss them, especially the women and children.
Little by little, we can give Afghanistan help and hope for the future. Together, we can tell their stories and ensure they’re not forgotten again.
• Kraig Cole is the director of international partnerships at World Help, a Christian humanitarian organization serving the physical and spiritual needs of people around the globe.
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