Afghans Face Down Hunger As They Suffer From the Impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic

Read on for three stories of people getting help from the United Nations World Food Programme: This is why we need funding to help Afghans survive the coronavirus pandemic.

Under lockdown, Mahfooza doesn’t know where her family’s next meal will come from

When Mahfooza heard on the radio about border closures and lockdowns in cities in Afghanistan, her first thought was how she and her family of seven would survive without any stocks of food.

“I cannot stay at home. I need to go out every day to make money to buy food. Already, we’ve heard about food prices rising in the markets and shops across the country.”

Mahfooza lives in the Baharak district of Takhar Province, in the northeast of Afghanistan. Her family is among the thousands in the country who do not know where their next meal will come from. Authorities there have ordered citizens to stay at home, devastating income streams.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) continues to assist food-insecure families during the COVID-19 pandemic, with measures in place to protect everyone involved, from those receiving food to the various partners who facilitate its delivery.

When Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan was closed to quell the spread of COVID-19 in mid-March, food prices in the capital Kabul jumped by up to 30 percent overnight. The Government moved to curb excessive pricing within hours, but the prices of staple foods have managed to increase gradually nonetheless.

Daily market price analysis by WFP, for eight important provincial markets across the country, shows that within two weeks the price of wheat flour had increased 19 percent.

Mahfooza sanitizes her hands before entering a WFP food distribution site. Food-insecure families are getting two months’ worth of seasonal support.

Mahfooza and her family, one of the poorest in the community, were already selected for seasonal support to help them get through the lean season.

Upon entering the distribution site, she washes her hands with water and soap and, during the distribution, she keeps a one-meter distance from other recipients of food assistance and humanitarian workers.

Across the country, WFP is taking concrete measures to protect the people, partners and staff from infection and limit the spread of the coronavirus. Distributions are staggered to allow for fewer people to gather at any given time, pandemic educational material is on display and workers wear protective personal equipment. Families receive food or cash to cover their food needs for two months in one go.

Participants in vocational training programs receive their food assistance while they wait for classes to resume.

Mazar-e-Sharif is a food distribution site for displaced Afghans. WFP is taking serious measures to limit the spread of coronavirus.

Masooma, fearing sickness, is still forced to beg

Every evening, 37-year-old Masooma dons a burqa and walks for an hour to a neighborhood far away from the house where she lives with relatives, occupying one room with her six children and her brother-in-law, who has special needs. She finds a different bakery every day next to which she sits on the ground and begs customers for pieces of bread. She hopes that the darkness of the night, and the burqa itself, will keep anyone from recognizing her.

WFP workers wear protective gear to register Afghans waiting for food assistance.

“Begging is considered a shameful act in the community. But I have no other way to feed my children.”

Her husband left her seven years ago, supposedly to find work in Iran. He never sent home any money to Masooma.

These days, her worries of public shame are amplified by fears over coronavirus.

“Today I got bread from 15 different people. These are generous people who gave me food for my children. But maybe one of them is sick and I will catch the disease.”

Cash assistance helps Afghan families stay safe at home during the lockdown.

The lockdown of Kabul with an estimated six million residents also scares her. “If the shops are closed and the bakeries are not operating, there will be no customers and we will die from hunger before we get killed by the virus,” says Masooma.

At a cash distribution site for the most vulnerable families in the capital, she receives $40. This money will allow her to buy enough food to cover her family’s needs for one month without having to go out and beg. “I will buy wheat flour, oil and cooking gas,” she says. “This will help me stay in my home and protect me from the coronavirus.”

Obaidullah, once a farmer, can’t buy food

Being unable to afford food on the market is a fear echoed by vulnerable families across the country. Obaidullah, a farmer in Taktha Pol district of Kandahar Province in the south of Afghanistan, has heard about COVID-19 but the information in rural areas of the country is scant and rumors are rife.

“We are people from the countryside, we don’t know what kind of calamity this is. Everyone is worried and we hear that it can infect any of us or our families.”

He has, however, heard how the coronavirus can spread, and is wearing a surgical mask when he arrives at the site.

Obaidullah with the WFP food rations that will help see him and his family through to the next harvest.

He is one of 2,000 farmers in the district to receive in-kind food assistance to help his family get through the lean season to the next harvest, starting in May.

Obaidullah received wheat flour, vegetable oil, beans and salt from WFP. “Thank God we have food now and do not need to go to the market for some time.”

In a space of two weeks, more than 115,000 Afghan citizens returned from Iran, according to the International Organization for Migration. They will rejoin their already vulnerable families across the country, increasing the risk of spreading the coronavirus and exacerbating the food insecurity of communities that no longer receive money from their migrant workforce.

Afghans wash their hands at a sanitizing station outside a food distribution center. WFP is calling for more than $100 million to support operations in Afghanistan.

WFP, together with the wider humanitarian community, is gearing up to assist families for three months and has published the COVID-19: Multi-Sector Humanitarian Country Plan calling for $108 million. The Food Security and Agriculture Cluster requires additional funding of $18.7 million to provide lifesaving food assistance to 220,000 additional people to be reached in districts where most Afghan returnees from Iran are expected to rejoin their families.

The United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) requires additional funding of $7.5 million to continue operations, transporting aid workers during the response to COVID-19. This includes $3 million for an air bridge, as all international flights to Afghanistan are suspended.

Click here to donate and help WFP save lives and change lives in Afghanistan.

This story was written by Wahidullah Amani and originally appeared on WFP’s Insights.