Inside a cold dark room of a mud hut, eight burka-clad women were huddled together while 30 others waited outside. Health workers were examining, weighing and measuring babies in an impoverished and severely drought-hit region of north-western Afghanistan, at a health camp organised by Save the Children, a charity. "This is definitely a malnutrition case," an elderly woman said of the first baby.
Samiya Zubaida, 26, was there with her 2-year-old son. "He does not sleep. He does not eat anything. I think my son is going to die," Zubaida said.
In less than two hours that freezing winter morning, the health workers saw 69 children. Only 10 were found to be well-nourished, and Zubaida's son not among them. "It is very hard to convince the villagers to come. The biggest problem is that they don't see malnutrition as a health issue," the elderly health worker said. Village leader Qariyadar Hamidullah blamed poverty and drought as the main reason for poor health of children in Ugam.
Severe drought for the past five years has forced most villagers to abandon farming and turn to carpet-weaving to earn meagre incomes. "All the rivers and canals have dried up," Hamidullah said. "Carpet-weaving is not enough and because people are poor, they cannot feed their children well." Most of the men in his village have left to find jobs in the cities, he said.
The hamlet in the relatively safe province has hardly seen any insurgent activity. The most frequent cause of death is poverty, villagers said. Sayed Ahmad Shah Qaraar, the head of Save the Children in Jowzjan province, said food insecurity has become a serious issue. "Jowzjan is (normally) a completely rain-filled area. We do not have irrigation for cultivation," he said.
Even as much of the eastern and northern regions have seen heavy snowfall in recent days, there has been no precipitation in Jowzjan. "It means there is no food diversity and not enough food. The food balance has changed." "In one of the worst trends, the women sometimes use narcotics to keep the babies sleeping so that they can have enough time to weave carpets," Qaraar said.
He said some children get addicted to opium, and do not get enough breast milk for nourishment. Children in Afghanistan face one of the worst chances of survival in the world. Every day 265 children die - one in 10 before their fifth birthday - from malnutrition and preventable diseases, according to the United Nations and the Health Ministry. One-third of all Afghan children are underweight, a recent report by the Save the Children said.
About 30,000 children died from malnutrition last year, while 59 per cent of all Afghan children under the age of 5 are chronically malnourished, it said. Bread and tea is the daily diet for most children. Ten years of international engagement in Afghanistan have hardly made any difference for impoverished civilians in Jowzjan province, with no employment opportunities, limited health facilities and lack of food.
According to an analysis by Save the Children, up to 80 per cent of non-irrigated fields in Jowzjan yielded no crops last year. Due to drought, the market price of staples has gone up, making it impossible for the poor villagers to buy them, so they reduce the quantity and quality of their food intake.
Nemat Ullah, 33, is the only nurse at a basic health facility in Jungle Arech village of the province's Murgian district, which serves about 20,000 people. He said the number of severely malnourished children that he sees is increasing. "Most people think their children are ill with some disease," he said. "They don't know it's because of diet."
Most villagers have no idea of essential nutrients for children's proper growth. "Poor people can't afford a healthy diet for their children. They eat just for survival. But even after they know the need for a healthy diet, they cannot afford it," Nemat said.
"They ask why bread is not enough?" Ogle Khan, 28, is a mother of three girls and a boy. Both she and her husband are carpet-weavers and earn a combined 1,000 Afghani (22 dollars) per month. "With the carpet money, we can hardly buy bread for all of us," she said. Her 2-year-old son is malnourished. "But I don't have any thing to give to my son, except for my breast milk," she said.