STORY: Deadly malnutrition haunting Afghan kids amid lingering sanctions
DATELINE: July 13, 2023
LENGTH: 00:02:26
LOCATION: Kabul
CATEGORY: HEALTH

SHOTLIST:
1. various of the Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health in Kabul
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (Dari): AQA MOHAMMAD SHIRZAD, Head of the malnutrition ward
3. various of the malnutrition ward of the Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health
4. SOUNDBITE 2 (Dari): MUZHDA, a mother of a two-and-a-half-month-old child
5. various of the malnutrition ward of the Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health
6. SOUNDBITE 3 (Dari): AQA MOHAMMAD SHIRZAD, Head of the malnutrition ward
7. various of the malnutrition ward of the Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health
8. various of life of a poor family

STORYLINE:

With hands trembling and tears streaming down her face, a grief-stricken mother reluctantly bid farewell to her infant, lost to the cruel grip of acute malnutrition, a devastating affliction that ravages countless children in Afghanistan.
   
Such a scene is not rare at the malnutrition ward of the Kabul-based Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health, a major pediatric hospital in the war-ridden country.
   
Samiullal, a trainee doctor, told Xinhua that the hospital receives some 50 sick children diagnosed with malnutrition across the nation each day. Among them, 10 endure severe cases necessitating hospitalization or intensified medical intervention.
   
"Sometimes, there can be three deaths at the ward within one day," he said.
   
Malnutrition comes with symptoms involving weight loss, reduced appetite, and tiredness. According to the latest analysis by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) on the malnutrition situation in Afghanistan, an estimated 4 million children and women are likely suffering from acute malnutrition through April 2023 and need urgent malnutrition intervention.
   
Eight doctors at the hospital's malnutrition ward are offering their utmost help and treatment to the malnourished kids.
   
Following body checks and weighing for the patients, the medics provide the kids with the necessary milk prescribed over the next 24 hours. If the situation of any kid gets worse, the doctor would provide medicine.
   
Aqa Mohammad Shirzad, the head of the malnutrition ward, told Xinhua that the number of malnourished kids surges in summer.

SOUNDBITE 1 (Dari): AQA MOHAMMAD SHIRZAD, Head of the malnutrition ward
"We have hospitalized about 300 patients since the month of Hamal (the first month on the Persian calendar beginning on March 21), and about 25 died."
   
Muzhda, a mother of a two-and-a-half-month-old child, took a seven-hour ride on sections of bombed bumpy road from the northern Baghlan Province, all the distress worthwhile for her just to see her skeletal baby in a stable condition after five days of treatment.
   
SOUNDBITE 2 (Dari): MUZHDA, Mother of a two-and-a-half-month-old child
"My child suffers from malnutrition, blood germ, and diarrhea."

Perplexed by the cause of her child's illness, she attributed it to her own physical condition, which she believed led to nursing difficulties and ultimately affected her child's well-being.
   
SOUNDBITE 3 (Dari): AQA MOHAMMAD SHIRZAD, Head of the malnutrition ward
"If a pregnant mother takes good food, she would give birth to a healthy child without malnutrition."
   
The health conditions of both children and women in Afghanistan are in freefall. According to the UNICEF's State of the World's Children 2023 report, 35 percent of children under four in Afghanistan suffer from moderate or severe stunting, a form of impaired growth and development resulting from malnutrition, and notably, 43 percent of women aged between 15 and 49 have anaemia.
     
Nafisa, who breeds five children -- all peddling on streets due to economic hardships, told Xinhua that in the past, her family could receive aids, but now the aids just stopped with the sanctions.
 
The mother from the northern Kunduz Province said she "always cried" when working in another person's house, and she could only cook one or two times a week for her children.
   
Some of the malnourished kids were born after the withdrawal of the U.S.-led forces in August 2021, seemingly luckier than those "war babies." But these kids are facing an even graver humanitarian crisis as the U.S. government's brutal sanctions are exacerbating the country's financial paralysis, and consequently, hindering almost every support that Afghan kids need.
   
According to Shirzad, prior to the imposition of sanctions, the hospital used to admit around 600 malnourished children. However, since the freezing of approximately 7 billion U.S. dollars in assets of Afghanistan's central bank by the Biden administration, that number has nearly doubled.
   
Shirzad said "it is clear" that the sanctions have caused medicine shortages, especially in rural areas, as the supply of medicine in Afghanistan relies primarily on imports.
   
Mohammad Kausar, a shareholder of Afghan Surgical Corp. Co., a medicine and medical equipment importer, said that the firm has been in a jam regarding transferring money to their overseas suppliers, which drags down their imports.
   
The ramifications of sanctions are affecting more individuals and entities, as they still impede the global organizations' aid in Afghanistan, though the U.S. Department of Treasury claimed it has "permitted" international money transactions related to humanitarian operations in the country.
   
"Donor sanctions brought the health system to the brink of collapse, including nutrition services in urban areas," an article shared by UNICEF online said, pointing out the impact of sanctions on the cooperation between international organizations and their donors.
   
Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Kabul.
(XHTV)