Photo : webshot. 

August 30, 2021

Andrew Campbell 

Foreign troops are leaving Afghanistan after 20 years of conflict. With a security crisis, skyrocketing food prices, a severe drought, the spread of COVID-19, and another harsh winter on the horizon, Afghan children are more vulnerable than ever. Afghan children have paid the highest price in recent weeks of increased conflict and insecurity, according to George Laryea-Adjei, Regional Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) South Asia. Not only have some been evicted from their homes and separated from their schools and friends, but they have also been denied access to basic healthcare, which could protect them from diseases such as polio and tetanus.

According to UNICEF, if current trends continue, one million Afghan children under the age of five will suffer from severe acute malnutrition, a potentially fatal condition. According to Laryea-Adjei, more than four million children, including 2.2 million girls, are not attending school. Approximately 300,000 children have been forced to flee their homes. And far too many people have witnessed things that no child should ever witness. Anxiety and fear plague children and adolescents, and they are in desperate need of mental health care.

UNICEF, which has been in Afghanistan for more than six decades, maintains a field presence throughout the country and is collaborating with interlocutors to scale up response. Currently, the organization is assisting mobile health and nutrition teams in displaced people's camps, as well as establishing child-friendly spaces, nutrition hubs, and vaccination sites, as well as pre-positioning additional lifesaving supplies and assisting thousands of students in community-based education classes. The organization recently launched a funding appeal for US$192 million, emphasizing the gravity of the situation.