Ahmad Khalil Mayan, programme director at a major Kabul orphanage, says he is reducing the quantity of fruit and meat he provides the children each week due to a lack of funds since the Afghan Taliban acquired control of the nation and millions of dollars in aid unexpectedly dried up.
He has been urgently contacting and emailing supporters, both foreign and local, who previously sponsored him, for the last two months, since the Afghan Taliban gained control of the country and millions of dollars in help abruptly dried up.
“Unfortunately, most of them have left the country – Afghan donors, foreign donors, embassies. When I call them or email them, no one is answering me,”
Mayan, 40, spoke to Reuters at the enormous Shamsa Children’s Village in the north of the capital.
“We are now trying to run the place with very little money and with little food,” he continued.
At the orphanage, there are around 130 children ranging in age from three to eighteen years old. It has been in existence for over a decade and offers refuge to individuals who have lost both parents or just one and cannot afford to maintain them.
Samira, a nine-year-old from northern Badakhshan region, has been in the orphanage for over two years after her dad passed away and her mother couldn’t support her and her brothers.
On a chilly day in Kabul, she plays as hard as she learns in the playground, beaming widely as she climbs the swing higher. She is already taking additional lessons despite her early age and hopes to become a doctor when she reaches adulthood.
“I want to serve my homeland and save others from disease, and I also want other girls to study so that they become a doctor like me in the future,” she told Reuters with a sheepish smirk on her face.
In Afghanistan, where tens of thousands of civilians have been slain in conflicts that have destroyed the nation for more than 40 years, orphanages like these play a significant role.
Mayan is being forced to make difficult decisions due to a shortage of money, which has impacted charities, non-governmental organisations, and regular Afghans since the extreme Islamist Taliban movement regained control of the nation.
The orphanage attempted to re-home a couple of the children to relatives who were better off, but they have all returned.
According to Mayan, staff has had to cut food amounts and restrict the sorts of food that children intake.
“Before we were providing them twice a week fruit and twice a week meat, but we cut those items to just once a week or maybe not even (that much).”
Cash Crisis on alert
As winter approaches, Taliban leaders have encouraged Western governments to restart assistance payments and asked the US to ease a restriction on more than $9 billion in Afghan central bank reserves stored abroad.
Many nations have refused to recognise the Taliban, an Islamist group that was battling international forces and their Afghan allies until recently.
Some countries are pressuring the organisation to ensure fundamental civil liberties, such as the right for girls to attend secondary school and women to work.
The Taliban, who governed from 1996 to 2001 and prohibited all girls’ education, have stated that they are working on the matter.
The orphanage’s troubles are exacerbated by a weekly restriction of $200 on bank withdrawals to prevent a run on hard currency, implying that finances are insufficient to maintain the children and employees.
Mayan is concerned that if the scenario persists, the orphanage will be unable to function.
That would be disastrous for the youngsters, who receive math, English, and computer courses in addition to physical education, food, and housing.
Because of her age, Samira, the aspiring doctor, is still permitted to attend school outside of the orphanage, and she takes extra tuition lessons in the afternoon to keep up.
Her desire has not been stifled by adversity, but she recognises that in order to fulfil her objectives, she may need to study overseas.
“I am not permitted to attend classes here.”
