Mother Sells Newborn To Buy Food

Food crisis has forced a desperate Afghan mother to sell one of her newborn twins to buy food.

Gatekeepers News reports that a 40-year-old woman has sold her newborn twins to raise money to feed the other amid the country’s rapidly worsening food crisis.

The woman from the northern Jawzjan province gave the babies to a childless couple in return for $104, hoping this would buy enough food to last her family for another six months.

Earlier this year, the couple were sent off their farm into a nearby city, due to drought. The husband and second-eldest son worked as labourers before the Taliban take-over collapsed Afghanistan’s economy in August.

According to the UN, more than half of Afghanistan’s population faces starvation this winter, a problem compounded by the fact that many aid agencies fled the country as the government collapsed and international aid dried up.

Save the Children uncovered this family’s plight was uncovered. It currently still has workers on the ground who are distributing what food they have to those in need.

The Afghan mother explained to the charity workers that she had given birth to the twins – a boy and a girl – around four or five months ago, shortly after leaving their farm due to drought.

Sitting in a bare room carpeted in rugs donated by a local mosque, the woman explained that all of the children’s clothes are secondhand and donated by locals.

According to her, she had initially planned to keep both children but was barely able to get hold of enough food for even one of them – typically bread, and sometimes milk powder.

Although her husband, 45, works as a labourer, he said there are only enough jobs for one day of work in five, adding that the day’s wage which is around $1 is only enough for just two days of food.

The Afghan mother added that the second-eldest son also works in the nearby market by pushing carts that stall owners use to carry their produce.

She, however, noted that he is young, but owners often prefer to use stronger children and he frequently goes without work as well.

Initially she refused, but after several days of seeing the boy cry with nothing to eat, she decided that giving him away was the best option to provide for him and for her remaining children.

She said: ‘It was hard. Harder than you can imagine. I gave my child away because of destitution… I was unable to take care of him and I could not afford anything.”