I was told that there’s no way that we can treat him in Mazar, he has to be taken to Kabul. We are very poor, we cannot afford take him to Kabul. So I said that this precious one, either dies here or would survive here.

//Speaking native language// It was almost like after, I was even recovering from my C-Section, but even then he required blood, and we couldn’t afford to buy blood, I was very frail and weak myself, but I said that I’ll give my son my own blood.

It was severe winter when we were told to shift him to Kabul, so what I decided was that I will buy a powdered milk, and so I feeding him with powder milk, and you cannot imagine how difficult it is to get up in that cold winter, in a freezing grueling, boiled water for the child, and then prepared that powder milk, and then given to him.

And then, on top of it, hear from neighbors and my family that I’m doing this on purpose, I’m not feeding the child with my own milk. and I cried most of the nights, I had to go to a difficulty C-Section, I had to go through so much, I give this child my own blood, then I wake up in the middle of the night in this cold and prepared, and look at what I’m hearing, but I don’t care, this is my child.

And now I’m happy because he’s gaining weight, and this is the world for me. It’s been very difficult to finding even 50 cents to come, to take a two hours drive to come to this clinic, so two weeks I waited, and then this morning I told my husband that I’m going to go. Fortunately, a lady from the neighbours, she give me 50 cents, so I can come here, now I don’t have enough money to go back home, but I’m here, I want to see my child recover.

We have come this morning, I have not eaten anything, but that’s doesn’t matter, I want to see my child, I wanted to be loved as I love him. She must be happy now that her baby is going to live a healthy life, right? Yes I’m happy, my husband is very happy but, again, when I go home and I tell them now he’s 7kg…

They laugh at me! So I cannot even tell my family, my relatives about the good news, so I just whispered to myself, I gotta tell myself that now he’s gaining weight, now he’s put on… His recovering, so we are both happy. Me and my husband are very happy about that.  Okay. So we’ve come and meet a grandmother and child, is that right? And this child is malnourished, is that correct?

So, Han is seven months old, but is severely underweight, and they have been coming to this clinic for over a month. Have they noticed the difference since started? //Speaking native language// When I give birth to the child, the child was 1/2 kg, but now with the therapeutic food things have really improve d, and now she’s gaining weight. The treatment here is free, is that right?

It’s all free, the treatment, the therapeutic food they give us, everything is free. And that’s covered by UNICEF? -Yes! -Yes! So, it’s basically vital that this place is free, otherwise the children wouldn’t survive, is that correct? Yeah! It’s very essential for poor families who cannot buy fruits, meat, vegetables. This is the only option left for them. They need this happen, without it, if you go to other provinces you will see the same situations.

It’s the therapeutic food and the assistance from UNICEF and its partners that make this possible for the children to survive. So, it’s fair to say that Han life has been saved by this clinic? //Speaking native language// Yes! I have no doubt of that, the doctors and this clinic have helped my child survive.

So I would appeal to the Friends of Afghanistan, to the countries were friends of Afghanistan, to don’t cease, don’t stop your donation, don’t stop your help, because mothers like me are waiting and are counting on this help, and without that it would be difficult to survive. So, you can see those two scenarios, they have just come out in front of the facility here, so you saw the child with the…

The malnourished child who was on his way to be treated, and if you saw the first videos of Afghanistan, in Kabul, you would have seen the state that they’re when they’re extremely malnourished, and the skin and bone, with loose skin. Those two kids are on the road to recovery, which is great. And it’s through this product here, which is called a RUTF, I’ll put in a brief term for you.

(Ready to Use Therapeutic Food) This is basically like a food and medicine combined. It’s peanut butter mixed with some micronutrients and some other medicines so their gut can actually process the food, because when they get to that point of malnourished… Their stomach lining doesn’t absorb it as well so what this does is it supplies the calories but also supplies the medicines to be able to absorb the nutrients. So any donation will save lives, it’s not a question.

It’s a 100% guarantee, you will save lives by donating. So I’m going to leave a link down below, only donate if you can, but it’s very much appreciated and it really helps the people out here.  Okay. So, we’ve come from the clinic, we’ve come to a woman’s bazaar. And it’s basically just all women running this whole bazaar. So it’s quite interesting. We’re gonna meet some of the local women now. Would you mind just asking him them what they’re making?