SHEDAI CAMP, Afghanistan -- Many of Afghanistan's growing number of destitute people are making desperate decisions as their nation spirals into a vortex of poverty.
Afghanistan's aid-dependent economy was already teetering when the Taliban seized power in mid-August amid a chaotic withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops. The international community froze Afghanistan's assets abroad and halted funding, unwilling to work with a Taliban government given its reputation for brutality during its previous rule 20 years ago.
The consequences have been devastating for a country battered by war, drought and the coronavirus pandemic. State employees haven't been paid in months. Malnutrition stalks the most vulnerable, and aid groups say more than half the population faces acute food shortages.
"Day by day, the situation is deteriorating in this country, and especially children are suffering," said Asuntha Charles, national director of the World Vision aid organization in Afghanistan, which runs a health clinic for displaced people near the western city of Herat.
"Today I have been heartbroken to see that the families are willing to sell their children to feed other family members."
Arranging marriages for very young girls is common in the region. The groom's family pays money to seal the deal, and the child usually stays with her parents until she is at least around 15. Yet with many unable to afford even basic food, some say they'd allow prospective grooms to take very young girls or are even trying to sell their sons.
Father-of-four Hamid Abdullah was selling his young daughters into arranged marriages, desperate for money to treat his chronically ill wife, pregnant with their fifth child.
He can't repay money he borrowed to fund his wife's treatments, he said. So three years ago, he received a down-payment for his eldest daughter Hoshran, now 7, in an arranged marriage to a now 18-year-old.
The family who bought Hoshran are waiting until she is older before settling the full amount and taking her.
But Abdullah needs money now, so he is trying to arrange a marriage for his second daughter, 6-year-old Nazia, for about $200 to $300.
"We don't have food to eat," and he can't pay his wife's treatments, he said.
His wife, Bibi Jan, said they had no other option but it was a difficult decision. "When we made the decision, it was like someone had taken a body part from me."
In neighboring Badghis province, another displaced family is considering selling their son, 8-year-old Salahuddin.
His mother, Guldasta, said that after days with nothing to eat, she told her husband to take Salahuddin to the bazaar and sell him to bring food for the others.
"I don't want to sell my son, but I have to," the 35-year-old said.
"No mother can do this to her child. But when you have no other choice, you have to make a decision against your will."
His father, Shakir, blind in one eye and with kidney problems, said the children had been crying for days from hunger.
Twice he decided to take Salahuddin to the bazaar and twice he faltered.
"But now I think I have no other choice," he said.
Buying boys is believed to be less common than girls, and when it does take place, it appears to be cases of families without sons buying infants.
In her despair, Guldasta thought perhaps such a family might want an 8-year-old.
The desperation of millions is clear as more and more people face hunger, with some 3.2 million children under 5 years old facing acute malnutrition, according to the United Nations.
Charles said humanitarian aid funds are desperately needed.
"I'm happy to see the pledges are made," she said. But the pledges "shouldn't stay as promises, they have to be seen as reality on the ground."
Information for this article was contributed by Abdul Qahar Afghan and Rahim Faiez of The Associated Press.