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Afghanistan: 
Price Hikes Push Food Out Of Reach For Millions Of Children

Millions of children in Afghanistan could be pushed into severe hunger as a result of rising food prices, drought and displacement, Save the Children warned, after the UN reported the cost of wheat, rice, sugar and cooking oil has increased by more than 50% compared with pre-COVID-19 prices. 

A survey of 630 newly displaced families in Kabul, carried out by Save the Children earlier this month, already found that all of the families had run up debts in order to buy food. Many families have been forced to sell their possessions, cut back on meals or send their children out to work in order to buy food. 

Save the Children warned that people's ability to buy food is likely to be further limited by the lack of operating banks and ATMS, which prevents them from accessing their savings. 

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FIGHT THE GLOBAL HUNGER CRISIS

Afsana’s Story:
Growing Up In Bangladesh’s Largest Brothel

10-year-old Afsana* lives in Bangladesh’s largest brothel.

She’s tired because her mother Tuli*, a sex worker, entertains clients in the next room while she and her six-year-old brother try to sleep. Drunken men and women roam the dirty alleyways all night looking for drugs and alcohol, which are readily available in the brothel’s lanes. 

But just a few hundred metres down the train tracks is another world – the primary school where Afsana gets to be a child again. 

Save the Children and a local partner organisation founded the school for children from the brothel in 1997. At that time, local schools wouldn’t accept the children of sex workers, meaning girls like Afsana were left uneducated and vulnerable to following their mothers into sex work.

We need to ensure that there are educational programmes and healthcare support available to help every last child find their way out - and give them an opportunity for a better future for themselves and their families. 

This is why we need your signature to help us in our efforts as we work towards providing them with: 

Access to education

Access to healthcare and counselling

Assistance with re-integrating them into their community

With your support and alongside our partners, you can protect children and save girls in Bangladesh from a future in sex slavery. 

Take action today and pledge to give children from a chance to an education and a life free from sex slavery. 

Click the button below to sign the petition today!  

Athena Rayburn, Director of Advocacy and Campaigns at Save the Children Afghanistan, said:

"The spike in prices will push food out of reach for many families, particularly those who have been displaced from their homes and are living on next to nothing. Conflict, drought and COVID-19 have already pushed millions of children into hunger and misery in Afghanistan - now they could be pushed even closer to the brink of famine."

Join the movement and take a stand for children in Afghanistan by giving them a new chance at life and break the cycle of poverty.

Every day Afsana goes to school, works hard and dreams of the day she and her mother can leave the brothel. Afsana is the second-best student in grade three and hopes to be a doctor when she grows up. “I want to be a doctor so that I can help my family if anything happens to them,” she says. But that dream will never become a reality without an education and the school Afsana attends is the place where children can get one. 

Join the movement and take a stand for children in slum brothels by giving them a new chance at life through education and break the cycle of poverty.

*Names have been changed to protect identities.

We are calling on our political leaders to provide urgent aid in the fight against the global hunger crisis.

WHAT IS FAMINE?

Famine is the most severe phase of the United Nations’ system to monitor food insecurity. A famine is declared when at least 20% of households facing an extreme lack of food, at least 30% of children are suffering from acute malnutrition, and two people for every 10,000 are dying each day from starvation.

Famine is rare, but when it does occur, it means there is an extreme shortage of food and children, and adults are dying of malnutrition daily.

Save the Children is already providing critical support across 21 countries where extreme hunger is claiming thousands of children’s lives. We are on the ground delivering food, cash, livelihood support, and critical health and nutrition services to stop children from going hungry.

But with hunger levels continuing to grow, thousands of people and children are now on the brink of starvation – the situation has become critical. 

We have seen the incredible impact we can have when the world rallies together to support children in crisis. We have also seen the impact when we don’t act or delay. We cannot let history repeat itself. The window of opportunity to stop hunger in its tracks is closing. We must act now.

YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE TODAY – ADD YOUR NAME TO TAKE ACTION AGAINST HUNGER

Malnutrition caused by extreme hunger remains one of the biggest killers of young children around the world today. And yet it is entirely preventable.

This devastating truth can be a source for hope. We don’t need to spend billions on researching a cure or developing a vaccine. We know how to treat malnutrition and we know how to prevent it. All we need is a unified global response to stop this hunger crisis in its tracks, but we can’t do it alone.

That’s why we need your pledge of support to help us raise these issues with politicians to urgently increase funding to tackle global malnutrition. Let’s stop hunger in its tracks.

JOIN US NOW TO FIGHT THE GLOBAL HUNGER CRISIS

In 2022, no child should ever go hungry. Every 48 seconds, children are dying from hunger. The current state is alarming. Rising conflict, displacement, climate shocks and food prices are creating the worst hunger crisis in decades. There is no food, no water, and no time to wait. 

We are actively calling on New Zealand’s political leaders to take action and provide urgent aid to the Horn of Africa. Add your name to put pressure on our Government to save the lives of children. We are #HungryForChange.

Failure to act now will prove catastrophic and could cost thousands of children’s lives.

In hunger crises like this, children are always the most vulnerable. Extreme food shortages are pushing families to take desperate measures such as pulling children out of school to work, early marriage and even giving their own children up in exchange for money. These are just some of the tragic lengths families are having to go to, just to feed their children.

Give Young Children Growing Up In Slum Brothels A Chance For A Better Future.

Bangladesh’s largest slum brothel - just one of many in the region - is the size of a small city and houses over 1,500 women and 1,000 children. 

These women and children live largely out of sight from mainstream society - facing exclusion from education, life-saving healthcare, and their communities. Needing to provide for their children, mothers who were likely sold or trafficked into the brothel to start with, find themselves unable to leave and forced to work to pay off debts.

Children live with their mothers in rooms smaller than most one-car garages. When their mothers bring their customers home, they hide under beds while their mothers are working or they are pushed into the alleyway to play. Customers will use them to run errands, like fetching alcohol or drugs, and in some cases, they are tasked with cleaning up after customers have left. Some will be groomed to be the future of the business like their mothers and grandmothers.  

We are calling on the Government to consult with children before this Bill progresses further.

We can not continue to let these children suffer. 

We call for an end to the cycle of sexual exploitation of children in Bangladesh. 

Our target: 6,000

3,519 signatures added so far

10,700 have signed. Let's get to 11,000!