Rakima * is the mother of four and an internally displaced person. She lives in a mud shanty in Kabul’s Gul Batta Province and is the only earner for her family.

“I lost my husband due to the conflict in our village between the Afghan government forces and the Taliban. First, it was the fear of our lives and then the hunger that forced us to leave our home. We fled in whatever clothes we had. I just wanted my children to survive,” says the 45-year-old, looking through the torn sheet that modestly covers the window of her home.

Rakima is from the Laghaman Province but now lives in Kabul. Rakima received essential food and firewood items for three months to give her warmth over the harsh Afghan winters. “We could hardly believe our fate. First, wars, then rising prices, and now COVID-19. We barely make enough to survive, and winters are so difficult.”

Suffering from decades of conflict, drought, and the third wave of COVID-19, millions of Afghans like Rakima are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance. Islamic Relief recently launched its emergency appeal to help people living on the brink of famine and hunger. Support our work in providing food security, accessible and clean water, shelter and protection for families and individuals in the crisis-hit areas of Badakshan, Daykundi, Ghor, and Faryab, Herat, Kabul (rural) and Nangarhar.

We have changed the names of the people in order to protect their privacy.

Today you can help. You can help make a difference, you can end someone’s hunger, you can help a family affected by famine.