Selling your own children, heartbreaking courage.

@grandtanteJE65 dislikes 'charity', but calls for 'a fairer distribution of money...' She is 'NOT saying we should do nothing' then excuses herself from contributing by playing the feminist card 'nor am I personally willing to help a society that regards women as less valuable than men'.

Good to meet someone with such strong principles.

Hetty58

www.gov.uk/government/news/charity-regulator-urges-donors-to-support-registered-charities-to-help-those-affected-by-the-crisis-in-afghanistan

Thanks Hetty58. I've just been over and donated.

www.dec.org.uk/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIwZuXxLTZ9QIVEu3tCh3wGwQNEAAYASAAEgJC3fD_BwE
I hope the above link works. It is the Disasters Emergency Committee - Afghanistan. DEC works with 15 charities worldwide and are experts at getting aid through in emergencies such as this. I have donated for Afghanistan and always use them to donate when there are terrible disasters such as earthquakes. Added bonus is that they don't constantly pester you as some charities do. I hope this helps.

What can we do?:
1. Not support a Prime Minister who prioritises the evacuation of cats and dogs before Afghan people.
2. Not support a government that follows the decisions of the American government.

I am no expert on the situation in Afghanistan but, as far as I know, the terrible poverty is mainly due to two factors. One is the dependency upon international aid, which used to make up 45% of the gross national product. As soon as the Taliban took control, all this aid was immediately cut off.

The other reason is the freezing of Afghan assets. The banking system, including the Afghanistan Central Bank, has ground to a halt. Though this is meant to act as sanctions against the Taliban, it inevitably hits ordinary people because they can't access their money, if they have got any, and charities can't move funds into the country. According to the New York Times, Afghan accounts aren't just frozen for political reasons (eg by the US government) but also because foreign banks think that they are just too much hassle.

Some charities are trying to buy food in other countries and bring it over the border, as they can't access money in Afghanistan because the banks are closed, but obviously that cannot be easy either as you would have to deal with Taliban border guards.

While I am appalled by the situation in Afghanistan, I don't believe charitable donations are the answer. The money never helps the poorest. Take Save the Children, a very respected charity, in 2020 their CEO earned basic salary of £187,000 and who knows how much in expenses. They want donations from people like me on £9000 a year pension. If I support a charity I want to feel that my donation is helping the people the charity is supposedly for, not lining a high earner's pocket. It said on the news that the Afghan "government" is paying wages in kind, not cash, and using "surplus" foreign aid to do this, how can anyone accept such action? I don't have any answers, I wish I did.

I'm a coward - I couldn't bear to watch the recent news item regarding the selling of human organs. I had already seen a report where a father explained he would have to sell his child in order to feed his family; his little rosy-cheeked bedraggled daughter (who obviously heard every word) looked terrified and was visibly very upset, she looked to be about 4 or 5, the poor, poor little mite. The situation in Afghanistan is just heartbreaking. I had already donated to the appeal and have just made a further donation, it's the least I can do. What an utterly dreadful world we are living in.

I don’t think selling a child into what will undoubtedly be a life of misery involves ‘courage’.

Blossoming - I’m not disagreeing with you on the description of ‘courage’. How do you choose which child is sold? I expect girls, not boys are sold. If it means the family don’t starve does that somehow reduce the horror. I don’t know what I’d do. I can’t imagine selling a little girl, or boy, into almost certainly a future of sexual exploitation

I don’t think it involves courage either.

Maybe courage isn’t the right word Blossoming. When I posted I had just watched the report and was sobbing as I tried to imagine which of my four sons I could sacrifice to save the other three. I suppose courage came to mind because I felt it was an unimaginable, impossible, heartbreaking decision.
We can’t judge. Could we keep them all and watch each one starve to death. What happens when the money runs out, do we sacrifice another.
We in the U.K., the USA, Europe and other so called civilised countries have no right to walk away from this. This is not how a civilised world behaves.
We must band together by diplomatic means with other Muslim countries, with China and with Russia to put an end to such humanitarian crises. What the hell is the matter with the human race!

You are right it’s heartbreaking. Rory Stewart is a loud voice in the call for action. I’ve written to my MP but this feels totally inadequate.

The problem is political - it’s the West’s answer to the Taliban, Every time sanctions or ’non-interventionist’ policies of one sort or another are imposed, children suffer. Iraq, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Yemen, Gaza

LauraNorderr

Desperate mothers and fathers in Afghanistan are selling their children to feed the rest of the family. Having already sold a kidney. How desperate they must be. What kind of world is this.
I’ve posted under chat because some avoid news and politics and we mustn’t avoid this.

When I first saw it on the news i cried because the man was trying to sell his daughter.

That little girl was crying because she was old enough to realise - probably 4 or 5. Her father had been a teacher until this medieval lot took over.

Every child has a right to be fed ,clothed , housed, educated , loved and wanted. Is there a charity aimed at family planning? That one would get my support.

Penn Farthing has categorically stated that neither Boris or Carrie had anything to do with the evacuation of his animal charity. Unfortunately several vets were left behind in the rush & we are desperately short of vets in the UK.

I heard part of an interview with pen farthing. He said he’d no idea who was behind it. Also expressed fury at the young whistle blower showing photographs of him arriving at the airport - not a single British military present where the whistle blower accused Nowzad of tying up military personnel
He repeated his plane cost the tax payer not a penny and was available to bring people out

There is something you can do. A friend of mine has set up a charity to feed people in Kabul. Your donation will put food in children’s mouths, not end up in a corrupt persons hands
ihfoundation.org.uk/afghanappeal/

We seem to have bottomless pits of taxpayers money when it comes to going to war and occupying countries, but just ask charities to plead for money to help feed the poor, starving and exploited following wars and occupations. We have the wrong priorities.

Sickens me. I dont believe for a second theyre being bought for anything other than slavery. A life of drudgery and sexual depravity.

I'm very much hoping that donations to the UNHCR ( United Nations charity) do get through to those who really need it and is not stolen by the Taliban. This heart breaking situation is beyond belief in our comfortable world. I wish we could do more, but I don't know what, apart from donating to charities that genuinely can help these desperate people. And how can we know for certain that it does? It's an impossible situation.

Let's concentrate on the children in UK first! Don't you realise how many families are turning to food banks in order to survive, and also families who cannot afford their heating. They are still home schooling their children and having to share a computer between 3 kids. Charity begins at home!









































































































Let's concentrate on the children in UK first. Look at all the children going to food banks and parents unable to heat their homes not to mention unable to afford school uniforms. Plenty of poverty in UK. Charity begins at home.

And we are still
sending refugees back who try to come here with their children on freezing dinghies via France from war torn countries, they are trying to make a better life for them. Its so depressing and sad.

Charity begins at home - what a disgusting attitude. This government cut the £20 increase in universal credit, in the full knowledge it was needed
The govt were shamed by a footballer into providing food during school holidays for children who qualify for free school meals.

We can afford to help our own children and others in need. We should respond more effectively and compassionately to refugees and asylum seekers from war torn countries