BY Mohmmad Jan Ahmady
Decades of war caused hundreds of thousands to lose their loves or lose parts of their bodies becoming PWds in Afghanistan.
Decades of war not only took the lives of hundreds of thousands of people but left many behind without family heads and without supportive mechanisms. It is sad to be without a guardian in a traditional, closed and poor society where all its economic, supportive, employment and government institutions have collapsed.
Children not only are deprived of educational opportunities, but they must bear the burden of poverty and hunger in the absence of their parents.
As a result, their future and the future of their children would be doomed to a poverty cycle and lack of education, welfare, and care. The consequences of war are not limited to losing the head of the family as it has a vast scope; disability is another dimension of war. Consecutive wars not only have taken the lives of thousands of Afghans but have caused the disability of thousands of Afghans too. A person with a disability is a person who has last one or more parts of their body due to war and explosions of rockets, mines, artilleries, etc. People who are disabled due to war are those who have been injured during the war and have not recovered physically and mentally after health care treatments and are economically dependent. People with Disabilities due to a lack of strong health care facilities and job opportunities face numerous challenges in Afghanistan.
The lack of supportive mechanisms in a society with cultural poverty and treating PWDs with stigma and insults is very sad.
Though most of the families in Afghanistan either have lost their dear ones during the war or have been disabled during the war, there are no reliable statistics published by the Afghan government or international agencies.
One of the core reasons for the lack of statistics about the war victims in Afghanistan is that the war is going on in the country and there are deadly terrorist attacks on the military and civilians in the country. As a result, there will be no exact statistics of the war victims unless the war ends here.
As the Taliban control Afghanistan, families of Martyrs and PWDs face numerous economic and political challenges to the extent that the Taliban have cut their salaries and privileges, those international agencies that advocate for the victims of war must not forget millions of families of Martyrs and PWDs who suffer from the poverty and hunger in Afghanistan.
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