A drought-affected mother in Afghanistan
Maryam's story
After two years of failed rains, a desperate 19-year-old Maryam, her husband, their two children and her mother-in-law moved from Ghormach, in Badghis Province, north-west Afghanistan, to Herat City, some 200 km away. The family arrived with two blankets, which they sold to buy food.
Maryam told her story to a visiting team of aid workers from the United Nations and humanitarian organizations. The team recently visited some of the dozens of informal settlements of people who moved to the outskirts of Herat City in Herat Province, and in Qala-e-Naw city in Badghis, where Maryam and 50,000 people from neighbouring drought-affected provinces have sought refuge in makeshift shelters. The team also assessed the living conditions of people in some of the drought-affected villages outside Qala-e-Naw, the provincial capital of Badghis.
Read more and see the photostory on Exposure