“Imagine Afghanistan as a body with no part unscathed, a body completely covered in wounds. We can only bandage some parts of it ," Abdul Qadir Salehi, a volunteer social worker told us.

Among children, malnutrition is on the rise. An estimated 2.9 million Afghan children will suffer acute malnutrition in 2024. Another 570,000 children are expected to become malnourished next year, according to WFP.

Sanctions affecting the banking sector, the slashing of development aid to the Taliban - which no foreign capital officially recognises - and climate shocks like droughts and floods have excacerbated the situation.

Already torn apart by decades of war and corruption, ordinary Afghans are now caught in the crosshairs as donor governments, stretched by competing crises, reduce support for Afghanistan in part due to Taliban restrictions on women.

In October, Reuters' multimedia team with
@saitomri.bsky.social spent weeks in Afghanistan's western Herat, documenting the crisis from the point of view of the Afghan men and women trying to help from the ground - often while facing huge challenges of their own.