For struggling Afghanistan families, next meal a matter of faith

As winter sets in, Afghan widow Kubra needs to find fuel to heat the single room where eight family members live in the central province of Bamiyan. The United Nations estimates nearly 23 million Afghans – about 55 percent of the population – are facing extreme levels of hunger, with nearly nine million at risk of famine as winter takes hold. Now it’s once a week and sometimes there isn’t even any bread to eat.” Bamiyan is best known outside Afghanistan for imposing Buddhist sites which dominate the little market town, 20 years after the Taliban blew up the two giant statues that once looked down over the high plains. Work slows in the cold months, but the region was already suffering since the visitors who once came for the Buddhist sites and the nearby Band-e-Amir lake disappeared as the Taliban offensive reached its climax.