KABUL: Economic turmoil is worsening the hunger crisis in Afghanistan as humanitarian needs continue to skyrocket. This escalating crisis is rippling through food shortages and exploding prices amid growing conflict and the Taliban regime’s global isolation.
Almost eight months from a change in power in the war-ravaged country, International Red Cross has warned starvation could kill more Afghans than last twenty years of war, as a staggering 97 percent of the population is expected to be living below the poverty line this year. 
Amid this ordeal, a young humanitarian and activist is helping tens of families with essential food and medical needs. Aria Rahmati is running a small charity that provides eight to ten families with aid weekly and medical aid on a need basis. She has helped over 150 families since she began her humanitarian activities in October 2021.
Although Rahmati has not encountered any significant issues with the Taliban because the whole aid delivery process is carried out door to door, she has limited financial sources. 
Responding to Afghan Peace Watch (APW) regarding challenges ahead of her work, Rahmati said she has little finances to reach out to more vulnerable families. “I’ve been helping a family with my own paycheck and a very limited number of donations I receive as I do not have any sponsor,” she said.
She is also struggling to reach out to more families in small towns and villages to provide food and medical assistance to the most vulnerable families. As part of her long-term vision, she is working on two projects to provide online education for girls who are denied access to schools and facilitate job opportunities for women so families could have an earning source.
As Afghanistan spirals into a vortex of extreme poverty, Rahmati hopes she can gather enough financial support to help more families with emergency assistance and food aid. She envisages spreading awareness about the dire humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, where people sell their children due to hunger. 
She even saved two families who were on the brink of selling their infants. “Recently, I was fortunate enough to reach out to two families who were about to sell their newborn babies because they couldn’t afford to feed them.”
“Another family of five with a single mother just had rotten pieces of bread for their daily meals that her children gathered from neighbors,” she concluded.