gusts of wind blew dust up off the ground as Ghulam Mohiddin and his wife Nazo walked towards the graveyard where all their children are buried.
They showed us the graves of the three boys they lost in the past two years – one-year-old Rahmat, seven-month-old Koatan, and most recently, three-month-old Faisal Ahmad.
All three suffered from malnutrition, say Ghulam and Nazo.
Can you imagine how painful it's been for me to lose three children? One minute there's a baby in your arms, the next minute they are empty, says Nazo.
I hope every day that angels would somehow put my babies back in our home.
'Three million children in peril'
There are days the couple goes without food. They break walnut shells for a living in the Sheidaee settlement just outside the city of Herat in western Afghanistan and receive no help from the Taliban government or from NGOs.
Watching helplessly as my children cried out of hunger, it felt like my body was erupting in flames. It felt like someone was cutting me in half with a saw from my head to my feet, said Ghulam.
The deaths of their children are not recorded anywhere, but it's evidence of a silent wave of mortality engulfing Afghanistan's youngest, as the country is pushed into what the UN calls an unprecedented crisis of hunger.
We started the year with the highest increase in child malnutrition ever recorded in Afghanistan. But things have got worse from there, says John Aylieff, the World Food Programme's country director.
Food assistance kept a lid on hunger and malnutrition for the most vulnerable, but the lifting of this assistance now threatens the lives of more than three million children.
The situation is dire as the single largest donor, the US, has cut nearly all aid to Afghanistan, and many other donors are giving much less than before.
Children like Rahila's son Hibatullah, who cannot stand at two, are becoming common sightings in the settlement as malnutrition takes its toll.
At the Sheidaee graveyard, startling evidence of child deaths reveals the stark reality. Villagers report that two-thirds of the graves are for children. The graveyard, relatively new, reflects the profound crisis affecting Afghan families.
In another home, Hanifa’s one-year-old son Rafiullah struggles with malnutrition, surviving on little more than soaked bread. She reveals feelings of guilt and despair over her children's hunger, raising alarming concerns about mental health among parents.
As winter approaches, the situation is expected to worsen. Aid organizations are already preparing for possibly turning away malnourished children from healthcare facilities due to funding shortages.
With reports of baby deaths in hospitals adding to the growing statistics of child mortality, the urgent need for intervention is more pressing than ever as Afghanistan braces for another harsh winter.
