The problems Afghans are facing this winter are only getting worse

While officials are better organised than last winter, they say their limited resources – exacerbated by foreign financial sanctions against the Taliban – can reach only a small portion of the needy, writes Pamela Constable

Record numbers of farm animals are dying from cold and lack of fodder this winter (AP)

Ankle-deep in mud and slush, a woman named Farzana, 32, squats and scrubs clothes in a bucket. When she stands, her hands are stiff and red. Her daughters are out begging for bread; her sons are collecting rubbish to use as stove tinder. At night, in a mud-walled hut on the outskirts of the Afghan capital, the family of seven huddle together under blankets as the heat slowly dies.

“I never imagined we would be living like this,” she says with a laugh of lingering disbelief. “We had a good house once, but it was destroyed by fighting in the war. My husband had work, but now there is none. As a mother, it pains me to send my children out in this awful cold, but we have no choice.”