Development aid ended abruptly after the Taliban regained power in 2021, and humanitarian assistance is falling. One reason, diplomats say: The Taliban’s treatment of women. Non-government groups are trying to fill the void as mothers beg aid workers for food and the number of malnourished children rises.

When Khalid Riaz turns off a dusty, single-lane road into a village in Guzara district, half an hour south of the bustling heart of Herat city in western Afghanistan, he is immediately greeted by a group of children.

Some barefoot and sucking their thumbs, the children surround the car as Riaz begins unloading bags of flour and rice from the trunk of a blue sedan. With the help of a fellow volunteer from a nonprofit group called Aseel, Riaz carries the bags over uneven ground, walking carefully through a maze-like jumble of homes built of sand-colored mud.

Looking down at his papers to check if he’s arrived at the correct house, Riaz lowers the food packages onto the fuchsia carpet of a local couple’s living room. That day’s delivery – an emergency donation of everyday necessities like grains and cooking oil – will hopefully be enough for the couple and their three young children to survive for the next few months.