<p>Jobless, debt ridden, and struggling to feed his children, Nooruddin felt he had no choice but to sell a kidney -- one of a growing number of Afghans willing to sacrifice an organ to save their families.</p>.<p>The practice has become so widespread in the western city of Herat that a nearby settlement is bleakly nicknamed "one kidney village".</p>.<p>"I had to do it for the sake of my children," Nooruddin told <em>AFP</em> in the city, close to the border with Iran.</p>.<p>"I didn't have any other option."</p>.<p><strong>Also Read | <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/international/world-news-politics/taliban-staging-massive-house-to-house-sweep-across-kabul-1085818.html">Taliban staging massive house-to-house sweep across Kabul</a></strong></p>.<p>Afghanistan has been plunged into financial crisis following the Taliban takeover six months ago, worsening an already dire humanitarian situation after decades of war.</p>.<p>The foreign aid which once propped up the country has been slow to return, with the hardline Islamists also cut off from Afghan assets held abroad.</p>.<p>The trickle-down effect has particularly hurt Afghans like Nooruddin, 32, who quit his factory job when his salary was slashed to 3,000 Afghanis (about $30) soon after the Taliban's return, mistakenly believing he would find something better.</p>.<p>But, with hundreds of thousands unemployed across the country, nothing else was available.</p>.<p>In desperation, he sold a kidney as a short term fix.</p>.<p>"I regret it now," he said outside his home, where faded clothes hang from a tree, and a plastic sheet serves as a window pane.</p>.<p><strong>Also Read | <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/international/world-news-politics/unicef-chief-taliban-committed-to-let-girls-back-to-school-1085150.html" target="_blank">UNICEF chief: Taliban committed to let girls back to school</a></strong></p>.<p>"I can no longer work. I'm in pain and I cannot lift anything heavy."</p>.<p>His family now relies on their 12-year-old son for money, who polishes shoes for 70 cents a day.</p>.<p>Noorudin was among eight people <em>AFP</em> spoke to who had sold a kidney to feed their families or pay off debt -- some for as little as $1,500.</p>.<p>It is illegal to sell or buy organs in most developed nations, where donors are usually related to the recipient or are people acting out of altruism.</p>.<p>In Afghanistan, however, the practice is unregulated.</p>.<p>"There is no law... to control how the organs can be donated or sold, but the consent of the donor is necessary," said Professor Mohammad Wakil Matin, a former top surgeon at a hospital in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.</p>.<p>Mohamad Bassir Osmani, a surgeon at one of two hospitals where the majority of Herat's transplants are performed, confirmed "consent" was the key.</p>.<p>"We take written consent and a video recording from them -- especially from the donor," he said, adding hundreds of surgeries have been performed in Herat over the past five years.</p>.<p>"We have never investigated where the patient or donor comes from, or how. It's not our job."</p>.<p>The Taliban did not respond to requests by <em>AFP</em> for comment on the practice, but Osmani said the country's new rulers have plans to clamp down on the trade and are forming a committee to regulate it.</p>.<p>Afghans desperate for money are usually matched by brokers with wealthy patients, who travel to Herat from across the country -- and sometimes even from India and Pakistan.</p>.<p>The recipient pays both the hospital fees and the donor.</p>.<p>Azyta's family had so little food that two of her three children have recently been treated for malnourishment.</p>.<p>She felt she had no choice but to sell an organ, and openly met a broker who matched her with a recipient from the southern province of Nimroz.</p>.<p>"I sold my kidney for 250,000 Afghanis (around $2,500)," she said from her small damp room.</p>.<p>"I had to do it. My husband isn't working, we have debts," she added.</p>.<p>Now her husband, a daily labourer, is planning on doing the same.</p>.<p>"People have become poorer," he said. "Many people are selling their kidneys out of desperation."</p>.<p>On the outskirts of Herat lies Sayshanba Bazaar, a village made up of hundreds of people displaced by years of conflict.</p>.<p>Known as "one-kidney village", dozens of residents have sold their organs after word spread among destitute families of the money to be made.</p>.<p>From one family, five brothers sold a kidney each in the last four years, thinking it would save them from poverty.</p>.<p>"We are still in debt and as poor as we were before," said Ghulam Nebi, showing off his scar.</p>.<p>In developed nations, donors and recipients usually go on to lead full and normal lives, but their after-surgery health is usually closely monitored -- and also dependent on a balanced lifestyle and diet.</p>.<p>That luxury is often not available to poor Afghans who sell a kidney and still find themselves trapped in poverty -- and sometimes in ill-health.</p>.<p>Professor Matin said only some donors arranged for follow-up checks.</p>.<p>"There are no public health facilities to register kidney sellers and donors for regular examinations to check on implications for their health," he added.</p>.<p>Shakila, already a mother of two at 19, underwent the procedure shortly before the Taliban seized power, bypassing a broker by searching out a patient at a Herat hospital.</p>.<p>"We had no choice because of hunger," she said, made up with black eyeliner with a scarf covering the rest of her face.</p>.<p>She sold her kidney for $1,500 -- most of which went to settle the family's debt.</p>.<p>Mother-of three Aziza, meanwhile, is waiting for her opportunity after meeting a hospital staffer who is trying to match her with a donor.</p>.<p>"My children roam on the streets begging," she told <em>AFP</em>, tears welling.</p>.<p>"If I don't sell my kidney, I will be forced to sell my one-year-old daughter."</p>.<p><strong>Check out the latest videos from <i data-stringify-type="italic">DH</i>:</strong></p>
<p>Jobless, debt ridden, and struggling to feed his children, Nooruddin felt he had no choice but to sell a kidney -- one of a growing number of Afghans willing to sacrifice an organ to save their families.</p>.<p>The practice has become so widespread in the western city of Herat that a nearby settlement is bleakly nicknamed "one kidney village".</p>.<p>"I had to do it for the sake of my children," Nooruddin told <em>AFP</em> in the city, close to the border with Iran.</p>.<p>"I didn't have any other option."</p>.<p><strong>Also Read | <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/international/world-news-politics/taliban-staging-massive-house-to-house-sweep-across-kabul-1085818.html">Taliban staging massive house-to-house sweep across Kabul</a></strong></p>.<p>Afghanistan has been plunged into financial crisis following the Taliban takeover six months ago, worsening an already dire humanitarian situation after decades of war.</p>.<p>The foreign aid which once propped up the country has been slow to return, with the hardline Islamists also cut off from Afghan assets held abroad.</p>.<p>The trickle-down effect has particularly hurt Afghans like Nooruddin, 32, who quit his factory job when his salary was slashed to 3,000 Afghanis (about $30) soon after the Taliban's return, mistakenly believing he would find something better.</p>.<p>But, with hundreds of thousands unemployed across the country, nothing else was available.</p>.<p>In desperation, he sold a kidney as a short term fix.</p>.<p>"I regret it now," he said outside his home, where faded clothes hang from a tree, and a plastic sheet serves as a window pane.</p>.<p><strong>Also Read | <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/international/world-news-politics/unicef-chief-taliban-committed-to-let-girls-back-to-school-1085150.html" target="_blank">UNICEF chief: Taliban committed to let girls back to school</a></strong></p>.<p>"I can no longer work. I'm in pain and I cannot lift anything heavy."</p>.<p>His family now relies on their 12-year-old son for money, who polishes shoes for 70 cents a day.</p>.<p>Noorudin was among eight people <em>AFP</em> spoke to who had sold a kidney to feed their families or pay off debt -- some for as little as $1,500.</p>.<p>It is illegal to sell or buy organs in most developed nations, where donors are usually related to the recipient or are people acting out of altruism.</p>.<p>In Afghanistan, however, the practice is unregulated.</p>.<p>"There is no law... to control how the organs can be donated or sold, but the consent of the donor is necessary," said Professor Mohammad Wakil Matin, a former top surgeon at a hospital in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.</p>.<p>Mohamad Bassir Osmani, a surgeon at one of two hospitals where the majority of Herat's transplants are performed, confirmed "consent" was the key.</p>.<p>"We take written consent and a video recording from them -- especially from the donor," he said, adding hundreds of surgeries have been performed in Herat over the past five years.</p>.<p>"We have never investigated where the patient or donor comes from, or how. It's not our job."</p>.<p>The Taliban did not respond to requests by <em>AFP</em> for comment on the practice, but Osmani said the country's new rulers have plans to clamp down on the trade and are forming a committee to regulate it.</p>.<p>Afghans desperate for money are usually matched by brokers with wealthy patients, who travel to Herat from across the country -- and sometimes even from India and Pakistan.</p>.<p>The recipient pays both the hospital fees and the donor.</p>.<p>Azyta's family had so little food that two of her three children have recently been treated for malnourishment.</p>.<p>She felt she had no choice but to sell an organ, and openly met a broker who matched her with a recipient from the southern province of Nimroz.</p>.<p>"I sold my kidney for 250,000 Afghanis (around $2,500)," she said from her small damp room.</p>.<p>"I had to do it. My husband isn't working, we have debts," she added.</p>.<p>Now her husband, a daily labourer, is planning on doing the same.</p>.<p>"People have become poorer," he said. "Many people are selling their kidneys out of desperation."</p>.<p>On the outskirts of Herat lies Sayshanba Bazaar, a village made up of hundreds of people displaced by years of conflict.</p>.<p>Known as "one-kidney village", dozens of residents have sold their organs after word spread among destitute families of the money to be made.</p>.<p>From one family, five brothers sold a kidney each in the last four years, thinking it would save them from poverty.</p>.<p>"We are still in debt and as poor as we were before," said Ghulam Nebi, showing off his scar.</p>.<p>In developed nations, donors and recipients usually go on to lead full and normal lives, but their after-surgery health is usually closely monitored -- and also dependent on a balanced lifestyle and diet.</p>.<p>That luxury is often not available to poor Afghans who sell a kidney and still find themselves trapped in poverty -- and sometimes in ill-health.</p>.<p>Professor Matin said only some donors arranged for follow-up checks.</p>.<p>"There are no public health facilities to register kidney sellers and donors for regular examinations to check on implications for their health," he added.</p>.<p>Shakila, already a mother of two at 19, underwent the procedure shortly before the Taliban seized power, bypassing a broker by searching out a patient at a Herat hospital.</p>.<p>"We had no choice because of hunger," she said, made up with black eyeliner with a scarf covering the rest of her face.</p>.<p>She sold her kidney for $1,500 -- most of which went to settle the family's debt.</p>.<p>Mother-of three Aziza, meanwhile, is waiting for her opportunity after meeting a hospital staffer who is trying to match her with a donor.</p>.<p>"My children roam on the streets begging," she told <em>AFP</em>, tears welling.</p>.<p>"If I don't sell my kidney, I will be forced to sell my one-year-old daughter."</p>.<p><strong>Check out the latest videos from <i data-stringify-type="italic">DH</i>:</strong></p>