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Last weekend, my colleague Lynn and I drove about two hours west from Mazar-e-Sharif to Sheberghan, the capital city of Jawzjan province, to meet with recently displaced families. Since 2009, violence in the north has risen due to increased Taliban presence, and the number of newly displaced families has increased by 300%. So we were eager to hear from Afghans about their reasons for fleeing and better understand the challenges they face in Sheberghan.

With the help of a friendly NGO and a few members of the local Shura council, we were taken to a group of traditional mud-brick homes nearby. There, we meet Abdel Rashid, a quiet man, old and weak, whose hands shake continuously. We sit on a rug in his house, as his wife, children and eldest son’s family sit outside and listen in on our conversation, occasionally chiming in. Abdel tells us that he and his family have been living in Sheberghan since early March. They fled their home in Qush Tepa after NATO and Afghan National Army forces carried out a joint military operation against Taliban insurgents who had infiltrated their village.

Life was already becoming increasingly difficult for Abdel and his family in the months leading up to their departure from Qush Tepa. The Taliban had raided their village and last winter’s low rainfall levels led to a shortage of water,  impeding families from cultivating their crops. Making matters worse, Abdel’s eldest son has been in prison for the last four years – for a crime his father isn’t sure he committed. His son’s wife and their three daughters live with Abdel and his wife. Since Abdel’s other son lives elsewhere with his own family, he is unable to rely on either of his sons to provide for the families.

In Sheberghan, the two families live in two small, single-room mud-brick houses. The women occasionally earn some money by washing clothes for the town’s wealthier residents, but their earnings amount to very little. They are all concerned about their existing food supply. Abdel says they have received two sacks of flour, rice and oil from the UN, but this food won’t last them much longer – maybe another few weeks. To supplement their existing stock, his daughter-in-law visits her husband once a week in the prison nearby to collect bread from the wealthier inmates, who receive food from their families.

We ask Abdel what sort of assistance he needs from the Afghan government, and he humbly replies, “I will appreciate anything that comes to me and my family,” as he puts his arms up to express gratitude to Allah. Pressed further, he explains that additional food and better shelter would be helpful in the short-term, but what he and his family really need is vocational training and some tools to create and sell things in the market, like the flower-patterned blankets hanging on the wall made by Abdel’s daughter-in-law.

Finally, we ask Abdel if he plans to return to his village in Qush Tepa once the fighting subsides or when his son is released from prison. He says that he would like to, but he is afraid the Taliban will kill him and his family because of his son’s alleged crimes.

After we thank him for his time, Abdel lifts his weak, shaking hands up and leads us all in a prayer, asking for peace and healing in their village and for his son. In the midst of immense despair and uncertainty over his family’s future, Abdel’s perspective is profoundly humbling and heartrending.

Abdel and his family are not in a unique situation. According to the local Shura, over 870 families from more than 170 villages have fled Qush Tepa and Darzab districts to Sheberghan since January 1st, primarily due to insecurity and food shortages caused by low rainfall. The latest military campaign against the Taliban in Jawzjan province, Operation Wahdat, has been labeled a success by NATO. But as additional military operations continue in the north, and more people are faced with food shortages due to drought, it is likely that more families like Abdel’s will be forced to leave their homes and will require assistance.

As Congress re-examines the future of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, those of us in the humanitarian community must continue to highlight the needs of ordinary Afghans affected by this war – like Abdel and his family – and remind policymakers in the U.S. that now is not the time to abdicate our moral responsibility to assist the most vulnerable Afghans.