Hazara Nation

Eleven-year-old Fatima and her nine-year-old brother, Ahmad, left school in Ghor Province, central-southern Afghanistan, to help feed their family. From dawn till dusk they scavenge for metal, bone and plastics from which they can earn about US$1 a day. Fatima told IRIN of the hardships she and her brother face:

“Early in the morning it’s difficult to wake up because I feel pain in my legs and back. Ahmed has similar complaints.

“Throughout the day we walk from place to place in search of metal, plastic bottles and bones. Sometimes we also find good food thrown out with the rubbish… we often eat it. Ahmad once got sick because he had eaten something dirty, so now we don’t eat everything but only things which are OK.

“We sell metal for 20 Afghani [40 US cents] per kilo, and bones and plastic bottles for 10 Afghani [20 cents] per kilo. We make about 40-50 Afghani on a good day.

“Our work is very hard and I feel pain all over my body… Nobody helps us. If we don’t work hard, we will die of hunger. So we have to work and earn a piece of bread for our family. We don’t have the money to visit a doctor and buy medicine.

“We didn’t do this work last year. We went to school where they gave us `ghee’ [clarified butter] and wheat [the UN World Food Programme runs several food-for-education projects across Afghanistan]. Even when they stopped the aid we continued to go to school. But as winter started and schools shut, we could not find enough to eat.

“We would love to go back to school and study again, but we can’t. I hope the government will help us and give us food so that we can go to school again.”