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We
info about ASCHIANA
This
newsletter is about the
ASCHIANA centers for street-working children in Kabul.
ASCHIANA is an indigenous Afghan NGO with the clear
aim to support abandoned, impoverished street working and begging
children in the streets of Kabul city.
We will try to describe ASCHIANA’s attempt to improve their
living conditions. Aschiana means simply “nest”.
Nooriya, a 12 years old street working girl, is telling us her
story and is giving us an insight about daily life of street kids
in Kabul.
The
history of aschiana
The
situation of street working children was perceived and sensed by
ASCHIANA in 1995. With financial and logistical support provided
by the Swiss Foundation of Terre des hommes ASCHIANA opened
the first centers for street working children in Shar-I-Naw
and in Khair Khana in Kabul for about 250 boys and girls.
1996 ASCHIANA and Terre des hommes with the financial
assistance of UNHCR conducted a survey in Kabul and identified a
total number of 28,000 children aged between 6 and 16
working and begging in the streets. Their main activities were and
still are begging, collecting plastic material, paper and garbage
for fuel, shoe polishing, selling small items, car washing etc.
working and begging in the streets. Their main activities were and
still are begging, collecting plastic material, paper and garbage
for fuel, shoe polishing, selling small items, car washing etc.
In 1997 two more centers were established, one in DeAfghanan
and the last one in Micro Rayan No.3. The four centers
reached 1998 1,300 boys and girls. The 650 girls came in the
morning and the boys came in the afternoon, all receiving the same
assistance like two meals per day, Islamic education, health
education, health care, personal hygiene, vocational training,
tailoring, flower making, embroidery, carpet weaving etc. The four
centers are also a safe haven for the children where they can
freely play and interact. In addition through drama and artwork
like wood carving, calligraphy, oil painting etc. they improve
their learning and social capacities and enjoy a higher degree of
self-esteem and self-respect.
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Afghanistan became a
signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on 27
September 1990 and ratified it on 28 March 1994. It came into
force on 27 April 1994. The Convention grants each child the right
to life. This goes much further than the mere granting of children
the right not to be killed. It includes the right to survival and
development that includes mental, emotional, cognitive, social and
cultural development.
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But in July 1998 Taliban authorities ordered that no girls
regardless of age are allowed to attend the programs. The girls
had to leave the centers immediately. ASCHIANA with the support of
Terre des hommes is trying to reopen the dialogue with the
authorities in order to allow street working girls again to attend
ASCHIANA’s programs.
Nooriya
Nooriya
is only one of many thousands of children who spend their daily
lives working in the streets of Kabul. In every district of Kabul,
children can be seen scavenging for firewood and paper, collecting
scrap metal, and begging. Thousands more work as apprentices or
assistants in shops, and garages, earning slave wages for long
hours of grueling work. For such children, every day is a fight
for survival for themselves and their families.
Nooriya,
1996: “My father was a driver in Kabul. During the fighting he
was killed. My mother and my three sisters (one was only two days
old when my father died) and I decided to go to our
grandmother’s house in Parwan province. When my grandmother
died, we had to return to Kabul.
Now
we are living with our aunt’s family in a rented house. Our aunt
lets us share her basement, which has a very damp floor. Because
of the dampness, we have to take out the floor covering to be
dried in the sun every day. Sometimes, my aunt’s mother-in-law
tells my aunt to throw us out so that she can bring her relatives
to the house. My mother earns money by washing other’s people
clothes. I have an uncle who will not help us. One day during eid
holidays, we went to our uncle’s house and noticed that all our
cousins were wearing new clothes. We weren’t wearing new
clothes, as we cannot afford them. My uncle told my mother that if
my father were alive, he would have new clothes made for us. That
made the whole family cry so much.
Several
times afterwards when we went to my uncle’s house, his wife
treated us very badly and made us leave her house. She said that
our uncle didn’t have enough money for his own children, and
could not feed more hungry mouths.
My
work in the streets is to collect firewood and paper. I start at
7:oo in the morning, and after collecting some firewood, I go to
ASCHIANA and eating lunch, I leave again to collect more firewood
and take it home.
One of my saddest memories is that one day while I was collecting
firewood and waste paper from a dump in Charahi Haji Yaqub,
a rocket landed there. As soon as I heard the terrible sound of a
rocket hitting the street, I went close to a wall. A passerby
asked me what I was doing there and if I had a house to go. I was
so frightened and shocked that I ran from the wall and hid behind
my sack of firewood, thinking that it would protect me from rocket
shrapnel. After a while, I saw bodies lying around, some wounded
and some killed. I didn’t know what to do, and when I finally
went home, I could not talk for a while.
Our biggest daily problem is that whenever we go to an area in
search for firewood and paper, the other children of the area
tease us, snatch our sacks and empty them, which is very
frustrating. So I have to start all over again. This takes up a
lot of time, and I usually miss my classes at Aschiana. When I go
home in the evening, I help my mother with housework. Then go
to our neighbor’s house to help the women who was wounded in the
rocket attack and is handicapped. When it is dark, we go to bed,
and hope there will not be any rockets in the night.
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Noorya,
now 12 years old: I still work in the streets to collect pieces and
wood for fuel. I also beg for money and bread. My younger sister was
2 days old when my father was killed. Now she is also working in the
streets to collect pieces of wood and paper and begs for money and
bread. My mother is still washing clothes for other people to earn
some money.
I start my work at 7 in the morning. After collecting some items I
go home because I become very tired. Our food is bread and tea and
some shola.
Some nights we just sleep without eating anything because we do not
have the bread to eat. One of my problems is lack of a brother. The
other problem is that I become older day by day and the boys disturb
me while I am working in the streets.
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According to UNICEF,
children in the streets are those whose family support base has
become increasingly weakened who must share in the responsibility
for family survival by working on city streets and market places.
For these children the home ceases to be their center for play,
culture, and daily life.
Nevertheless while the street becomes their daytime activity,
most of these children will return home most nights. While their
family relationship may be deteriorating, they are still definitely
in place, and these children continue to view life from the point of
view of their families.
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“In
Afghanistan, children are largely invisible. The complexity
of the humanitarian crisis often obscures their particular
vulnerabilities and plight, which is overshadowed by the
overarching, situational problems of health, water and
sanitation, and infrastructure. This has led to a
pre-dominance of programs, which are charac-terized by a
general over reliance on a supply oriented strategy. There
is a noticeable absence of programs working directly with
children to improve the quality of their lives. The damage
being caused to children in the wake of the war is often
intangible and long-term, and extends to their mental,
emotional, social and cognitive development. The argument
that, in programming, the basic needs of children must be
met first, begs the question of what is defined as a basic
need. Social
development through play and recreation to children is as
vital to their development as nutrition and protection from
disease and physical harm. Early childhood development is
the key to a future generation able to meet the
reconstruction needs of Afghanistan.”
Children and Women in Afghanistan –
A Situation Analysis, UNICEF, 1998 (unpubl.)
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Convention
of the Rights of the Child
For
the first time in Afghan history the International Day of the Rights
of the Child was celebrated in Kabul on 20th of November.
ASCHIANA
organized the ceremony at its center in Shar-I-Naw by inviting all
street children from all four centers as well as representatives of
UN, international NGOs, local NGOs as well as government authorities
– represented by various deputy ministers.
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Afghan
News
14
November: An opposition commander defected to Taliban along with 150
of his fighters, reported a Pakistan-based Afghan news service.
14
November:
The Afghanistan’s
seat in the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) will remain
vacant till an end to the on-going civil war in that country,
diplomatic sources confided to The Frontier Post in Islamabad.
16
November: Mahmoud
Surkha, a former Afghan opposition commander joined the Taliban with
40 armed and 30 unarmed soldiers because of alleged Russian support
for commmander Ahmad Shah Masood.
18 November: International
aid agencies are assessing the situation on the Tajik-Afghan border
where about ten thousand people are estimated to have sought refuge
from the fighting in Northern Afghanistan.
18 November: Two
more commanders of the opposition joined the Taliban forces in the
northern Afghanistan. It was the second defection from the
opposition in a week, the official Afghan news agency reported.
20 November: The
European Commission has contributed over Euro 400 million in grants
to the Afghan people for alleviating their sufferings resulting out
of the 20 years of war.
21 November: The
ruling Taliban militia released 137 Shia Muslims, who had been held
prisoners for nearly two years.
24 November:
General
Khudaidad Hazara a minister in the cabinet of ousted government of
President Burhanuddin Rabbani announced support for the Taliban,
saying he wants to bring the Shia-dominated Hazara closer to the
Taliban.
27 November:
Afghanistan’s
Taliban authori-ties have imposed restrictions on foreigners leaving
the country by land, said the senior United Nations and Taliban
officials.
29 November: Moscow
called on the UN Security Council to harden sanctions against
Kabul’s ruling Taliban regime during a visit by the UN’s special
envoy to Afghanistan, Francesc Vendrell.
29 November: Iran
is unwilling to recognise the Taliban government in Afghanistan for
several justifiable reasons.
30
November: The Afghan opposition captured two villages outside
the capital of northern Takhar province after a bitter overnight
battle against Taliban troops, said the opposition spokesman.
7 December: Before
the current session of the UN General Assembly ends, the Security
Council may pass smart sanctions against Afghanistan, with China
abstaining, sources said.
9 December: Taliban vowed on Thursday that any tougher sanctions
would not force it to change its policy of protecting Osama bin
Laden.
12 December: Some United Nations staff in war-torn Afghanistan have
begun leaving as a precaution against possible protests over new UN
sanctions, a spokesman said.
14 December: The UN is expressing serious concern about the
effects of new sanctions against Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers on
the already grave humanitarian situation in the country and
prospects for peace talks.
14 December: In a UN report released Tuesday on the humanitarian
impact of the proposed sanctions, the report also found substantial
indirect effects of the measures by deepening the sense of isolation
that Afghans feel and their sense of pessimism about their future.
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Terre des hommes
is working on both sides of the frontlines in Afghanistan and
keeping strict neutrality in the conflict.
Terre des hommes’ emergency team in Rustaq increased its staff
with experts from
France and Spain to provide more assistance to children and
their families who fled the fierce fighting in northern Afghanistan.
64% of the 55 international staff members of Terre des hommes Afghanistan
are Afghan women with 6 women in a senior or middle management
position.
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Foundation
of Terre des hommes in Afghanistan
The Liaison Delegation Office
P.O.Box 729 UT Peshawar
Islamic Republic of Pakistan
tdhkabul@brain.net.pk
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Sources: The News; ACBAR News Summary; Children and Women in
Afghanistan – A Situation Analysis, UNICEF, 1998 (unpublished)
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