Afghanistan’s street children struggle to feed families

Afghanistan is grappling with serious economic and social woes over a decade after a U-S-led-invasion of the country. The government has also been criticized for failing to deal with these problems. The economic plight has forced a large number of Afghan children to work on the streets to try to feed their families.
Kabul has a population of around six million people. Among them are around 600,000 street children who live in toughconditions. Most of them belong to fatherless families. These families depend on their children to try to find a way to survive. Umar is one of those children who have to work. A U-S night time air raid on their village in Kapisa province left Umar’s father dead. Soon after the family lost its breadwinner, Umar left his village for Kabul. Now he lives with his uncle’s family. But as his uncle is a simple shoe maker, Umer has to work too. For Umar it’s a constant struggle to feed himself and send some money back to his family in Kapisa every month. Afghan president Hamid Karzai expressed his concern about the living conditions of street children in a recent adress on the Afghan National Radio. Karzai asked International organizations including UNICEF to pay more attention to the issue. But some experts are pointing the finger at the afghan government and western countirs for failing to do much. Today’s children are the men of Afghanistan’s future. But what many afghans are asking is how these poor street children who are not receiving any education will play a positive role in Afghanistan’s future.