By Abdul Haleem, Zhang Jianhua
KABUL, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Packed in a muddy classroom, over three dozen children including boys and girls were busy in learning to build their future and serve their war-ravaged nation.
Without specific school uniform, majority of the junior learners attending the unique classroom were orphans or had disabled fathers who had lost part or parts of his body in the protracted strife that has sandwiched Afghanistan.
"My dream is to become a doctor and serve the poor people," a 10-year-old girl Rubina murmured in chat with Xinhua on Tuesday, one day ahead of International Children's Day (June 1) observed across the world.
The ambitious Rubina whose father has lost his leg in the endemic war said she might have gotten admission in a private school if her father were able to fund her education.
Currently she is studying in a peaceful space run by Aschiana -- a non-governmental organization supporting orphans, poor and street children.
"We are supporting poor and vulnerable children. Provide them vocational training and inspire them to learn and become self- sufficient in future," Aschiana' chief Mohammad Yusuf told Xinhua.
The non-profitable body, according to its chief Yusuf is at present covering 7,700 vulnerable children across the militancy- ridden Afghanistan.
"I am very happy that Ashiana in addition to providing shelter and education also assists my family with food items including wheat and cooking oil," Rubina said while sitting among classmates in a classroom without chair, desk and computer.
Rubina is not alone that the prolonged war has deprived her of a normal home life and proper education.
"This is very good for me and for my family that from one side I learn here, and on the other side, I receive a sack of wheat and a tin of cooking oil," every month, Mohammad Farhad, 9, another child in Aschiana said.
Although there is no official statistic on the number of street children in the war-plagued Afghanistan according to Aschiana's website there are an estimated 600,000 working children in the war- torn Afghanistan.
These children, according to the website are girls and boys between the ages of five to 16 years old.
Children working on streets and involved in child labor to support their families are seen almost elsewhere in Afghanistan.
These have not children are often busy in shoe polishing, washing cars, work on brick kilns, selling shopping bags, work on farmlands, grazing animals and work in mechanic shops to earn meager sum.
Besides Aschaina, there are some-government-run orphanages in Kabul and other cities to support and shelter street children.
Even though the Afghan government has been endeavoring to heal the wounds of Afghan children suffering from war aftermath and has facilitated 8.3 million children to get education, some 4.5 million school-aged children, according to officials cannot go to school.
"I want to be a disciplined student and attend my school regularly but unfortunately I am paying the price of war as it killed my father four years ago and ultimately left me alone to bear my family's responsibility," 11-year-old Shakir who sells water on a Kabul street said.
Special Report: Afghanistan Situation
