CharityHelp International

Orphan Children in Afghanistan

hile the world's attention has once again turned away from Afghanistan, the country continues to be home to one of the world's most tragic humanitarian disasters. Today, after a quarter century of horrific violence and oppression that completely destroyed the country's infrastructure, the children of Afghanistan remain under severe psychological and physical pressures. Children with parents are the fortunate ones because no matter how desperate their families' situations, they still have the loving guidance of a mother and father to help them cope with the many difficulties inherent in being a child in Afghanistan. The countless children orphaned by decades of violence, however, have literally no one to take care of them. If relatives exist, they are often too overburdened and traumatized to care for these most innocent victims of violence.

International aid groups estimate that 28,000 children live on the streets of Kabul alone. A recent Nations Children's Fund survey found that two out of every three children interviewed had seen someone killed during the fighting in Kabul. Seven in 10 had lost a close relative to the war.

The extraction of human organs, mainly kidneys, from refugee children is rampant in Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan. Afghan children of eight or nine years of age are subjected to sexual violence, are beaten, and forced into child labor.  Many turn to begging or crime to survive. A lack of medical facilities and adequate nutrition means that children are frequently the first to succumb to the ravages of infectious diseases.
It is not unheard-of for desperate parents to sell their own children because they are not able to feed and clothe them. Some have even killed their children rather than subject them to lives of abject misery.

Our orphanages were established to care for the hopeless and helpless. We recognize that our children are the greatest hope for Afghanistan's future, and providing loving care, education, and a safe environment for as many children as possible is among our most important work. The number of children we can care for is limited only by a lack of finances. The orphanages rely completely on funding from individual supporters around the world. We receive no funding from NGO's or governments.

Therefore, we need your help. We can save the lives of many orphans who are now working under the most unbearable conditions on the streets and in brickyards. We can save the lives of innocent children who have no one to look after them and have nothing to eat. Our aim is to help these bright, beautiful children to become secure, compassionate, educated citizens, who will be the future of our country. Please join us in our efforts to build a bright future for each individual child and for Afghanistan.