Date: 5/6/2005 9:21:22 AM ( 19 y ) ... viewed 5349 times
Awful odds for Afghan children
Parents everywhere worry about their children but imagine having worries like these: Your child has a cold or a skin infection. Could it be tuberculosis? Or measles? When your son plays in the fields, will he lose a leg to a landmine? In rural Afghanistan, these are not irrational fears. Ask an Afghan mother how many children she has and the reply often is: "You mean still living?"(Geno Teofilo, World Vision)
An Afghan child in Farah province drinks from an irrigation ditch. Afghanistan has the fourth highest child death rate in the world. Lack of access to safe water is a major conributor. From 8,000 to 12,000 Afghan children die every month from preventable and treatable diseases. In remote villages there is neither transportation nor medical care. Many children die at home, never coming anywhere near a hospital. Photo: Ahmad Saoud
An Afghan family sits near an old broken down Soviet tank in Qal-e-Naw. After 23 years of war in Afghanistan, there is still a great deal of war refuse remaining to be cleaned up.This includes armoured vehicles, and dangerous landmines. Photo: Geno Teofilo
Ten-year-old Said stepped into the path of an exploding mine and is totally blind as a result of the Christmas day accident. He was tending sheep in his father's field when the mine exploded. His region, Shindan, is one of the most heavily mined areas in Afghanistan. It is believed that around 10,000,000 landmines have been buried throughout the country since 1979, which means that there are around 50 mines per square kilometre. The threat to inquisitive, innocent children is overwhelming. Photo: Janet Rice
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