Personal Stories

Personal stories provide an insight into other children’s lives, it helps to understand how they are suffer and to what extent.

Gracas Story
Published: 08/03/2006

Graça’s father has died and she lives with her mother who has been ill for many years. Graça is nine year old.

"I look after my mum every day. I go and fetch water, I clean the house and wash the plates. I prepare food for my mum when she’s sick. My mum can walk, but if she does, for two or three days afterwards she can’t walk or go to the fields."

Graça has some help. Henrique, from the Ophans and Vulnerable Children Volunteer Committee visits Graça’s mother twice a week. The volunteers visit people in their homes and take the pressure of the children who have to take care of them.

"On a normal visit I would come and find out how she (Graça’s mother) is. If she is in a critical condition I will try and help her. I sometimes clean the house and bring something to eat. Sometimes I take her to the clinic or go and fetch medicine for her. The children benefit not just from the moral support, but also practically because they are too young to take care of their mother.

"I counsel the children about going to school. If I come and they are doing schoolwork I will help them."

Pedrito's story
Date published: 08/03/2006

Pedrito is 15. He has been looking after his younger brother and sister since their parents died several years ago. Every day, he goes out to look for work. This is usually in other people’s fields or building latrines.

"I don’t have a preference for what kind of work I do – I do the work to survive so everything is welcome," Pedrito explains. If he is successful and finds work he is able to buy some food for his family. On days when he doesn’t find work, they don’t eat. They also need money to pay for any medical treatment they need and also to pay for clean water. His brother and sister help him with the household chores like washing clothes, collecting water and washing the dishes.

Pedrito goes to school in the afternoons. Save the Children has helped him and his brother and sister register for school and has helped with school materials but Pedrito is worried about the cost of school uniforms that they will have to wear from next year.

"If I had a wish, it would be for money, food and things for the home – and school uniforms. I don’t know what I’m going to do about the school uniforms." The uniforms will cost 250,000 meticais (about £6) each.

Thinking of the future Pedrito says, "I want to be somebody - somebody like a teacher. I would like to teach children. Based on my experiences, I want to teach other children and encourage them to stay in school so that they can become somebody too."

Working to improve life in desert camps
Date published: 12/12/2003
Twelve-year-old Juma Khan lives in Zhare Dasht, a camp for internally displaced people. Situated 40km west of Kandahar, the camp is home to 30–40,000 people. Many are Kuchi nomads who moved here after their flocks died during the drought that began in 2000. Others are ethnic Pashtuns from the north who fled US bombing and then violence and intimidation following the fall of the Taliban.

Juma came here after fleeing his home in Faryab province two years ago. “People thought that we were Taliban, and we were threatened, especially by the [Northern Alliance] commanders,” he recalls. “So we left our villages and we travelled using animals and vehicles or by walking until we reached the border with Pakistan.”

When the bombing stopped, Juma Khan and the other refugees were taken to the camp at Zhare Dasht. He now lives in a small mud brick room with his grandmother. His father died fighting the Russians when he was a baby, and his mother died from a chest infection six years ago. An older brother works as a labourer in Pakistan. Another brother left to find work in Iran, but became a heroin addict and never returned.

Life at Zahre Dasht (which means ‘yellow desert’) is tough and uncertain. Despite extensive de-mining operations, mines and unexploded bombs litter the desert beyond the camp perimeter. “I heard that two boys went to the mountains and saw part of a mine above the ground,” says Juma Khan. “It exploded, and one of them injured his chest. The other one lost his hand. Another child stepped on a mine and was blown up.”

Juma Khan is also worried about the lack of education opportunities for children at Zahre Dasht. Although there’s a school at the camp, classes are held in large tents that are hot and dusty in summer and freezing cold in winter. There are few qualified teachers, and classes are overcrowded. It’s especially difficult for girls, who are taught separately from boys. There are only two women teachers in the camp, and pupils in their classes number 120.

Children’s schooling is also disrupted by the need to carry out heavy domestic work. Most children spend several hours a day collecting water from communal pumps, or walking to the mountains to find firewood – an eight-hour return trip. And as Zahre Dasht starts to take on a more permanent role, children spend increasing amounts of time helping their parents to repair and extend their mud brick rooms.

Save the Children is helping to address some of these issues by working with Italian agency Intersos to set up children’s groups where children can discuss problems and work with the camp authorities and other agencies to improve things. We’ve also set up education workshops so that children can find out more about issues that affect them, and we’ve supplied story books, pens, paper, and pencils for informal writing and art classes.

“There are three important things I’d like to see for children in Afghanistan,” says Juma Khan. “First, children should leave unimportant work and go to school. Second, I want parents to allow children to attend school. And third, I want young people who are addicted to drugs to think of their homeland and to come back and help rebuild it.”

Rina's Story
Date published: 25/01/2005
Rina is four or five years old. No one is absolutely sure. She was found alone and suffering from a fever after the tsunami. Ever since Rina has been cared for by a family in Banda Aceh.

She has been registered with Save the Children as she has been separated from her parents, her two older sisters and all her extended family. The Save the Children registration team have taken as many details as possible about her in order to try and reunify her with members of her family. Mutya, the woman caring for Rina, has two of her own children of school age. Fortunately, her house was not destroyed by the tsunami, although the children's school is too badly damaged to reopen for the new term.

Rina says she misses school and her school teacher, and she is suffering from terrible nightmares as a result of the tsunami. Mutya says its Allah's will that Rina was brought to her and she was able to help in some small way. She is committed to finding Rina's family and in the meantime is providing her with a loving, caring environment