World Street Children News :: Afghanistan Streetkid News

High rents may close Kabul “nest” for street kids

2 May 2005

KABUL - Engineer Mohammad Yousuf managed to keep his charity for Kabul’s street children running during Afghanistan’s bloody civil war and throughout the draconian rule of the Taleban in the 1990s.

But three-and-a-half years after the Taleban’s overthrow by U.S.-led forces, the future of Aschiana, or “the nest”, is in limbo due to soaring rents that have accompanied Kabul’s post-war dollar-fuelled boom.

Aschiana provides food, education and vocational training for about 1,000 street children and some of their parents and has been a vital source of hope for some of Afghanistan’s most needy.

All this is at risk because the new owner of the three-acre (1.2 hectare) plot on which the charity’s main centre is located plans to use the site to put up a posh hotel in a city now marching to the tune of free-market economics.

A sharp rise in property prices since late 2001 means the plot is now valued at about $5 million.

Yousuf has been paying $1,500 a month in rent and has been told to leave.

“We cannot afford rents like $9,000 or $10,000 a month that you have to pay now in the centre of Kabul,” he said.

This would be more than Aschiana’s $100,000 annual budget for all its centres, including those in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif and in Parwan province.

“With the rising house rents, it is difficult for us to continue,” Yousuf said. “I have informed the donors. I have also written to the government, but have not heard from them.”

Terre des Hommes, a Swiss-based aid group involved in Aschiana’s project, says the current donors lack the budget to pay higher rents at a new location.

“Aschiana and TDH are calling on the Afghan government and the international community to support a new ’nest’ for Aschiana,” said TDH’s Andreas Herbst.
Traumas of war

Kabul has an estimated 50-60,000 street children, who eke out an existence scavenging through rubbish, polishing shoes, washing cars, hawking goods or simply stretching out their hands for cash or food.

Many lost one or both parents in Afghanistan’s three decades of war, which killed an estimated 50,000 people in Kabul alone, and have suffered acute psychological trauma.

About 12,000 have benefited from Aschiana’s work over the years.

Children from the age of eight to 18 attend classes teaching basic literacy, vocational skills and sports for half a day and then spend the rest doing their usual street work.

At the centre, paintings by Aschiana’s children hang in the stairway leading to the second floor of the building, depicting Afghanistan’s tragic recent past, its natural beauty and culture, as well as it leaders.

But dust has started accumulating on musical instruments in one of the rooms where children have been taught music, and the sports yard is deserted, while workers examine the building to work out which part to pull down first to make way for the hotel.

Yousuf kept the centre open throughout the Taleban’s rule, when women were barred from education and most work, even though he was beaten and imprisoned by them three times.

“It would be a misfortune if the centre has to close,” he said. “It is very frustrating for me getting up in the morning and trying to think how to keep the project going.

“The civil war and Taleban time were not so hard because we had a lot of attention then from donors,” Yousuf said.

“I am not insisting that I or Aschiana need to look after these street children, but we have to find a way out to save these young children from a possibly gloomy future.”

By Tom Coghlan in Kabul

Many of Aschiana’s children lost their parents in the wars

Afghanistan’s internationally renowned charity for street children, Aschiana, survived the Afghan wars of the 1990s and the Taleban era.

However, the free market economics of Kabul’s post-war boom now seem a more potent enemy than rockets and bombs.

Aschiana, which means "the nest" and provides support, food, education and a refuge to 10,000 street children, faces the closure of its main centre in Kabul.

It is the victim of rocketing rents and land prices rather than artillery.

This will be a shame on the international community and the government of Afghanistan if we have to abandon the children now Engineer Mohammed Yousef Aschiana founder

The charity’s compound on Char Rahi Malik Asghar, which it has occupied since 1997, has been sold by its owner to an international company.

A five-star hotel will be built on the site.

Kabul is a city in the grip of a housing boom that has seen the price of real estate soar to levels comparable with Western cities.

The three-acre Aschiana plot, close to the main government ministries, is believed to be worth around $5m.

Working children

A small class of wealthy Afghan entrepreneurs and international companies have been the prime beneficiaries of the boom.

Drawings by children are sold to help the youngsters and Aschiana

"Our rent for this site was $1,500 a month," says Aschiana’s director and founder, Engineer Mohammed Yousef.

"We have been looking for alternative sites but rents in the centre of the city are too expensive now."

Much smaller sites further from the city centre, where most of the street children gravitate, now cost around $10,000 a month in rent.

Kabul has about 50,000 children working on its streets.

Many lost their parents during Afghanistan’s 24-year conflict and they are often to be seen banded together and scavenging through rubbish.

Many make a meagre living polishing shoes or selling water, chewing gum or newspapers to drivers at busy junctions.

They often show the tell-tale, disfiguring scars of leishmaniasis, a parasitic skin infection which is transmitted by sandflies and commonly affects those who live on the streets.

As well as sexual abuse and domestic violence, children at the centre have often suffered high levels of psychological trauma during the wars.

Trees felled

The early lives of many of the street children were dominated by the protracted siege of Kabul in the 1990s when random rocketing and gunfire by various militias killed an estimated 20,000 civilians.

Today children at the centre are still engaged in classes in art, music, dance, computing, sport and basic literacy.

Dress-making is one of the classes that Aschiana offers

"I don’t want to tell the children that we are closing," says Engineer Yousef, above the sound of chainsaws.

Workmen have arrived to begin felling the trees in the courtyard where the children play games.

In a classroom learning mathematics, an 11-year-old boy called Hamed says his ambition is to become a doctor.

Previously, he was a refugee in Pakistan where his family fled after the death of his father.

Hamed says he makes 50 Afghans a day, the equivalent of $1, selling bottles of water on the street before coming to the Aschiana centre.

He hopes to progress enough in his studies to go to a normal school.

A total of 661 children from Aschiana’s centres were reintegrated into normal schooling last month.

In a classroom of 30 girls studying basic literacy, the walls are adorned with posters of different mines and cluster bombs.

Next door a class of girls is learning dress-making while in another part of the compound children practise still-life drawing.

Voracious market

The children come in during the day in shifts to maximise the number benefiting.

The children are the nation’s future, says Aschiana

Aschiana is famed for its art and music. Many of the pictures painted by the children are sold, with half the money going to the artist and half to help fund the charity.

In the centre’s music room, professional musicians are taking raucous singing classes with the children before heading off to earn their living at weddings and parties in the evenings.

Aschiana’s director is certain the main centre for 800 children will close at the end of June.

Another of Aschiana’s six centres in Kabul, this one for 400 children, is also closing because of rent.

The charity relies on a mixture of money from the European Community, World Bank and numerous smaller donors such as the British charity Friends of Aschiana.

Last year, Aschiana survived on $3 per child, per month.

With Kabul’s voracious housing market making it ever harder for such organisations to function, that amount looks likely to drop further.

In a rare expression of his frustration, Engineer Yousef says: "Despite the problems that were faced during the Taleban era, Aschiana managed to continue to function.

"This will be a shame on the international community and the government of Afghanistan if we have to abandon the children now.