The Terrible Plight of Afghan Children

KABUL, April 21, 2008 — -- Afghan labourer Chaman travelled a whole day to bring his son to Kabul to have a kidney stone removed after doctors in their home province turned them away because they could not afford the fees.

The two-year-old boy, who suffered excruciating pain forthree days, finally had the stone removed in a charity hospital funded by Turkey.

"The private hospitals are only for rich businessmen. Poor people have to use government hospitals and if they can't help, the children die," said the young father from Ghazni province as he unwrapped a piece of paper to show a brown pebble measuring half a centimetre in diameter. Ghazni is southwest of Kabul.

Foreign donors have given some $15 billion in aid to Afghanistan since U.S.-led and Afghan forces toppled theTaliban in 2001, but several times more was spent per person in other conflict zones such as Bosnia and East Timor.

The U.S. military alone spends $100 million a day fighting Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan while the total spending by all donors is only $7 million a day, aid groups say.

Nevertheless, the number of health facilities in Afghanistan has risen from 550 in 2001 to 1,429 now.

The government says free basic healthcare is available within two hours walking distance to 85 percent of thepopulation, from just 9 percent in 2003. But people say they are far from adequate and decent healthcare is available only to those who can afford to pay, travel to the capital city, or go overseas.

"My friend's son died last year from pneumonia because he could not borrow enough money in time to take him to Kabul. In Ghazni (where they were living), good medicines aren't available in the public hospitals," said Afghan driver, Jan.

Afghanistan has one of the world's highest infant and child mortality figures. Out of 1,000 live births, 128 die beforethey are a year old, and one out of every five children will not live beyond the age of five, according to officialstatistics.

Thirty-nine percent of children under five are malnourished due to poverty and 54 percent of Afghan children are stunted and 40 percent are underweight, according to UNICEF.