One shoeshine boy’s hope for education
Amid roadside restaurants and bustling crowds in one of Herat’s busiest markets, in Afghanistan, 10-year-old Wakeel* is working as a shoeshine boy. Until recently, he had never stepped foot inside a school, instead roaming the streets, equipped with brush and shoe polish, working 11-hour days to provide an income for his family.
Each morning he gets up early with his two brothers, gulps down a cup of green tea, maybe munches on some bread, and then ventures out into the city. If the three brothers don’t work, the family will go hungry, they say.
The 10-year-old, who now lives in Herat city in northwestern Afghanistan, moved from the rural Badghis province two years ago, his parents’ decision to relocate driven by hunger and poverty. In Herat, his family had hoped to find work easily but instead Wakeel and his two brothers quickly became the family’s only breadwinners.
“I started when I was eight years old,” says Wakeel. “My father is sick and can’t work anymore, so my brothers and I work to buy bread.” On a good day, Wakeel makes up to 100 Afghani, just over US$1, with his brothers bringing in similar amounts. The need to buy food has driven him onto the streets but hunger is still a daily reality. During the day, he mostly works on an empty stomach.
This worries his mother Shafiqa*, 30. “I suffer because of my children’s unknown future,” she admits. “I am worried about what kind of future is awaiting them because they couldn’t go to school. I worry each day when my boys leave in the mornings,” she said, adding that she was mostly concerned with accidents and kidnapping [for ransom] – a recently increasing crime as poverty has soared.
Shafiqa is working too. She takes on cooking and cleaning jobs and would like more but the demand isn’t there. “I’m sorry that my children have to work,” she says.
60,000 children work on the streets in Kabul
Child labour is common throughout Afghanistan, with estimates showing that in the capital Kabul alone, at least 60,000 children work on the streets every day. In Herat, up to 10,000 could be working regularly, the previous government’s municipality estimated. Since last year’s regime change, these numbers have tripled.
Afghanistan’s economy has deteriorated to the point of total collapse; with almost the entire population – 95 percent – unable to access adequate food supplies. Almost nine million people are just one step away from famine. With last August’s regime change, the country’s banking system has collapsed; the currency inflated. Billions of private Afghan assets remain frozen in US banks, meaning that countless people can’t access their savings. Wakeel has no savings and on a bad day he makes no money at all, because even the 20 Afghani (US$0.23) to have your shoes cleaned is difficult to afford for many.