Monday, November 23, 2009

Children work to smuggle food and other items across War Torn Border in Middle East

Torkham, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Sabar Mina is cloaked in a light green shawl tinged with dirt. She is holding an empty flour sack that she plans on filling with firewood.
Her eyes are soft and kind, but they bear the signs of exhaustion. There's a reason for that. Instead of going to school, the eight-year-old walks an hour to work.
All day long Sabar takes items back and forth between two of the most dangerous countries in the world, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Normally she smuggles flour from the Pakistan side where she is from. Pakistan has a ban on exporting food items to Afghanistan because of a spike in food prices, so flour is a hot commodity right now.
Once over the border Sabar gathers and carries firewood to take back from Afghanistan. Her job is hard and sometimes dangerous.
"When we bring the flour the Pakistani police stop us and they hit us, beat us," she said.
But that is nothing compared to one of the other dangers of the job. Sabar was working the border with her younger sister when a suicide bomber blew himself up killing several people. It was the second terror attack in three months on this border.
"When the bomb exploded I was on the Afghanistan side with my sister." She said: "We were crying and then we ran away to the Pakistan side."
But it hasn't stopped her or her sister from working. There are hundreds of children just like them. One charitable organization there estimates 300 children per day work the border at Torkham.

No comments: