Afghanistan: Child Laborers Miss School, Face Spiral Of Poverty
by Ron Synovitz
An Afghan child on the streets of Kabul (RFE/RL)
June 11, 2007 (RFE/RL) — Hasib is a 12-year-old Afghan boy who spends his days working at a bicycle repair shop in Kabul. He says he considers himself lucky because he is learning a trade that he will have for life. But since he started the job at the age of nine, he has had to quit school. And he does not know how to read or write.
I’m fixing this bicycle, so I’ve just unscrewed these handlebars,” Hasib tells RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan. “I’ve been working here for the past three years. I had to learn how to do this work. My hands would get hurt very badly at first, until I learned how to do it. I got burned until I learned how. I had to work a lot to learn and become someone.”
