Thousands of students in Afghanistan have had to drop out or cut classes to work since the Taliban takeover. With almost no foreign aid entering the country and many adults jobless, more school-age boys have become breadwinners for their families.
Karzai Balochkhel, 16, sells toilet paper to pharmacist Murtaza Khaleqe in Kabul on April 16. KABUL — Nine months ago, Karzai Balochkhel was a 10th-grade student, learning math, physics and even a bit of art history. Today, he is an itinerant peddler, selling paper towels door to door and learning how to haggle over pennies. On a good day, he can make about $4, just enough for his family to eat that night.
In Kabul, some boys attend school in the mornings, then work in the afternoons. At a nonprofit program called Aschiana, more than 1,500 working boys take morning classes and eat lunch before they hit the streets. Yousef Nawabi, the longtime director, says the need has skyrocketed in recent months. Along the way, Karzai passed several restaurants where he had once made regular sales. Now they were all closed for the month of Ramadan, which also required the brothers to walk all day without eating or drinking. “It’s hot, and it’s especially hard on my brother,” he said.
Half an hour later, the brothers spotted another boy coming toward them, carrying identical plastic sacks of paper towels over his shoulder. They exchanged greetings, but it was an awkward moment. “Everyone’s getting into this business now,” Karzai said with a sigh.After about four hours of walking, they decided to call it quits. Their total take was 400 Afghanis, about $4, minus the commission they had to return to the supplier.
The family is almost totally dependent on Karzai and Shahid, whose earnings are not enough to pay the rent, and often not enough to buy more than rice and lentils for dinner. The decision to pull them out of school was a last, desperate resort.
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