Many boys like Saeed Gul are desperately trying to earn money for their impoverished families. That means more street-pickers chasing less rubbish
n the chilly half-light of a Kabul dawn, two girls are walking to school, engrossed in conversation, their backpack straps neatly arranged over the folds of their white headscarves. If they have seen the slightly older boy coming towards them, they don’t show it. He also has a bag over his shoulder – but his is a big, dirty sack, patched together from scraps of material. He isn’t paying attention to the approaching girls either: he’s concentrating on some litter by the side of the road.
Gul went to school for two years but says he didn’t learn much. “Often, the teachers wouldn’t show up. And when they did, you would sit there for a bit and then they would call a break.” He has fond memories of playing cricket with his school friends. But his parents pulled him out of school when he was eight or nine. With his two siblings increasingly helpless, they needed his help doing chores like fetching firewood and water.
Gul packed his bag and got ready for the journey over the Hindu Kush mountains. “After we had said goodbye and I was in the car, I was very sad,” he says. “But I didn’t cry.”shalwar kameezLike millions of Afghans, Khan, now 25, spent much of his childhood as a refugee in neighbouring Pakistan after war forced his family out of Kunduz. When they returned, Khan struggled to find work. Three years ago he moved to Kabul and founded a recycling business.
Towering over them, Khan chats amiably with his employees before they set off for their morning round. It’s no substitute for a family, but he and the boys form a tight-knit group. He only takes workers from Kunduz – he wants his business to be a safety net for those back home – and tries to put kids from the same village in one hut.
Eventually we reach a main road. Nearby is Charahi Qambar, an area known for its large permanent settlement of returned refugees and people displaced by the fighting of recent years. This also means more competition for rubbish.
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