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CNN Sunday Morning

Afghanistan Has 1 Million Orphaned Children

Aired January 06, 2002 - 10:12   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Years of war in Afghanistan have hurt that country's most innocent, the children. Hundreds of thousands are living without homes, without parents. CNN's John Vause visits an orphanage in Kabul, where the young still live in harsh conditions.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): In many way, these children are the poorest of Afghans, just some of the 1 million orphans in the country who live in appalling conditions. Here at the Tahir Masqan (ph) Orphanage, one of two in Kabul, the toilets and showers don't work, the children use a bathing center once a week.

The main meal of the day, potatoes and beans. It's been that way for months.

"For about five or six months, the children haven't eaten fruit," says Mohammed Zahef Fazil, the director of the orphanage. "The children have many dietary problems."

They sleep 12 to a room, with nothing more than a thin blanket against the winter chill, and it will become even colder here in the coming weeks. There is no real medical care, either physical or emotional to deal with the years of trauma.

Many of these children, though, aren't even orphans, sent away by their families because the conditions here are often better than at home. Baha Wain (ph) is 13 years old. His six sisters and two younger brothers still live with their mother.

Still these children seem surprisingly happy, like eight-year-old Shama Hamod (ph) who says he wants for nothing, possibly because he knows no better. He's been an orphan almost all his short life.

"A bomb was dropped on our house many years ago" he told me. "My mother and father were killed."

After being told of the hardships of these children, Hamid Karzai visited the al-Wadin (ph) Orphanage, the children from Tahir Masqan were brought over, crammed onto two old trucks for a chance to see the new interim leader face-to-face. Karzai promised these children more food and warm clothes for winter. (on camera): It may not seem like much, but like almost everything else that Hamid Karzai has promised, there's little he can do without international aid, and if it doesn't come, perhaps the hardest thing he must do is explain why to these children.

John Vause, CNN, Kabul.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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