Rebuilding war-torn lives

Many Afghan children are dying of preventable diseases

		By BBC News Online's Marcus George in Afghanistan

The rebuilding task facing Afghanistan's interim administration was overwhelming even before the UN said on Tuesday that the country was virtually bankrupt.

Flying into Bagram airbase, it is hard to miss the bomb craters, blown-out control tower and shattered fuselages left behind in the most recent chapter of the country's violent history.

But equally visible, in the hacking coughs of the children begging on the streets of Kabul, is the devastation reaped on everyday life by Afghanistan's 23 years of conflict.

Blown-out windows are covered with polythene not glass

The majority of Afghans live in homes without electricity and running water.

Windows, shattered at one stage or another by rockets and bombs, are covered by polythene sheeting to keep out the biting wind.

Extended families live in single rooms and are often dependent on the employment of only one family member - even in the cities.

Afghan social security is the extended family. Uncles, brothers, sisters, in-laws often live together.

No heating

Central heating is non-existent. Oil burning stoves are common. But they need fuel, and this costs more than many can afford.

Children suffer from hacking coughs and have to resort to begging because there is no work to do

Burning wood is the alternative. But children foraging in rural areas for branches all too often end up as statistics in the country's landmine victim records.

There is no telephone network in Afghanistan, and hence great difficulty in communicating with family members in different parts of the country.

As in medieval times, messengers are sent for urgent matters or written messages are given to travellers going that way.

Neither is there public transport. Donkeys, private buses, shared taxis are the means of travel.

And then there are the roads. Overland travel in Afghanistan averages 20km per hour - providing travellers do not run into security problems or break down on the way.

Preventable diseases

Lack of hygiene causes fatal medical problems, which in a prosperous society would be cured with a course of pills or prevented with a vaccination.

Kabul River is the only water source for the city's poor

Half of all the children seen on the street have Lashmaniasis, a scarring infection caused by a fly.

They suffer from hacking coughs and have to resort to begging because there is no work to do.

Simply purifying water supplies could avoid a number of child-killing medical problems in Afghanistan.

But with aid agencies only able to establish specific programmes, many children receive no help at all.

And reconstruction here means more than pouring money into new programmes and buildings.

Way of the gun

If a bright future for this beleaguered nation is to be created, social rehabilitation must also be tackled so Afghans can share in the new development.

In a historically learned region, the way of the gun has trodden education into the dust.

The lack of educated Afghans graduating from school and university makes any social reconstruction an ongoing challenge.

It will take generations to reverse the degradation of Afghanistan's medical and educational infrastructure.

Until then, windows will remain polythene, children will die from easily curable diseases, food will be too expensive for the average Afghan and the world will still be talking about what to do with Afghanistan.