United Nations Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs - Integrated Regional Information
Networks-IRIN. Kabul 21.10.08
- Abdul Latif lost his legs in a landmine explosion
in 2002 shortly after starting primary school in Kandahar
Province, southern Afghanistan. The explosion not only
took away his legs but has also deprived him of an
education.
"How can I walk all the way to my school? How can I
move up the stairs? How can I play with other boys? Who
will take me to the toilet?" he asked IRIN in Kabul.
He only recalls a big bang when, on a sunny day, he
stepped on a hidden landmine. Surgeons told Abdul Latif
that in order to save his life they had no option but to
amputate his legs.
"I was sad but doctors assured me that they would give
me artificial legs and that I would be able to walk
easily," he said pointing to his prostheses.
In practice, however, he can hardly walk a short
distance, even with his crutches. He is permanently
dependent on a wheelchair, which he propels with his
hands. His prostheses, crutches and wheelchair prove
unhelpful, however, when he has to walk up stairs or jump
over a gully, he said.
Barriers to education
There are at least 200,000 children in Afghanistan
living with permanent disability (physical, sensory
and/or mental impairment), according to a 2005 survey by
Handicap International - a non-governmental organisation
supporting people with disability.
Three decades of conflict have left the country strewn
with landmines and other explosive remnants of war which
kill and/or maim about 60 people, mostly children, each
month, the International Committee of the Red Cross has
reported [http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf].
Afghanistan has yet to join 134 other states that have
signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities, which asks signatory states to ensure that
"children with disabilities are not excluded from free
and compulsory primary education, or from secondary
education".
Lack of resources and awareness and weak political
support have, however, contributed to creating a
situation whereby schools do not have even minimal
facilities for disabled children, officials said.
"About 75 percent of disabled children do not go to
school," Parwin Azimi, an expert on children's issues
with the UN Education, Scientific and Cultural
Organization in Kabul, told IRIN.
Officials at the Ministry of Education (MoE) said the
lack of facilities for disabled children was a major
impediment to their education.
"Due to a lack of resources and expertise, our
strategy for the promotion of disabled children's
education has only remained on paper," Azim Karbalaye,
planning director of the MoE, told IRIN.
No policies
While the exact number of Afghans living with
disability is unclear, Handicap International's survey
estimated there were 800,000 in 2005 - over half of them
under 19. Since 2005 the widening conflict and the influx
of returnees has probably increased these figures, say
experts.
Despite this, the government does not have policies in
place to promote employment among people with permanent
disability; and has been perceived to have done too
little to ensure their rights.
Disability is hard enough to cope with in wealthy
countries, but when over half of the population lives on
less than US$2 a day as in Afghanistan, things are doubly
difficult.
"We feel excluded from society," said Hazrat Gul, a
disabled man in Kabul.
"Everything - jobs, education, transport,
entertainment - is for the able-bodied. We're only left
on the road to beg and survive," he said.
Source: www.reliefweb.int
