The photographer Jim Huylebroek travelled across the country with the international children’s agency Save the Children, from the drought-ravaged plains of the north to the freezing streets of Kabul, capturing the stories of children whose lives have been devastated by the humanitarian crisis, for the series titled: children on the edge of life.
The images tell the stories of their fight for survival. Families making impossible decisions about which child they can afford to feed, and which will go hungry; mothers giving birth alone on dirt floors because they cannot afford to travel to hospital; children forced to work on the streets to put food on the table.
In the north of Afghanistan, Laalah*, 12, lives with her mother and four siblings in a tent, built with tarpaulin sheets in the basement of a half-constructed building. Her father, Maalek, struggles to find work as a laborer, and sometimes has no choice but to send his sons to find rubbish to sell or burn to keep their home warm.
Maalek, 40, said: “Whenever kids are free from school they go out and collect rubbish. They go onto the streets and collect and sell cans so they can afford their school expenses or food.”
“My dream is to find somewhere, to build a place for them. To be able to build a house to live in so that they can stop being homeless like this.”
Laalah said: “I hope there are schools in the future. I want to go to school. To be either a teacher or doctor. I want our living to be good, to eat good food.”
Nearly 5 million children are on the brink of starvation as the country faces its worst food crisis since records began. The triple impacts of drought, conflict and economic collapse have pushed many families into dangerous territory. Families sell what little they have to buy food, sending their children to work or getting by on bread alone.
Source: theguardian.com
