Afghanistan 2003
02/14/2003

I am living here [in this “tent village” in Kabul] because I have nowhere else to go. I returned to Afghanistan almost 7 months ago with the help of UNHCR. I returned to my village, but the village leaders told me that there was no room for me and said that I had to come to Kabul. I lived in that village many, many years ago, before the war with the Russians. We rented a house and land, and then 17 years ago, I moved to Kabul. My husband was killed in a rocket attack five years ago, and after that we went to Pakistan. Now I am a widow with five children without land or a house. It gets very cold here at night, and we don’t have enough food. Sometimes I can wash other people’s clothes and earn a little money. Or sometimes I can sew blankets. An NGO hires women in the apartments near here to sew quilts, but the women cannot sew. So they bring the materials to the women in this “village” and they give us a little of the money that the NGO gives to them. I can’t earn enough money. I want my children to go to school, and I want to live in a house, but there is no one to help me. I don’t have a husband, and the government and NGOs are not helping me. I want to learn to read and write so I can get a better job. Right now, I am just thinking about our stomachs, but I am always thinking about my children and I want them to have a future.