Disability and the limitations of Afghan society 

Disabled children in Afghanistan, ravaged by war and disease, suffer immensely and have very few resources available to them offered publicly or privately to help improve their lives.  Moreover, neither the US State Department, USAID, nor any NGOs in-country are adequately addressing the needs of disabled children.  Essentially, children with disabilities in Afghanistan have been largely ignored up to now in spite of the fact that they have suffered for years with physical and cognitive impairments due to decades of war, injuries from land mines, malnutrition, poverty, the spread of polio, and pre-natal drug abuse.  Currently, there are more than 200,000 children in Afghanistan living with permanent disability (physical, sensory and/or mental impairment), according to a 2007 survey conducted by Handicap International – and Save the Children documents that roughly 75% of these children do not receive any kind of formal education whatsoever. 

In a society like Afghanistan, disabled children are typically shut out and shut away from the mainstream population as there are little or no services available to them. It is a heartbreaking and dismal existence for these children as they are often times treated worse than animals.  The situation is aggravated further and creates a much more volatile environment for our troops as the Taliban regularly target these special children turning them into human-bombs to use against our military.  We must get these children off the streets - we must begin addressing their needs and provide them with an education so that they can instead become contributing members of their communities and add to the overall security, success and future of their country. 

Towards a more inclusive approach

Operation Exceptional Child is a comprehensive education program for children with disabilities that can be applied with equal success in government-run as well as in private schools.  The key to its success is in offering children afflicted with either physical or cognitive impairments a space of their own.  In theory, the concept of mainstreaming children with disabilities with their regular peers is a good one; unfortunately, what happens in practice more often than not is that children with disabilities receive an inappropriate education based upon their needs.  Children with disabilities deserve the same chances of success which is best realized in an educational environment tailored and modified to meet their specific needs more adequately.

Education as a human rights and development issue

Education is a basic civil human right and ALL children, including children with disabilities, have a right to receive an appropriate education.  The lack of educational opportunities for children with disabilities in Afghanistan remains a key reason for poverty and their exclusion from wider community affairs.  Furthermore, deficiencies in marketable vocational training for children and youth with disabilities results in an absolute lack of opportunities for further personal development and diminishes their access to employment and other future prospects.  In Afghanistan, children with disabilities have the potential to make a powerful contribution to the overall development of their communities and the future stability of their country and they deserve an opportunity to receive a more comprehensive education that Operation Exceptional Child would offer. 

tag words: disabled children in Afghanistan's war, supporting disabled children in Afghanistan, Afghanistan's disabled war children