The June 18 front-page article “Childhood Lost: More than 40,000 children work the streets of Kabul to take care of their families” accurately portrays the challenges in eradicating the difficulties of Kabul’s 40,000 street children. Some will argue these Afghan children are vulnerable to exploitation. While selling small items near military bases in Afghanistan is helping lives of the Afghan families mentioned in your article, it should be pointed out that some of us have found a more sustainable way to address this issue.

Two Sparrows Foundation, a U.S.-registered nonprofit 501(c)(3) public charity, was started by military and civilians at Camp Eggers and the International Security Assistance Force’s headquarters and is providing small educational and vocational training grants to local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to address these street children’s needs in an accountable way. As the adage goes, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

Only through financial support for accountable organizations such as Two Sparrows Foundation do we give these Afghan youths, boys and girls, a true chance at having a future filled with hope. That would be something to celebrate.

After seeing this situation for several years here firsthand, I urge those concerned with helping Kabul’s street children to contact http://2sparrowsfoundation.org, as others of us have begun recently.

Ray Nash

Kabul

Migrated