Poverty and Vagrancy Can Be Seen in Khadem Hussain’s Face
- Category: Reports
- Written by Ulfat
- Published: Saturday, 20 September 2014
Khadem Hussein, an elderly 75 year old man, is one of the Yakawlang’s poorest famers who has spent most of his life in working on fields in order to find piece of bread for his family of six people. Recently due to decrease in price of the harvest he was forced to leave his village to go to the city of Bamiyan just like thousands of other families.
Khadem Hussain currently lives in the valley of Azhdar in a house without walls and water. He said that he came to the city in hope of finding a piece of bread but the situation in the city is even worse than his village. Hussain was forced to take two of his younger sons off school to work with him. Now they are working in a brick making factory.
Khadem Hussain said:
“To get some help I went to every office but no one listened to my words. None of them helped me because the aids that come for Bamyan are given to commanders, powerful people and to the relatives of the high officials. No one considers us and they even do not let us near their offices.”
Every morning after praying with hungry stomach, Khadem Hussain goes to a desert that is located along the Azhdar valley with his pick and rope and returns at 11:00 AM with a load of desert and mountainous shrubs, used as firewood. He says that other people use the desert plants as firewood as well and now you can rarely find shrubs in the desert, therefore he has to go there earlier so he can find enough of them to bring to the city and sell them for AFN50 (USD1). There are days that he can’t sell his load of firewood so he comes home with a load of grief.
The situation for Khadem Hussain and his family gets even worse during winter times, as they don’t have any income both from the desert plants and the producing bricks.
Khadem Hussain is not the only one that struggles against poverty. There are thousands of other families like Khadem Hussain who are unable to feed their children. Although billions of dollars came into Afghanistan in the name of “aids”, but there hasn’t been any change in the economic situation of people lives in Bamyan and their situation gets worst day by day.
I asked Khadem Hussain whether any of the leaders that claim to be defenders of Hazara ethic group have been paying attention to them? He responded with a very sad tone and abused them telling that the leaders only know how to fill their and their relatives’ wallets and that is it. He added saying that:
“In this country the leaders who claim to represent their ethnic groups; they are not aware of the life conditions of their people. My children and I have to work to survive from hunger.”
Bamyan Royal Hotel
While the majority of the people in Bamyan don’t have a piece of bread to eat, the Bamyan Royal Hotel is constructed for warlords and NGO lords to come there and enjoy their times in Bamyan.
