KABUL - Babies cry in the heat and dust as their distressed, widowed Afghan mothers pull up their burqas shyly for passport pictures taken with ancient box cameras.
They have flocked to a bullet-riddled mosque in one of the most heavily bombed areas of the Afghan capital to register for courses to teach them how to sew or embroider - anything that can get them work.
They turned up in their thousands on Tuesday and were told yesterday to register by district, so overwhelming is the interest in the project.
It was conceived by a strong-willed Afghan woman who returned to the devastated city two months ago from 23 years in exile in San Francisco, far from the wars that have shattered her land.
"These are not your normal kids," said Mina Sherzoy of the hundreds of children holding the folds of their mothers' head-to-toe burqa veils, some playing, some screaming and others confused.
"These are children who have taken the responsibility of 30-year-olds and 40-year-olds."
Sherzoy's mission is to get them off the streets as beggars and shoeshine boys and get them into school. Their widowed mums she wants to get trained to work.
"I saw what these people had been through," Sherzoy said. "It was devastating. I couldn't leave it alone."
Sherzoy founded W. O. M. A. N. (Women's Organisation for Mutual Afghan Network) and has received "almost over 1000 applications a day" from widows seeking work.
Non-governmental organisations helping with the training scheme and funding reckon there are one million homeless women in Afghanistan, 100,000 in Kabul.
Those who register will be paid US$1 ($2) a day for every child that goes to school - to keep them off the streets - while they themselves will be taught a job.
"You should see our house - we have nothing in our house," widow Farida Ahmadi, 25, said as she registered.
"They gave me a sack of wheat for me and my three children when we came back from Iran. We sold that to buy other things."
Said Bebe Zarifa, 30, who has five children: "I have to have a job. The Soviets murdered my husband and destroyed my house. What can I do?"
Sherzoy has no doubts she has her work cut out and she needs cash. "I need help. I cannot do it all alone," she said.
Already she has had one success story. Poland has offered four orphaned high school children scholarships to study law.
- REUTERS
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Widowed Afghan women flock to new work project
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