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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

AFGHANISTAN: New report on post-conflict children

KABUL, 1 July 2003 (IRIN) - The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and Save the Children US on Tuesday issued a report on the impact of conflict on Afghan children. The report, entitled "The children of Kabul", indicates that despite many threats to children’s wellbeing in postwar Afghanistan, families have developed ways of coping with daily challenges and discovered strengths and resources to limit the impact of the war on their children.

"The children of Afghanistan are much stronger than perhaps many people would believe, and families have clearly found ways of coping with the impact of the war in order to protect their children," the report’s principal author, Jo de Berry of Save the Children, said on Tuesday in the capital, Kabul, at the launch of the report.

However, UNICEF expressed concern that such support was being eroded as poverty increased. "We should think about what can be done in addition to looking after children’s education to ensure the Afghan family regains the capacity to look after its children," Elk Wisch, UNICEF’s senior protection officer, told IRIN, noting that the report emphasised the adverse effects of increasing economic hardship.

To enhance children’s mental wellbeing, the report recommends that instead of focusing on individual trauma counselling, the best interests of the vast majority of Afghan children would be served through a broader psychosocial response.

"The evidence of this report indicates the need for a more holistic approach based on the coping mechanisms that children and families have already developed during years of war in Afghanistan," Wisch maintained, adding that they could have more impact on children’s wellbeing by strengthening family support structures and helping children gain a sense of normalcy through access to school and play.

According to the authors, the report is based on more than six months’ research with over 600 children and their families living in Kabul. "We came up with a couple of surprising findings after six months of research on ‘The Children of Kabul’. We found that the children of Kabul are as much traffic-affected as war-affected," de Berry said, noting that children had told them that they were frightened crossing the capital's busy roads. "More children are losing their parents because of road accidents than because of war and fighting," said de Berry.

Theme(s): (IRIN) Children

[ENDS]

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