Driven Away by a War, Now Stalked by Winter’s Cold
We have to consider why these camps of misery were created. Was it because villagers felt that only Kabul was safe from strifing and bombing? I was unaware of these camps. My interest in photography makes me turn to the New York Times photography section LENS. Have a look:
http://www.nytimes.com/...
At least 22 children have died in camps in Kabul in the past month, including 14 at the Nasaji Bagrami camp, above. This winter has been especially cold in Afghanistan, with several snowstorms.
Credit: Andrea Bruce for The New York Times
Uncovering the Sadness of Young Deaths
Preparing for burial
KABUL, Afghanistan – Inside the family hut, only women and close male relatives were allowed to mourn over the body of the baby boy, Khan Mohammad, who had died earlier that morning. After Andrea Bruce, on assignment for The New York Times, bent over double and eased her way through the low door of the hut, she counted 17 women, including the mother, plus the boy’s 10-year-old sister Feroza, and the father, in a one-room house no larger than a normal-size bedroom. It was, she said, even colder inside than outside, where at least there was the weak morning sun.
It was these photographs that have stayed with me They show that these infants couldn't withstand the cold nights in their homes of makeshift tents. Each winter gets colder.
Kabul Officials denied the misery of the camps and claimed the reports were exaggerated. But these stores evoked a great response and help has been immediate from within Kabul and from The Lamia Afghan Foundation, a charity started by Lt.Gen John A. Bradley.
General Bradley said he had arranged for 25,000 pounds of winter clothing and food packets, which his organization had already shipped to Afghanistan, to be delivered to the camps this week by the Afghan aid group Aschiana.
Photojournalism is a such powerful tool and we commend those who risk their lives to bring us these images as painful as they are.
Peace.
This diary was inspired by joanneleon's diary Where is the Anti-War Left?