Hopes and Prospects for Afghan Street Children Yearning for Change
I have a Masters Degree in ESL from the State University of New Jersey, obtained in May, 1982, and also a BA in Religion from Temple University, philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, obtained in January, 1974. In addition, I am a bilingual poet in English and Spanish and prose writer of short stories, essays, vignettes, and travelogues, having lived, taught EFL/ESL, and traveled in Latin America, South Asia, Southeast Asia, including having taught SL Composition and reading skills to non-native spakers in the Writing Program during the Fall Semester, 1983 at Temple University, and also having taught English and Spanish, ESL, Spanish, as a bilingual, ESL, and Foreign Language Substitute Teacher in the Philadelphia Public School system from September, 1984 till January, 1985. I'm also a member of International TESOL, the Chilean Society of Writers, and the Postcolonial Studies Association.
Yet, the Afghan Peace Volunteers(APV) have started a viable program that enable the street children to enroll in school where they can learn the alphabet and math in the APV homes. They compensate the families, giving them rice and oil, and they provide the children with warm clothing, thus saving and protecting them from a miserable and dangerous life on the street that is a godsend for them and their parents.
Why is it that the US has spent more than a trillion dollars on maintaining war and occupation in an imperial misadventure in Afhanistan, but it can not provide for the basic needs of 22,000 homeless children living in New York City? It just doesn’t make sense. It is a crying shame. And this morally wasteful spending is exacerbated by the fact that in 2014, the US government will spend 2.1 million dollars for every American soldier stationed in Afghanistan. It defies moral decency.
The US fails to provide for the basic needs of hundreds of thousands of US children, and yet US wars destroy families in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Colombia. but they meet the needs of weapon makers and war profiteers. One can only conclude that they are motivated by greed, empire, and power.
Yet, the light shines in a sea of darkness for the Afghan street children who are desiring a better life and who are determined to obtain a better one, and the darkness has not overcome this candlelight of hope. The collective yearning and longing of children for a better life will inspire people throughout the world.