Any Job To Survive Child labor is common in Afghanistan. Although children younger than 14 are not allowed to work full time, the laws are widely ignored. Employers want to hire children, whom they don't have to pay much, and families need the money, said Sami Hashemi, a child-protection expert for UNICEF, an aid organization.

Children as young as 6 work in brick making, carpet weaving, construction, mining and farming. Others beg, collect garbage or sell things on the street.

Families scramble for any job to survive, even if that means their children will work instead of going to school. “They must focus on today, not on a future for their children,” Hashemi said.

Nearly 2 million Afghan children between the ages of 6 and 17 work, at least 25 percent of Afghan children, Hashemi said, and the numbers are growing. Billions of dollars in aid is being sent to war-torn Afghanistan. Some of that money is being spent on mining and construction, two industries which hire many children.

A U. S. Labor Department report last year says many children are hurt or killed in construction jobs. They are forced to work in extreme cold or heat, carry heavy loads, smuggle illegal drugs or serve as soldiers.

Hashemi says, “Any human being, when he sees kids with a right to education and recreation working under these conditions, will be frustrated.”

In the section titled Any Job to Survive, how does the author present the harsh and dangerous working conditions of children in Afghanistan?

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