Many girls in Afghanistan are struggling to access their fundamental right to education. Girls are sad and confused as to what their future now looks like. 

Send a message to remind them they're not forgotten.

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Give Young Children Growing Up In Slum Brothels A Chance For A Better Future.

Bangladesh’s largest slum brothel - just one of many in the region - is the size of a small city and houses over 1,500 women and 1,000 children. 

These women and children live largely out of sight from mainstream society - facing exclusion from education, life-saving healthcare, and their communities. Needing to provide for their children, mothers who were likely sold or trafficked into the brothel to start with, find themselves unable to leave and forced to work to pay off debts.

Children live with their mothers in rooms smaller than most one-car garages. When their mothers bring their customers home, they hide under beds while their mothers are working or they are pushed into the alleyway to play. Customers will use them to run errands, like fetching alcohol or drugs, and in some cases, they are tasked with cleaning up after customers have left. Some will be groomed to be the future of the business like their mothers and grandmothers.  

OMERA'S STORY: 
A Girl With A Dream

Omera*, 16, and her family were forced to flee their home eight months ago when a rocket hit their home and their roof collapsed. 

Since the government collapse, only her younger sister Yasmin* is allowed to go to school due to the ban on girls above grade six attending school. While she is happy her younger sister is attending classes, Omera says she wishes to go to school to get an education. 

"Through education we can solve our own problems and other people's problems, so that's why it's important to get an education. We want the world to let girls go to school and to support us financially. We want to be educated. We don't want to be ignorant. Being educated is better. It's a must to have an education. 

*Names have been changed to protect identities.

Every day girls are out of school is a day their basic human rights are being denied. You can help give a girl living in Afghanistan some hope for her future by sending a message of hope today.

Nothing kills like conflict. Children are in desperate need of care and protection: we cannot stand by and let them suffer a lifetime of war.

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Omera's story:
A Girl With A Dream

10-year-old Afsana* lives in Bangladesh’s largest brothel.

She’s tired because her mother Tuli*, a sex worker, entertains clients in the next room while she and her six-year-old brother try to sleep. Drunken men and women roam the dirty alleyways all night looking for drugs and alcohol, which are readily available in the brothel’s lanes. 

But just a few hundred metres down the train tracks is another world – the primary school where Afsana gets to be a child again. 

Save the Children and a local partner organisation founded the school for children from the brothel in 1997. At that time, local schools wouldn’t accept the children of sex workers, meaning girls like Afsana were left uneducated and vulnerable to following their mothers into sex work.

It's been over two months since the Taliban extended the ban on secondary school girls attending classes, denying their right to an education. 

As the new school year approached, girls in Afghanistan were excited to be heading back to school. Imagine their heartbreak and confusion when they arrived at school only to be told to go home and turned away as their male classmates took their seats in the classroom. 

These girls are feeling depressed, heartbroken and feel it's unfair they are denied their fundamental right to learn. Education is a lifeline for all children, especially girls. Without it, they are at increased risk of violence, abuse, and exploitation, including early marriage. 

Save the Children believes all girls in Afghanistan should have the chance to go to school, to learn and contribute to society. 

We need to ensure that there are educational programmes and healthcare support available to help every last child find their way out - and give them an opportunity for a better future for themselves and their families. 

This is why we need your signature to help us in our efforts as we work towards providing them with: 

Access to education

Access to healthcare and counselling

Assistance with re-integrating them into their community

With your support and alongside our partners, you can protect children and save girls in Bangladesh from a future in sex slavery. 

Take action today and pledge to give children from a chance to an education and a life free from sex slavery. 

Click the button below to sign the petition today!  

Every day Afsana goes to school, works hard and dreams of the day she and her mother can leave the brothel. Afsana is the second-best student in grade three and hopes to be a doctor when she grows up. “I want to be a doctor so that I can help my family if anything happens to them,” she says. But that dream will never become a reality without an education and the school Afsana attends is the place where children can get one. 

Join the movement and take a stand for children in slum brothels by giving them a new chance at life through education and break the cycle of poverty.

*Names have been changed to protect identities.

She's missing out on school... just because she's a girl

Our Work in Afghanistan

Save the Children has been delivering hope to communities and protecting children's rights across Afghanistan since 1976, including during periods of conflict and natural disasters. Since the crisis escalated in August 2021, Save the Children has been scaling up its response to support the increasing number of children in need. 

Thanks to our incredible supporters, Save the Children has been running Community-Based Education classes and providing children and teachers with learning and classroom kits to ensure children still have access to education. 

Since the Taliban takeover, education for girls has been suspended. 

Girls are devastated and worried for their future. Send a message to remind them they are not forgotten.