Child kidnapping cases drop in Kandahar

Kandahar City, May 7, 2007 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A two-day workshop on violence against children started in this southern city on Monday.

Officials of all the provincial departments, influential and common citizens are participating in the workshop to discuss and inform themselves about the problems faced by children in the society.

Speaking on the occasion, director of works and social affairs department Dost Mohammad Arghistani said the graph of violence against children had considerably dropped over the previous few years.

He said kidnapping of children was rampant in the province a few years back. However, the ratio had dropped as a result of the measures adopted by the provincial government.

Arghistani said some problems, like non-availability of schooling facilities and child labour were still existed and the government was trying to overcome it by organising such workshops and seminars.

Syed Abdul Sami Hashmi, official of the United Nations' Children Fund (UNICEF) in Kandahar, told Pajhwok such workshops were being organised to create awareness among people about violence against children.

He said they were going to organise such workshops in other southern provinces to create awareness among people about the problems faced by children.

One of the participants and official of the Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA) Noor Ahmad said they had picked a lot of knowledge on the first day of the workshop.

Children were the future builders of a nation and the society should train and equip them with knowledge and better skills instead of creating problems for them, said the participant.