Kids smuggle food for cents along war border
Torkham, Afghanistan (CNN) - Sabar Mina is cloaked in a light green shawl tinged with dirt. She is holding an empty flour sack that she plans on filling with firewood.
Her eyes are soft and kind, but they bear the signs of exhaustion. There's a reason for that. Instead of going to school, the eight-year-old walks an hour to work.
All day long Sabar takes items back and forth between two of the most dangerous countries in the world, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
There are hundreds of children just like her. One charitable organization there estimates 300 children per day work the border at Torkham.
iReporters debate next move in Afghanistan
Is it time for a full U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan or send in more troops? What do you think the U.S. should do next? How is President Obama handling the decision?
iReporters Katy Brown and Egberto Willies square off on Obama's looming decision over the military and political course the nation should take. Watch the iReporters debate
What about you? What do you think? Send in your iReport and share your thoughts on video.
Afghan schools seek survival amid attacks
(CNN) - In his work for a humanitarian agency in Afghanistan, Lex Kassenberg asks an important question when he visits schoolchildren: What will you do when you grow up?
"I want to be president," is an answer Kassenberg often hears from girls.
But for all the admiration Kassenberg has for a youngster's ambition, the 53-year-old CARE aid worker knows that in Afghanistan, the notion of a female national leader remains implausible in the immediate future. Only recently, women had suffered serious setbacks under the rule of the militant Taliban.
The importance of education, especially for girls, does not escape the Afghan people nor humanitarian agencies trying to improve their living conditions. That's why the World Bank partnered with CARE to investigate how education can succeed amid increasing violent attacks on Afghan schools.
Afghan minister: Taliban can be defeated
The war in Afghanistan is winnable, and corruption will be fought, Interior Minister Hanif Atmar told CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Thursday, as President Hamid Karzai was being sworn in for a second five-year term in Kabul.
Atmar said security has improved in some provinces and deteriorated in others, but he's confident the Taliban can be defeated. "We have to show the resolve, the determination, and the ability to make decisions quickly," he said.
