Help give street kids in Afghanistan the education they deserve.

It's 6pm in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, and it's dark outside. Stray dogs are barking loudly. The sprawling city is dotted with tents. In one of these tents, something extraordinary is happening. Thirty street-working children, aged between 4 and 15 are learning. These children are doing more than just gaining an education - they're taking the first step to break the cycle of poverty, teenage pregnancy and disease in this poverty-stricken, war-torn country.

Safa Gul's story

Six-year-old Safa Gul is one of the girls attending classes at the Safe Meeting Places in Kabul run by Save the Children.

Safa Gul's so happy for the chance to learn and play here after work. Every day, Safa Gul and her two sisters, aged 7 and 10, leave home early in the morning to work the streets, begging for food and clothes, and collecting firewood and scrap metal.

It's not a pleasant job, especially for little girls. But their father Haroon says he has no choice. Haroon works as a porter at the fruit market, but can't earn enough to support his family.

"Sometimes I really feel ashamed for sending my daughters to work on the streets. They really want to go to school. But they have to work so the family can have three meals a day."

Haroon knows what lies in store for his daughters if they don't go to school. The reality is, when a girl from a poor Afghan home turns 12, she's considered by many to be a woman. She's likely to be married at 14 and pregnant at 15.

And if she does become pregnant, sadly she has a 1 in 8 chance of dying during pregnancy or childbirth. That's the reality that women (and girls) face in Afghanistan.

How Save the Children is helping

Save the Children is helping get more girls like Safa Gul off the streets and into a Safe Meeting Place where they can get a basic education, and learn about healthcare and sanitation.

We're also helping families by providing them with a stall to sell produce and an inventory to start a small business. That way parents like Haroon can have a better income and girls like Safa Gul can go to school.

We've helped 133 families over two years to set up their own businesses and have enrolled 200 students, including many girls, at the Safe Meeting Place where they're receiving an education they would otherwise miss out on.

We know that educated girls tend to marry later, have fewer children, and children that are healthier and better nourished.

How you can help

Safa Gul loves going to the Safe Meeting Place. Every day she is learning new things.

$42 can cover the cost for a girl, like Safa Gul to be educated at the Safe Meeting Place for a month.

Please make a donation today so more children, like Safa Gul can get the education they deserve.

Call our toll free number 1800 76 00 11 and donate over the phone

Funds are used to improve the lives of children around the world.