Survival remains a struggle for the children of Afghanistan, with more than half now suffering from stunted growth and 50% of the entire population living below the poverty line, writes Mike Thomson.
Some 37,000 children live on the streets of Kabul, eking out a living in any way they they can.
These boys sell plastic bags on the streets of Kabul. On a good day they can make up 70 Afghanis - nearly $2 - which buys much needed food for their family.
Many are forced onto the streets by the war, including Adida, 12, whose family fled from an area plagued by fighting near the Pakistan border after her father died of wounds from a rocket attack.
This boy, Idris, whose family left their village because of the war, told me that he works on the streets selling toilet paper. "The street bullies come and take my toilet paper and sometimes all the money I have," he says.
Save The Children run shelters for street children which give some respite, providing a basic education and a chance to be a child for a couple of hours per day.
But while most of the street children in the Save the Children shelter have parents, many do not even have this support. There are 16,800 children in orphanages in the country, a number growing by 1000 every year.
But the director of this orphanage, Sayeed Abdullah Hashimi, believes these children aren�t his biggest worry. �50% of the Afghan children that we cannot reach are in danger,� he says.
With resources near breaking point and the ongoing conflict showing no signs of subsiding, the future for Afghanistan�s children remains bleak.
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