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In Afghanistan, drug rehab for children
Najiba scrabbles through cupboards frantic for something sweet. She claws at her mother, urging her to help. Najiba, though only 13 years old, lives in the Sanga Amaj drug addiction rehab clinic in Kabul with her mother, Zainab–who is also an opium addict, a habit acquired from her husband and passed on to her daughter.
"When she was born, she kept crying, so after two months or so I started giving her opium to keep her quiet," says Zainab. (Her and Najiba's names have been changed to protect their privacy.)
The result is a drug dependency that Najiba is now desperately fighting.
Yet she is neither alone among Afghan children addicted to opium, nor among the worst affected. For starters, she's one of a small minority getting professional help.