About once a week, he speaks with his mother on a borrowed cellphone. On the busy streets of Kabul, skinny kids dart in and around the cars in traffic. They are forced to work in extreme cold or heat, carry heavy loads, smuggle illegal drugs or serve as soldiers. "They must focus on today, not on a future for their children," Hashemi said. They tap at windshields and beg for money, and bother drivers to buy chewing gum, candy, maps, matches, scarves and toilet paper. He daydreams of graduating from a university and becoming a teacher or engineer. That's our tradition," Mohammed says. Employers want to hire children, whom they don't have to pay much, and families need the money, said Sami Hashemi, a child-protection expert for UNICEF, an aid organization. Others beg, collect garbage or sell things on the street. Employers want to hire children, whom they don't have to pay much, and families need the money, said Sami Hashemi, a child-protection expert for UNICEF, an aid organization. The system is corrupt, and the Americans are part of it." Then he rushes to the taxi stands amid the noise of donkey carts, creaky old Toyotas, and Afghan military trucks filled with gunmen. Abdul Rafi's voice emerges from his scrawny body as a croak. It is enough to support his entire family - his disabled father, mother, three brothers and five sisters. Abdul Rafi's voice emerges from his scrawny body as a croak.