The Forgotten Orphans of Afghanistan
by David Jones

Jack Straw flew into Kabul yesterday for talks with Afghanistan's interim president, Hamid Karzai. The Foreign Secretary was making his second visit to the country since the overthrow of the Taliban, and said that he believed life there was now better than it had been under the regime. "Life for an overwhelming number of people in Afghanistan is completely different than it was before," he insisted. "It's no longer a pariah state. You've got girls in school, a dramatic change. You've got significant improvements in health care." But despite Jack Straw's optimism, we recently visited an orphanage and discovered life for ordinary Afghans is, in fact, becoming increasingly grim.
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