Afghan “Garbage” Kids

Naeem, 13, carries dinner for his family of eight. While on his daily rounds scavenging trash in the streets and sewer canals of Quetta, Pakistan, he was given fresh meat, curry vegetables, and a tea cup by a resident.  (DON BARTLETTI / Los Angeles Times)

Issa, 7, finds a syringe while picking through trash in Quetta, Pakistan. Plastic is a hot item for Issa and his brothers to sell to recycling depots. On a good day they can make $1.50.  (DON BARTLETTI / Los Angeles Times)

Nearly exhausted from a day of scavenging, 15-year-old Abdul Hakim, right, and a fellow street urchin walk to a recycle depot in Quetta, Pakistan. They are among about 10,000 Afghan refugee children who search garbage dumps and gutters for anything they can sell.  (DON BARTLETTI / Los Angeles Times)

Abdul Hakim, 15, right, keeps an eye on three of his brothers—Hasan, 10, center, and twins Issa and Hussain—on a busy market street in Quetta. The children spend their days filling their sacks with valuables they find.  (DON BARTLETTI / Los Angeles Times)

With his scavenger’s sack bulging with the morning’s collection, Abdul Hakim, leaps over a sewer canal in Quetta, Pakistan.  (DON BARTLETTI / Los Angeles Times)

Hasan, 10, center, gets a drawing lesson from teacher Nasreen Yousaf at a day shelter run by the U.S.-funded Save The Children organization. Afghan refugee street urchins drop in here for a noontime break from scavenging. For Hasan, it’s the only classroom he’s ever been in.  (DON BARTLETTI / Los Angeles Times)

Abdul Hakim and another young boy drain human blood from a transfusion bag into the gutter. They found the plastic bag in a hospital trash can in Quetta. Hakim then stuffed it into his scavenger’s bag for later sale at a recycle center.  (DON BARTLETTI / Los Angeles Times)

Hasan, 10, asks a butcher if he has any bones he can have. Bones are among the items the Afghan refugee boy sells at a local recycle depot. The butcher is inside a fly barrier cage in the meat bazaar in Quetta, Pakistan.  (DON BARTLETTI / Los Angeles Times)

Seven-year-old Issa rubs his burning eyes in a smoldering trash heap in Quetta, Pakistan. As the number of Afghan refugee children increases, competition for scraps to sell rises. An estimated 5,000 to 10,000 “garbage children” roam the streets of Quetta.  (DON BARTLETTI / Los Angeles Times)