I want to become a cricketer like Rashid Khan
Name: Shah Mir Khan
Fathers Name: Haji Mohammad
Age: 15 years
Shamir Khan was born in Peshawar, Pakistan in 2005. His father, Haji Mohammad, originally from Paktia province, perturbed about the on-going war left Afghanistan just before Taliban took over the country in 1996.
Shamir along with his parents, 5 brothers and 6 sisters came back to Afghanistan in 2019. “My father used to work as a helper at the construction site along with my elder brother. Only 2 years before coming back we got refugee cards and we were able to move freely in Pakistan otherwise we always used to live in fear”, says Shamir.
His father and elder brother used to be picked up by the police in Pakistan, regularly, as they did not have any ID cards with them. Only to be released after getting their share of bribe. Shamir used to study in a Government High School in Pakistan where most of the students were refugees like him.
Life was getting difficult with each day as Shamir and his family did not have local ID cards in Pakistan. It was difficult to find a place to live or to get work. His father decided to move back to Afghanistan in 2019. “We came in a truck from Pakistan. The journey made all of us very sick. It was never ending journey for us. I had never travelled for so long ever”, shares Shamir. “I felt very sad leaving my friends behind. We didn’t know anyone here when we came. I feel sad sometimes about it. Wish I could go back sometimes just to meet my friends”, he shares.
Coming back to Afghanistan did not improve his family’s situation, to support his family Shamir started working as a shoe-shiner in the streets of Kabul. But since the lockdown being executed for COVID-19, he has been helping his father selling vegetables on a cart.
A fiend, also a child street worker, told him about Aschiana. He has been studying at basic education at Aschiana for 11 months now and currently he has been enrolled in 6th grade at a Government School.
“During the lockdown due to the virus, earning has become very difficult. We can barely manage to earn 100 Afs at the end of the day and that is not enough to feed my family. We got dry food ration from Aschiana during the lockdown. It comes to us as a miracle. Otherwise I do not know what we would have done. I thank Aschiana for this help”, shares Shamir.
“I want to become a cricketer like Rashid Khan” says Shamir with his radiant smile.