Afghanistan orphanage forced to turn away children from desperate parents
Afghanistan is swelling with orphans, but children's homes are struggling to care for them, ITV News Correspondent John Ray reports
Nowab, whose father was a Taliban fighter, and Sayed, whose father died as an Afghan army soldier, now live in the same orphanage despite coming from opposing sides of the conflict.
They share boyhood dreams but know a more dismal future is waiting for them.
They are two of Afghanistan's lost children as the country deals with a multitude of orphans amid a broken care system for children.
Among the homeless and hungry on the streets of Kabul, children are seen picking over the rubbish dumps for a pitiful living.
Habibullah, 12, tells ITV News he alone supports five brothers and two sisters.
The situation in Afghanistan is so dire, that one father offered to sell his daughter to an ITV News team as he can no longer feed her and malnourished babies struggle for life in hospitals which lack medicines. Watch John Ray's heartbreaking report from Afghanistan
A warning this video contains images viewers may find distressing.
And every day, desperate parents have been turning up at Taimaskan Boy's Home to try to give their children a home there. But they are being turned away due to a lack of funding.
About 300 boys are being looked after there but there is room for many, many more.
Staff from the home tell ITV News there is nothing they can do to help and they have not been paid for three of the past five months.
There are many other children's homes that have closed for good.
Unicef said following John Ray's first heart-breaking report from Afghanistan they have seen a huge spike in online donations for their appeal.
Unicef charity is in Afghanistan supporting vulnerable children and families, delivering essential health supplies, water and food. Donate to the charity's Afghanistan appeal here.
Click here to donate to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) Afghanistan Crisis Appeal, a charity made up of 15 UK aid charities that specialises in humanitarian aid and disaster response. Its current appeal aims to help the 8 million people in Afghanistan who are at risk of famine this winter.