There was a Doll With Blonde Hair and a Yellow Dress Above Her Bed.

There was a doll with blonde hair and a yellow dress above the bed, looking at her owner – Amina.

Amina was lying in bed number four in the Intensive Care Unit at EMERGENCY’s Surgical Centre in Lashkar-Gah. 

Thanks to the grown-ups’ war, she had to go through three operations.

She is one of 19,510 children we have treated in Afghanistan over the last 20 years.

With her big eyes, sweet expression and shaggy hair, Amina stared in silence at the doctors scurrying around her. They had to bandage her hands to stop her pulling off the little tubes that feed her. She never complained, though.

In the bed next to her was Saqina, five-years old.

Amina and Saqina are two patients whose stories are told in Afghanistan20, a multimedia project by EMERGENCY. Stories from 20 years of war, from the perspective of its victims and those treating them.