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13-Year-Old Sets Self On Fire Because Family Can’t Afford School Uniform
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Like many in Pakistan, 13-year-old Kamran Khan’s family did not have enough money to send him to school. He was such a promising student that a local private school allowed him to attend for free, according to his older brother.
Mohamed Bouazizi in web photo after setting himself ablaze.
Kamran never asked for anything, his brother Saleem Khan said. But last month, he pleaded with his mother for days to buy him a new school uniform, a white shalwar kameez, the loose-fitting shirt and pants worn by both men and women in Pakistan. He was embarrassed that his old one was worn out and patched up.
His mother sympathized with him but repeatedly told him the family didn’t have the money. She finally lost her patience a week ago and slapped the boy, according to the brother’s account. The youth responded by threatening to kill himself if his parents could not buy him the uniform.
Kamran then stormed out of the house, doused himself with gasoline and lit himself on fire. He suffered burns on 65 percent of his body and died of his wounds on Saturday, family and officials said Sunday. He was in an army-run hospital in Punjab province, but the family could only raise one-tenth of the roughly $5,500 they needed for his treatment and so he did not get the care he needed.
His family had been struggling to get by and provide for their children, even with the school fees waved. Khan’s father borrowed money from relatives to buy a work visa to Saudi Arabia four months ago, but has not managed to find a job there, said Saleem Khan. The mother works as a maid.
The teen used to wander the streets in Shabqadar, a town of 60,000 in northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, looking for bits of metal scrap and other items to sell, said his brother.
The family’s plight was similar to many of Pakistan’s poor, desperately hoping that education could be the ticket to climbing up from the bottom rung of society.
Around 60 percent of Pakistan’s 170 million people live at the poverty level of less than $2 per day, according to the World Bank.
Public school fees average only around $2 per month, but even this is often too much for poor Pakistanis with large families.
About 30 percent of Pakistanis have less than two years of education, according to a report issued last year by the Pakistani government.
The results are poor even for those kids who do attend school. Around 50 percent of school children aged 6-16 can’t read a sentence, said the report.
Huffington post
Posted by
One Zambia One Nation
April 2, 2012 at 3:56 pm
sad!
kaya
April 2, 2012 at 4:02 pm
eliko bad
CHUCHU
April 2, 2012 at 4:11 pm
chabipa boyi pachalo kukosa not ukulayocha
genda
April 2, 2012 at 4:33 pm
really sad story……….
Snr.citizen
April 2, 2012 at 4:37 pm
Very sad indeed, we need to explain to our children the hardships we go through in order to find money.
We should make sure they see our income be it at work, in business or which ever way and they should even know the time the money is supposed to be received, so that they know why we delay to meet their school requirements.
umu bemba nkonko
April 2, 2012 at 4:50 pm
mwaiche uku kosa umutima!Rest in peace
Pa Bwato
April 2, 2012 at 5:15 pm
****** boy, fcuked up hospital. Sad indeed.
Boyz n da hood
April 2, 2012 at 5:21 pm
Thy nigroz soul rest in peace 4 sho. Uku ipanga braii. So sad.
Lexy
April 2, 2012 at 5:51 pm
Sad
Pretty
April 2, 2012 at 6:27 pm
RIP :’(
Zawadi
April 2, 2012 at 6:33 pm
R.I.P ma brother.
Umu bemba
April 2, 2012 at 7:14 pm
fya kwe ifyo, ubumi wali lowa
feel for the boy
April 2, 2012 at 7:36 pm
umu bemba ulichipuba saana swine you *****
Augustine mwansa
April 2, 2012 at 7:57 pm
Too bad to loose such a genius’
samson banda
April 2, 2012 at 10:21 pm
Its a saddening story the boy was passionate about school but waz unreasonable with his parents anyways let’s not blame abayashi.
Mr.Bean
April 3, 2012 at 12:19 am
Ndikapuba nshakwata amano i burnt myself kikikikikikikikikikiki
bambazonkhe
April 3, 2012 at 7:06 am
It is really unfortunate to lose such bright boy.
G M K
April 3, 2012 at 7:50 am
Too bad 4 the small boy.Parents,lets see to it that we talk and reason with our children in an elderly manner.we were kids at some point.a child is what u make it.MHSRIP
truth
April 3, 2012 at 8:33 am
just because the boy is dead does not mean he earns my simpathty… He was ****** and made a selfish decision…. fyobe ifyo mwana balakushika and they will forget you…
African gal
April 3, 2012 at 8:34 am
toooo bad
NKANDU
April 3, 2012 at 8:47 am
so sad.mhsrip.
Mari-G
April 3, 2012 at 9:24 am
sad story R.I.P
Morphology
April 3, 2012 at 1:42 pm
Vingazi bati,banachedwa che kuzimya,plus nt aces’g med asistnce disaster th boy dnt intend 2 die
Umupandapwiti
April 3, 2012 at 1:51 pm
Ninkokofye iya itwele pa braai. Ku hell aleya mukulungula not @ 65% body burns but 100% + 65%.
HAMONGA
April 3, 2012 at 3:59 pm
REST IN PEICE
BOI.
Putatwize
April 3, 2012 at 8:01 pm
Should have the bro.crossed that line of toiling,he would have delivered his family,what a life!
rabson
April 3, 2012 at 9:00 pm
its such a sad story indeed may God help that family
rabson zimba
April 3, 2012 at 9:11 pm
so sad God help that family
Rabson zimba
April 3, 2012 at 9:28 pm
so sad
Chama
April 3, 2012 at 11:07 pm
Its true he dint intend to die.too bad for the family.his too young n wasnt thinkin straight.really sad news
osama
April 4, 2012 at 8:39 am
What a brave boy!what a waste!Had he been used in Al-quaeda operations,he would have left de family millionaires.Such may be genetic may I have the contact details of his elder brother,a contract with him may save dis poor family.