At the rustic refugee camps on the no man's land that straddles the mine-ridden border of Afghanistan and Tajikistan, groups of Afghan children, many of them dirty and barefoot, can be seen stirring up the dust with energetic games of football.

	-
Watch Zainab Bobeva explain the rules of football to Afghan children Iain Levine, Chief of Humanitarian Policy and Advocacy for Emergency Programmes at UNICEF on the importance of play for children

The fact that the children have taken to the game with incredible gusto is no surprise. Football is a universal favourite. What is unusual is that this is the first time many of the children are playing organised football - even kite flying was banned when the Taliban took control of Northern Afghanistan.

"They didn't play until they came here because the situation was bad and they couldn't play not only football but not even simple games," says Kholis Sadurdinov, of Save the Children Fund (SCF-UK), as he tossed a ball around with UNICEF staff and a group of Afghan boys.

The arrival of soccer and other games on this barren wasteland, where an estimated 5,000 children are living in four camps, couldn't come soon enough. Now, thanks to balls and other recreational equipment provided by UNICEF and SCF-UK, young boys and girls make football a regular event at the Karaol settlement on Island No. 9 (which is named after a Russian border post). Most of the children and adults are from the nearby town of Eman Saeb, but some from as far away as Kabul and Kandahar.

Aid workers say the football games are the first time they have ever heard some of the children laugh and scream with joy. They find themselves in the unusual position of having to teach young boys and girls how to play. Come up close to many of the children, they say, and you can spot the haunted look in their eyes caused by years of unrest and instability.

-
	Afghan children learn to play again.

Mine Sungun, a UNICEF child protection officer from Turkey, says that until recently, children had nothing to do in their spare time. Now, regular classes are held in the mornings in makeshift tent schools and are followed by football, volleyball and other group activities.

One teenage boy, Abdullah, says he and his friends have been playing football only for about two months but look forward every day to the chance to race after the ball on the open field near their school tents.

Karaol's commander says that in the future competition football will be held with other nearby settlements and that the children are eager to make their teams stronger. "The children really like playing football a lot. They know that children usually play in teams so they are learning that. They will have some competitions soon."

While many of the families in the camps are expected to start heading home in the spring, the threat of renewed fighting between warlords and instability in their villages means that many could stay for quite some time.