News
Benefit night for girl burned in Afghan bombing
Friday, 22 January 2010
Noria Barkat lost her mum in the bombing (Guy Smallman)
Seven-year-old Noria Barkat lost her mother and saw two of her sisters injured in a mistaken American attack which left her body scarred.
Photo-journalist Guy Smallman, 38, of Clayton Street, Kennington, met Noria at a hospital while investigating the incident on May 4 last year.
He said: “I am seeing stuff like that all the time, especially in Afghanistan.
“It’s just that when I was there she was in so much pain.
“Her family were so unlucky, they weren’t from the village that was bombed.
"They were visiting her grandma on the day of a fierce battle between the US and Taliban.
“It’s such a tragic story, and when I put the recorded interviews together for a TV report I could hear her crying in the background in agony.
“After I left I kept getting updates from a charity in Afghanistan about her condition.
“They’d managed to find a surgeon in Pakistan to do skin grafts for her terrible injuries, but her family don’t have the money to pay.
“I really want to help out having made a profit from reporting on the events in the village and really want to give something back.”
Mr Smallman, who has also worked for the South London Press, has got together with the landlord of The Grosvenor pub in Sidney Road, Stockwell, to put on a fundraiser for Noria.
Although the priority is to raise the money for Noria, Guy said the evening promised a fun mix of folk music and comedy, and that “punk poet” Attila the Stockbroker would headline.
Pub landlord John Dyson, 43, said he was happy to have The Grosvenor hosting the event.
He said: “Obviously there are people out there whose lives are being destroyed by the war in Afghanistan and people have got to help them.”
* Entry to the event on January 31, which starts at 7.30pm, costs £5, or £4 for the unemployed.
For more information, go to www.myspace.com/acousticinsurgency
Email: newsdesk@slp.co.uk
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