Ever since the fall of the Soviet Union, countries such as Kyrgyzstan have not managed to recover. Some villages only hope for economic survival is to pull their young boys out of school to work in Kyrgyz coal mines. The coal mines were abandoned during Soviet Union, however after it fell Kyrgyzstan was left with a crumbling economy and no answers. After the government failed to restore the economy, the civilians took this problem into there own hands.

Civilians dug out the mines without permission from the government, but were often difficult to work in and too narrow for adults. So, fathers started taking their sons to work to help earn their family’s income.

“People are taking their children out of schools and sending them to work at mines,” said Zulfia, a miner’s window, to BBC News. “There is simply no other way to make money here.”

Zulfia’s husband died when he was trying to rescue two little boys trapped inside a mine. He was only able to save one child and died with the other boy. After her husband died, the workers at the mine offered her son her late husband’s job.

“Of course I won’t let him do this, because I know what the price is, but other people do,” said Zulfia. “We are just so desperate here.”

BBC News visited Kyrgyzstan’s coal mines and reported, “Locals say the government refuses to acknowledge the problem. Officially these (problems) may not even exist. Yet we saw them at every coal mine we visited.”

No one is sure how many children are working in the coal mines. The children work all year round, no matter in what kind of weather.

One townsman, Nurbek, said to BBC News, “Sometimes in the winter the caves get flooded, and people have to dive in and swim to the end of the cave to bring a pump and get water out.”

BBC News talked to one little boy, Kylych, who has been placed in a position to support his family with income. He makes a small amount of US $3 a day. He works in the mines in the mountains of southern Kyrgyzstan. He has seen what many others do not have to encounter. He has witnessed his friend’s death and he experienced being trapped in a mine.

“I’d rather go to school, of course, but I need to help the family,” said Kylych.

The people in Kyrgyzstan are afraid to ask for help from the government because the economy could become worse. Nurjamal Mambetova, creator of a local non-profit organization, has been trying to find a solution to the main problem.

“We worry that they will close down the mines, or blow them up, and that won’t solve the problem,” said Mambetova. “People will just start going back to them and digging again because they have no other way to survive.”

Like many children the little miners have dreams too and can see past their current circumstances.

One child miner, Uluk says, “When I grow up I want to become a policeman, so that I can catch thieves and protect children.