Ten-year old Afghan youth Agha Gul poses for a portrait at the end of his duty around a bazaar area just outside a US Marines combat outpost, in Marjah, Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, on April 11, 2010. Since the end of US Marines-led biggest offensive against the Taliban in more than nine years of war, some 50 village children between the ages of three and twelve have been taking part in a US Marines development program called The Commander's Emergency Program Response (CERP), which was set up to provide funds for necessary repairs resulting from combat activity. The program conducts large-scale civic cleaning that employs as many local inhabitants as possible. Children are designated to dig holes where rubbish which they have picked up is burned and also to take part in the building and repair of walls. US Marines pay a thousand Afghanis (USD 5) per child for a working week of four eight hour days. Many of the families of those children employed have been threatened by Taliban insurgents as Marjah has been without school since early 80's. (MAURICIO LIMA/AFP/Getty Images) #