"I’ve watched nurses at a “health clinic” exhale cigarette smoke down a naked patient’s throat “to cure” her of emphysema", writes Angela Dewan, an AFP reporter based in Jakarta. "I’ve met women in Aceh, the only province to implement Islamic sharia law, forced to sit side-saddle on motorbikes because the city government decided straddling was “obscene” for women. I found myself taking beauty tips from a militant with links to Al Qaeda".

"After almost seven years trying to find the words to tell the outside world what’s happening in inside Indonesia, I still have these moments, where I need to pinch myself and remember I’m living in reality."

Abuzar's eyes were full of joy as he awoke in his family apartment in Toronto last week.

Finally, the big day he had been anticipating for weeks had come. He picked up his small backpack, his bottle and his Spiderman lunchbox, and set off for his first day at nursery after six months of rehabilitative care.

As he played in the middle of a crowd of hyperactive three-year-olds, no one could guess that the presence of the happy little Afghan was a small miracle.

For Abuzar, it was another tiny step toward building a new life more than 10,000 kilometres from his his hometown Kabul, where tragedy had robbed him of his parents, brother and sister eight months earlier.