KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN)  -- Babies lie side by side in warming beds or sprawled on blankets atop crude wooden tables. Many families at Indira Gandhi Children's Hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, seem resigned to the situation. Children with wounds and broken bones are carried in by their parents to wait on stiff plastic chairs. Outside, coughing youngsters squat on the pavement with their anxious families, waiting for care. And everywhere, parents clutch plastic bags containing bring-your-own medicines and supplies. For though they are all awaiting treatment at Afghanistan's only specialist pediatric hospital, the hospital cannot even afford bandages for its patients. The Indira Gandhi Children's Hospital in central Kabul has to run on an operating budget of less than $1,200 a month, said Dr. Noorulhaq Yousufzai, the hospital director. The few supplies that he can buy have to be hoarded for emergencies, and he has to count on parents to buy what's needed to care for their children. "In some cases, there is shortage of the surgical materials, and sometimes we don't have antiseptic to use," Yousufzai said. The United Nations says that more than $15 billion in aid has been sent to Afghanistan since the U.S.-led coalition overthrew the Taliban in late 2001. But still, the hospital cannot afford to help the hundreds of children who stream in every day, desperate for care and cures. The government does pay for salaries and sometimes for fuel, but there is often a shortage of even basic supplies like syringes. Doctors say they have to double up premature babies in incubators. And some of those incubators are compromised. On a recent day, a plastic surgical mask taped onto one machine was the only shield from infection.  Watch scenes from inside the hospital ». The parents waiting anxiously beside their sick children seem resigned to the situation in the hospital. One mother, who declined to give her name, said she spent the family's entire weekly income of $8 on an injection that did not help her baby. "This is something that the hospital should be giving us, because we can't afford it," she said. The U.S. Agency for International Development says infant mortality has dropped by 22 percent since the overthrow of the Taliban but acknowledges that the health status for Afghans is among the worst in the world. One in every five Afghan children will die before their 5th birthday, often of a preventable disease, according to the Save the Children aid agency. The toll on the children and parents is clear to any visitor, and the strain hits the hospital staff, too. "When you see a patient is very, very, sick and you cannot help, and they have to provide something for their children and they are not able to provide, it's also a stress for us," Yousufzai said. At the end of 2001, there were hopes that the hospital would be upgraded, but it is still waiting. It needs some acute care of its own, or it will continue to struggle to help the children who arrive at its door pleading for care.

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Kabul hospital's operating budget is less than $1,200 a month. Government pays salaries, but even basic supplies are often gone. One in five Afghan children will die before their 5th birthday, group says.

The trial began today for Robel Phillipos, seen here on September 29. A college friend of alleged Boston marathon bomber Tzhokhar Tsarnaev isn't guilty of lying to the FBI because he was too 'high out of his mind' to remember what he did on the day in question, his defense attorney has claimed. Robel Phillipos, a 21-year-old resident of Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of three people who prosecutors say went to accused bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's room at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth on April 18, 2013, after the FBI released images of the Tsarnaev brothers, and removed a backpack containing empty fireworks shells. U.S. prosecutors said in their opening statements that Phillipos had repeatedly lied to FBI interviewers about his actions that day. His attorney, Derege Demissie, contended that his client had no memory of his actions that day. 'There will be ample evidence, much of it is undisputed, that Robel spent he entire day of April 18 smoking marijuana, highly intoxicated, with several friends,' Demissie said. 'His memory is jumbled, confused and completely discombobulated.' Demissie said that Phillipos used a vaporizer for two hours and also smoked in a car with the windows rolled up - a practice known as 'fish bowling' or 'hot boxing.' Authorities also revealed that Phillipos' friend, Azamat Tazhayakov, will testify against him in court. Tazhayakov was convicted of tossing the backpack. Assistant U.S. Attorney John Capin painted a contrasting picture, arguing that Phillipos lied after the FBI released photos of Tsarnaev and his older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev in a request for the public's help in identifying them. 'What did these three men do when they recognized their friend as a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing investigation? They went to his dorm room,' Capin said. The other two friends were Kazakh exchange students Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev. Tazhayakov was found guilty of obstruction of justice for taking the backpack and tossing it into a dumpster, and Kadyrbayev pleaded guilty to the same charges. Phillipos, a U.S. citizen who has been largely confined to his home since his arrest last year, could face up to 16 years in prison if convicted of lying to investigators. The slightly built man appeared at U.S. District Court in Boston dressed in a suit and tie, and did not speak during the early part of proceedings. Phillipos, seen here walking into court on Monday, has pleaded not guilty to charges he led to the feds. Convicted: Azamat Tazhayakov (left) and Dias Kadyrbayev (center) have already been convicted of throwing away Tsarnaev's backpack. The trio are seen here on a trip to Times Square in New York. Prosecutors contend that he initially denied entering Tsarnaev's dorm room hours after the FBI released photos of the two brothers, who the authorities say set off the two homemade bombs that killed three people and injured more than 260 near the Boston Marathon finish line on April 15, 2013. Around the time of the visit to Tsarnaev's dorm room, the brothers were preparing to flee Boston, and they shot dead a university police officer in an unsuccessful attempt to steal his gun, prosecutors say. Later that night, Tamerlan Tsarnaev died after a shootout with police. Phillipos, Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev are not charged with playing any role in the bombing. The surviving Tsarnaev, 21, faces the death penalty if convicted of carrying out the bombing. His trial is set to begin in January. Twin bombs placed near the marathon's finish line killed three people and injured more than 260. Tsarnaev is awaiting trial on 30 federal charges. Lawyers for Phillipos say he was a frightened 19-year-old when he was questioned, and did not intend to mislead investigators.

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Robel Phillipos is accused of lying to the FBI about whether his friends removed evidence from Tzhokhar Tsarnaev's dorm room. Phillipos' lawyer says his 21-year-old client spent the whole day smoking marijuana and couldn't remember anything from that day in question. Tsarnaev's other two friends have already been found guilty of removing a backpack with fireworks and tossing it in a dumpster.