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Afghanistan trip report
Dates of trip: Mid November 2008 to December 2008
The following is a report from The Children of War President and Founder, Najib Aziz, on his recent visit to Afghanistan.
We routinely make visits to our schools and training center in Afghanistan to ensure efficiency and success in our operations.
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Dear friends and supporters, for over 15 years now, we have been able to connect with the most needy and helpless individuals and families in Afghanistan. I most recently traveled to Afghanistan in November of 2008 and returned late December 2008.
Here are some highlights from my trip. I thank you for all your continued support.
I arrived in Kabul to visit our two schools in Kabul.
Background:
Kabul is very cold now. It’s in a valley within a mountain range, so the public school system is closed during Winter months. However, TCOW keeps its schools open, to maintain our goals for quality and to provide an effective support system for the kids. Another key point is that we are open for our students from 8am to 4pm. The public system only has 2 hours per day due to the short supply of space and teachers.
At our Kabul Boys and Girls schools, we undertook the following activities:
- Met or made contact with all students’ families to get their feedback and to discuss how they can help in their children’s education and welfare
- Conducted one-on-one discussions with each student to understand their challenges and needs.
- Met with staff and faculty to gather feedback and to give guidance on operations
- I also purchased in bulk: uniforms for all students, books and school supplies for 6 months, and medicine to stock our school clinic, and firewood to warm our schools.
In my time, we realized the following needs and challenges in Kabul:
- We needed internet access, and I’m very happy to say we now have access as of January 2009! This will be a great tool for us.
- We need to build some capacity to support effective education in the sciences. Therefore we will be investing in labs and better textbooks.
- The conditions for normal citizens are pretty bad. Costs for everyday items are sky-high. The stipends we provide barely provide enough to cover rents.
- Our girl students are spending their own monies to get to our schools via local transportation. We have one bus, but we will need to investigate the purchase of another.
Our current enrollment in our Kabul Girls school:
• students: 64
• faculty and administrators: 8 teachers (and 5 administrators shared with boys)
Our current enrollment in our Kabul Boys school:
• students: 46
• faculty and administrators: 8 teachers (and 5 admins shared with girls)
• We plan to enroll 20 new boys in the Spring of this year.
Paghman Girls School updates:
Background: Paghman is not a distinct province. It’s in the Kabul vicinity, approximately a 35 minute car ride from the center of Kabul. It’s a relatively pristine, mountainous community, similar to what you would expect in the Lake Tahoe area of California of the US.
- Conducted similar meetings with families, students, and staff.
- We find that the girls are so passionate about learning and coming to school—they are very serious about their education. And the families are highly supportive of our operations.
- We are very happy to have conducted the grand opening of our new addition to our school. Pictures have been posted on our site and flickr gallery.
- This new addition allows us to meet the demand for more enrollments. We plan to add 20 new students in the spring of this year.
- Purchased enough firewood to warm the school for the entire winter.
- Purchased medicine to stock our school clinic and a winter uniform for each student.
Additional work we undertook in Afghanistan:
When possible, and when we have specific requests that come from our donors to provide emergency relief, we act fast and try to find needy families who may need immediate relief. Our donors earmarked some specific funds to help the combat the harsh winter.
During my trip, we were also able to purchase meat (approximately $12,400) to donate. This will feed more than 1,600 families. In addition to the meat, $5,000 in cash was distributed to the needy families, and $2,800 worth of sacks of flour is in process of distributing to 100 families.
In Wardak Young Disabled Adult Training Center and a new School !
In Wardak, we currently have 12 disabled young adult students in our education and vocational training program. We have so far been unsuccessful in finding any space for expanding the school.
The goods news is that we have received land to build our first school in Maidan Wardak. The project is slated to offer 8 school rooms (2 staff rooms) and to enroll approximately 200 new students. The project is estimated to cost $35,000. So far we have been able to collect $10,000.00 to allow us to break ground, and we hope to continue work on in Spring of 2009 once the harsh winter months pass.
Final Notes in Closing:
During my travels, I saw increasing hardship and despair.
Thousands of families are spending the winter with little or nothing to give them comfort. All the while, right around the corner there are families who are better equipped and living more comfortably. So there is a growing disparity between the small amount of have's and the majority of have-not's in Afghanistan.
One day, in our distribution of food and supplies, I witnessed one of the saddest scenes in my 15 years of working in Afghan relief:
As we distributed food, I saw grown men, women, and little children shouting and crying for a single piece of meat. It was the kind of moment that made you realize that these innocent people are suffering so much and they are desperate for change and help.
With each trip I make to Afghanistan, I pray and hope that the situation has improved and that the Afghan people are able to get back on their feet. Unfortunately, each time I am disappointed and saddened to see how their lives have worsened and how much they’re suffering.
I am reaching out to you; the good hearted and caring donors not to forget that our mission is getting more difficult and therefore we much worker harder.
Still, we continue to move on with the hope for the future.
Here are some additional updates from our programs:
• We have 3 schools: 1 Girls and 1 Boys school in Kabul, and one Girls school in Paghman district
• And we have one disabled adult training center (Wardak province).
• And were excited to share that we recently broke ground on a fourth school (Wardak Province)
Some additional news on schools:
- Approximately 230 students and their respective families are enrolled in our program.
- We say the "Families" too because we pay our students a small stipend ($30 to $50 per month depending on their respective case) to help support their families. This helps us keep them in school, instead of dropping out to beg on streets or take less desirable jobs.
- Half of these students/families are sponsored by direct donors, so the other half we support through our savings and operational budget.
- Generally, our students are doing well, although the cost of living is increasing making it difficult to support them. So you'll see a common trend below that we continue to face dropouts. Due to the economic pressure on families, students leave school to take on multiple jobs to support their loved ones.
Sincerely,
Najib Aziz
President
The Children of War
+1 (703) 625-9147 m
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Trip Report from Najib Aziz, President and Founder of The Children of War,
May 2008 report
Flour such an important staple in the life of the people-- and unfortunately in Afghanistan, it is quickly becoming too expensive for people to buy.
From neighborhood streets, to bazaar corners, to the poor torn-down ravaged homes of Afghan citizens, the eyes of each individual are in pursuit of flour. Women and men, the children and the elderly, the affluent and the indigent, the instructors and the pupils all alike have forgotten their need for all else but flour.
Background:
On the 14th of May, 2008, in the Kandahar Province of Afghanistan, a riot broke out as a result of hunger. Out of desperation, citizens ransacked grocery stores and stole sacks of flour and rice.
Desperation, weakness, and hunger have tied the hands and feet of the poor, vulnerable Afghans, tighter and tighter. In the face of inflation, the economic situation has deteriorated more than the nation has ever witnessed. Flour and bread prices suddenly doubled in the span of two weeks in May, after neighboring Pakistan blocked wheat and flour exports. The same sack of flour that cost 700 Afghanis in early May is now fluctuating between 2,200-2,500 Afghanis. Likewise, the price of a 7 kilo sack of rice has gone up from 200 Afghanis to 700 Afghanis. Inflation continues to drive prices upwards, without limitations, thus preventing workers from affording anything. If a working citizen of Afghanistan is unable to afford a mere sack of flour, then you can imagine how difficult it is for the unemployed, the widowers, and the orphaned children.
I saw the desperation of Afghans in the streets of Kabul City and the Parwan Province. Their pleas for just a sack of flour reminded me of the terrible conditions of Afghans in the refugee camps of Pakistan of the 80's and 90's.
Unfortunately in Afghanistan, the basics and staples of life are unattainable for most who struggle to survive the skyrocketing living costs.
More in Afghanistan
Behind the Pule-E-Kishtee Mosque in Kabul, that same stale bread that was provided complimentary to the people in refugee camps is now available for sale, and desperate people are more than willing to pay for it.
Administrators from one of our TCOW Kabul schools requested that we assist needy people by purchasing flour for the local teachers, government workers, and janitors whom have not been paid their salary for the past two months. These workers, despite no recent paydays, have continued to return to work each day, for fear that they may ultimately lose their jobs. One can understand the logic, even how absurd the situation. When we approached them, most requested that even a one 7-kilogram sack of flour would be of great assistance.
What we saw in Kabul city and Parwan Province is honestly a very heartbreaking situation.
Should I tell you about the fathers who leave their homes at the crack of dawn in hopes to find food or work? Only to return late in the evening with empty hands and pockets.
Should I tell you about the mothers who try to put their famished children to sleep in hopes of providing them with food in the morning?
In the past, when we visited our schools in Kabul and Paghman, behind the school doors stood only a handful of individuals, awaiting our help and arrival. Today, that number has at least tripled, with nearly 100 people standing behind those same doors on our most recent visit. The only demand these individuals had was for a sack of flour-- such a simple request.
In closing:
Now I make my plea to you to listen to their cries and help them out. Please, don't let the helpless and poor Afghan citizens fall victim to the exploitative games constantly being played out.
You don't need to donate to the Children of War. Find whatever organization or method you can to help-- Afghanistan is quickly becoming (again) a forgotten nation.
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Trip dates: July - August , 2007
Trip report by Najib Aziz, President and Founder of TCOW
My hope, like many Afghan expatriates, is that people from countries with troubled histories of war and conflict like Afghanistan, learn from their past mistakes-- and move on.
The current state in Afghanistan challenges these hopes. Even with all the financial support from the international community, there seems very little help is reaching the thousands of widows and millions of orphans here in Afghanistan. On my recent trip, I traveled to a refugee camp called Camp Barryghab where 500 families currently live. The camp is situated in a remote area, distant from any large city. The living conditions are deplorable. The inhabitants complain of snakes, poisonous spiders, and scorpions. Food and potable water are in short supply. The specter of disease hovers over the camp constantly. They are literally in the middle of nowhere—with little help or attention coming their way.
This is just on example of the current state in Afghanistan .
Some examples of the cruel inflation currently experienced:
In Kabul, the spiraling cost of living is making life increasingly difficult for the majority of the population. The prices of food and other daily necessities are going up drastically-- seemingly with no reasoning behind such inflation.
For example, in the month of July 2007, our TCOW office had only 2 hours of electricity per night available to it for use, yet our monthly electricity bill came out to $7,000 Afghanis (approximately $140 US dollars).
Here's another example: a typical Afghan government employee's salary is only $2,500-$3,000 Afghanis per month. However, rent for a one bedroom living arrange- ment is approximately $2,500 Afghanis a month. People barely make enough to pay for their rent let alone for necessities such as food and electricity.
Afghanistan is rare in that even the basics of living are expensive.
Hard to avoid helping:
Although my plan was to focus on the TCOW schools in Kabul and Paghman and to renovate an entire section of the Kabul school, it was very hard to deny anyone who asked for financial support.
Many days women would come to the Paghman and Kabul Schools asking for financial assistance and there were even times when I would find women lined up outside the residence where I was staying, at 5 o'clock in the morning.
I could talk for hours about the lives of these very unfortunate people in Afghanistan- people who have been betrayed by everyone including their own countrymen. They don't know who to turn to and whom they can trust anymore.
Dear friends, we at The Children of War (TCOW) are doing our best to bring positive change to the lives of as many people as we can. We are encouraging everyone to take part and bring about change not only for your own satisfaction, but also for the sake of humankind and to make God happy and to get the reward that you deserve in the hereafter. After all, none of us know how long we are going to live because tomorrow is never guaranteed.
We try to focus on the most in need: the children, the disabled, and the widows.
A brief status report from our schools:
In addition to supporting hundreds of widows and destitute people with cash assistance, we have expanded our program in our recent trip. The purpose of our trip to Afghanistan was to renovate the Kabul boys' school which was severely damaged by heavy rain and snowfall this past winter. The damage was so severe, that we had to fix the entire roof. We built an aluminum roof for safety, in order to withstand any type of weather. You can see the pictures in our photo gallery or directly on our flicker site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tcow .
While I was in Kabul, I accompanied our Kabul Girls students on a field trip to the Paghman Girls' school. This was a nice trip for all involved and you can see the pictures in our photo gallery.
Also in Kabul Girl school news: we were able to enroll 15 more students. These students were interviewed several times carefully and studied hard to get enrolled in our school. These new students started school on October 1st, 2007.
New Empowerment Program Launched for the Disabled of Wardak Because of our goal of giving the neediest Afghans the opportunity to receive basic education, enhance their job skills and obtain work, we have expanded our operations to a career training and education center in Madidan Wardak region.
Here we opened our first facility and school for disabled people. Each enrolled student has some type of disability (typically a single or multiple missing limbs) and therefore has had difficulty to find work and create a living. Our program consists of basic education (similar to our Kabul and Paghman schools) and a hands-on sewing training program (with equipment and material). Due to the precarious housing situation and limited space, we currently rent two rooms and have enrolled 13 disabled people. When more economical and feasible space is found, we'd like to expand our enroll- ments given there is a clear need. We hope that we will be successful in establishing a school for orphaned kids—similar to the ones in Kabul and Paghman-- in the near future.
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