Mahbouba's response to our meeting at MoLSA-April 30th

Letter from Mahbouba to her network of friends.....

Dear All:

Well today was another one of those disappointing days in my Afghanistan life, hoping for something, wishing for a change, for a new way of looking at our problems, but NOooooo.......and once again it was the dream of a forever optimist in the face of Afghanistan's reality ,"despair",. For once in my life I was hoping, at the meeting today that The Deputy Minister 0f Labor Social affairs Martyr and Disabled, after being presented with a full report on: neglect, human rights violations, cruelty and endangering health and welfare of orphanage children, who have no one, absolutely no one to look after their interest- I was hoping he would say " Ladies and Gentlemen, lets stop our usual nonsense of what we have accomplished, how many laws and bylaws have we created, how much money we have spent ( by we, I mean the world ) and how we turn the blame around and put it on somebody else's shoulders, discredit honest NGO's and International organizations and instead let's SAY: we do have a problem! lets put all our energy and resources together and solve this. For God's sake there are more than five million AT RISK children in this country and we are already five years too late in looking after their interests, so let us do something and let us do it now".

But unfortunately my friends this was not what I heard. What I heard was more of the same, more blame more excuses, more discrediting and more excuses and more blame.
Well enough of this. Thanks for listening I needed to write to you all about this.

On a happier note: The Deputy Minister did decide to create a committee and look into the orphanage situation in Kabul as well as all over Afghanistan. And on that note I promise you that I will follow up and keep you updated on what happens to our children.: THESE ARE CHILDREN OF AFGHANISTAN WE ARE TALKING ABOUT, SO LET'S PUT ALL OUR EFFORTS TOGETHER AND KEEP THEM OUT OF HARMS WAY. IT IS BAD ENOUGH THEY ARE ORPHANS!!!!!!

Love and peace keep your chins up I am not done yet!

Letter to the Deputy Minister

April 26, 2007



Your Excellency Deputy Minister,

It is with great pleasure that we recognize the outstanding work that this ministry and the members of Child Protection Action Network have accomplished over the last couple of years, culminating in the document “National Strategy for Children “at-risk”. The challenges of creating a social safety net are difficult in all cultures, and especially difficult in post-war Afghanistan. We are gratified to recognize all involved with creating this document as the formulation of strategy and policy are so imperative to a successful social program and it gives us a starting point for the report we are submitting to you.

It is with confidence in this ministry’s desire to improve the life of the children under its care that I bring the attached report to your attention. PARSA staff has spent the last eight months in the Alluhoddin Orphanage, implementing a pilot program for children who have been identified by the orphanage staff as especially “at risk”. Our staff members are trained caregiver’s in physiotherapy and psychosocial training. Over the course of the last eight months they witnessed first hand problems at the orphanage that deeply concerned them. We have taken steps to bring these problems to your attention and to the attention of individuals within your organization to have them rectified. However it has only been in the last six weeks with the direct intervention from Vice President Khalily that significant improvement has been seen at the orphanage. Input from other organizations who have direct experience of Alluhoddin and other orphanages indicate that in fact over the course of the last five years, intervention in substandard conditions for the children has taken place but not been sustained by orphanage staff. This indicates that there is a need for a comprehensive investigation of existing orphanages and that changes need to be made at many different levels of the system of management, oversight and monitoring. Change that is only made after intervention from the president’s office will not be sustained.

We submit the following reports documenting the conditions at the orphanage in an effort to initiate an investigation of the conditions of the orphanages in Afghanistan and the management systems in place. We do this not to create problems but to assist in the clarification of the problems so that you and your staff can take effective action. We do not consider this a poor reflection on this ministry. All countries struggle to care for their most vulnerable people appropriately. These conditions are understandable in the current struggle to develop Afghanistan. What is not tolerable is to know about these conditions and to not investigate and address the issues so that the children under your care have the quality of life they are entitled to. We have confidence that you and this network will do so expeditiously.

Our report is not designed to initiate direct change. It is a simple account of problems my staff witnessed. It would be unfair to all involved to take systemic action on this report alone. The staff at the orphanage has worked there through the wars, often without pay. The orphanage staff needs to be protected from untrue and malicious accusations as much as the children need to have a voice and reports such as this need to be taken seriously and given due process. However, we need a venue for NGO’s, donors, parents, children and staff to bring their concerns and issues that they have with the proper care of the children, to ask those accountable for intervention and improvement. Having such a venue will create great confidence in this ministry and create support for its programs. We are bringing my report to this group of invested people in hopes that the issues we raise will be investigated and changes will be made at all levels of this ministry so that these conditions are not tolerated and that these children are given the best possible chance for a good life.


On behalf of PARSA staff


Marnie Gustavson Mahbouba Seraj
Executive Director Community Education and Advocacy

List of issues as of December 2006

Caution: This is a list of issues as we are reporting them from Alluhoddin orphanage. Some of these issues have been addressed successfully. We are not asking for change based on this report. Instead, We are asking for an investigation into all parties responsible for government run organizations in the country and recommendations for deep and sustaining change that will alter the way orphanages are run-so this condition will not exist in the orphanages ever again. We are not the first organization to attempt to change this-we would like to be the last.
Issues as of December 2006-
Degradation of the environment at the orphanage to the point of being a health hazard and the children’s hygiene and physical well-being.
Toilets outside are overflowing. The children are not allowed use of the inside toilets.
The wood has run out. Many rooms are not heated.
The stoves are improperly installed.
There is not adequate laundry facilities.
There is not running water.
There is no showering or bathing facilities
The children have not bathed. As of January, PARSa began taking groups to the Himam’s.
The children have fleas and lice.
The children are not clothed properly against the cold.
The girl children do not have feminine hygiene products-nor are they taught about that change in life. We witnessed staff scolding a girl for hiding rags.
The girl children do not have underwear.
We bought new clothes for 40 children as there clothes were falling apart.
Last year children were receiving meat once a week. Since November no meat was given.
Our staff take a minimum of 5 children to the hospital (CURE) a week. There is no systemic medical care and apparently no one is making sure that they see the Dr. and no one is following up.

Inadequate Staff and untrained staff-
There is one supervisor for day and then night for the girls and one for the boys. Which means at times one adult to 200+ children. Upon visiting the orphanage…these supervisor’s are not a presence in the rooms. A situation was brought to our attention where it is reported that in the girls dorm…five older girls are given the responsibility for disciplining the children. One girl was severely beaten-reported on by her handicapped father upon a visit and also locked out in the hallway overnight during the winter. More details available.

Contributions are not getting to the children
We assessed the situation in December and came up with a budget of $4,500 to repair the orphanage and get the water going. We found a donor who began delivering the items and working on the repairs. The donor’s staff was so put-off by their interactions of the staff re: the items being delivered that they cancelled the effort.
Our staff witnessed:
Money being given to the children for baths-and then the money was taken away.
Clothing, shoes, toys and blankets disappearing from the orphanage.
Orphanage staff is willing to discuss this issue and give details that need to be investigated.
There is no system for distribution. More specific details available.


System of intake and release:
Who is responsible for the approval of release for the children? How is it decided? For the children, the threat of being released is considered a discipline measure and it is called “CIC’ing….which is a program Children in Crisis conducted in the orphanages two years ago. The orphanage staff said that money is involved in the release of children to their families and there is a question about whether all of the money that the families are entitled to is getting to the families. (to be investigated). It is unclear under what circumstances children are being released to their families. Girl children are being released to their families after puberty, a marriageable age. This may be a larger legal issue. This is an area where there is a real concern for whether there is a human rights violation that is policy within the Ministry.

From Save the Children-US-thank you....

National Children’s Manifesto
We are the children of Afghanistan. This week we have come together from all over our beloved country to speak as a united voice on behalf of all Afghanistan’s children. We represent children’s groups from all over Afghanistan. Through our groups, we have discussed problems that we face in our communities and provinces. This week, we have had the unique opportunity to share these concerns with our brothers and sisters from other regions in Afghanistan. Not only have we had the opportunity to share our concerns but also the many ways in which we can solve our problems. We have learnt from each other and created friendships across the country, no matter what color we are, religion we have or language we speak.

Through our groups we have been able to prevent teachers and parents from beating us, we have facilitated the construction of schools and bridges to get there; we have convinced children and their parents about the importance of education for all children in Afghanistan, boys and girls. In our villages, returnee camps and communities, we have formed networks of children’s groups. When children in our communities have a problem, we work together to find solutions. We do this all over Afghanistan so that we can contribute to the future of our country and our brothers and sisters.

In order for us to contribute to our future, we need the adults to make a promise to us: We need our government and honorable President to promise that they will work with us so that we can together improve our lives and those of our families and generations to come. We ask the government to listen to our concerns and ideas now and to take a leading role in improving our future:

We ask the government to establish a department that prioritizes children’s issues. This department should have an office in every province, to which we can turn too with our concerns. This department should raise awareness on issues affecting us: discrimination based on gender, language, ethnicity or physical ability. This will help adults understand our problems and rights better. This department should ensure that the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which our country is a signatory, is implemented.

We welcome the democratically elected President and ask our President to make sure that the government consists only of persons who have not committed crimes and are good citizens. The government should prevent girls being forced to marry when they are still young. We ask the government to enforce a law that prevents marriage of girls and boys younger than 18. We ask our parents to ask our consent with the partners they identify for us. People, who harass or abuse children, should be punished for what they do: whether it is child trafficking, sexual abuse of children or violence against us. Children who are with commanders should be released. The commanders don’t treat us well and don’t allow us to go to school. The government should take weapons away from commanders and others who don’t protect us but instead threaten and scare our families and us.

Through employment programs, our parents should get work and earn an income, so that we don’t have to go out to work but will be allowed to go to school. Our government should make sure that children in all districts and villages can go to school and that our teachers are good teachers, who understand teaching methodologies, treat us with respect and don’t beat us. The government should construct schools for us – now we learn in tents, where it is cold in the winter and hot in the summer. More educational opportunities for girls should be established.

We want to live a long and healthy life and to do this; we need clinics and basic health care in our villages as well as clean drinking water.

If the government promises us to priorities the above issues, we promise to do the following:
We will do all we can to rebuild our beloved country; we will use our education to reconstruct our country, we will promote peace amongst our brothers and sisters; we will continue to help children in need in our communities and include them in our lives. We will listen to the government and help it improve our lives.

Today you are looking at children from all over our country – the future of Afghanistan. We are committed to making a lasting change so that our future is safe and secure and our children will grow up in peace. We hope that you are committed to the future of the children of your country, who are the leaders of tomorrow.

Thank you.
The Children of Afghanistan
Kabul, December 14th 2004

Last meeting of informal consortium...

Dear All,
I thank you for taking time out of your day to meet with us yesterday. This is a brief recap and a reiteration of the requests that I made in the meeting.
On April 30th we will have the opportunity to meet with MoLSA and CPAN for 20 minutes. I am preparing a report of our experiences in Alluhoddin that is very specific. The report will conclude with a request for an investigation into how the national orphanages are being managed and a request for intervention that is systemic. Our report will also include information from other organizations about prior failed efforts to make changes in the orphanages. This information will underline the systemic problem and disallow the notion that this problem is specific to Alluhoddin or to PARSA's viewpoint. As a courtesy, I will be providing the deputy minister, and Soraya Hakim a copy of the report before the meeting and we will be copying Dr. Khalily. As I stated, in the meeting I intend to simply report. I will not debate our report or engage in discussion. I am not asking for changes based on the PARSA report. I am asking for an evenhanded investigation that will result in changes and so will ask for a response in writing to our group.

Requests from you:
This is an informal consortium and I would like to know if your organization will endorse our effort. May I include your name our list of organizations calling for change?
Do you have anecdotes that I may include in the report?
Can you have a representative at the meeting? This is "for show" as we do not intend to do anything but present but it will underscore how important we feel the effort is.

Finally, it has taken us over 6 months of very intensive advocacy work to bring this issue to the attention of authorities in such a way that we are being listened to. I do not expect much out of this meeting and would like to begin thinking about "next steps", and I would welcome your ideas. It is difficult to organize this as such efforts have such a history of getting lost in rhetoric, talk and reasons that nothing can be done. I welcome your ideas.

I will send the report out to you no later than Sunday. Again, thank you.

Role of children in Afghanistan-Anoosha

Every body knows that children are like flowers. If we look after them well, they will be very beautiful in the future. But if we pay less attention in looking after them they will fade away and will be of no use to the society.

As we can see in many backward countries including Afghanistan the children are involved in hard works to feed their families. You can see dirty, barefoot children with their weather beaten faces who are washing cars, begging or forcing you to buy what ever they are selling in streets. Because many of them have lost their family members in civil war and they are forced to earn money to live.

Many of children in Afghanistan do not attend school, do not have enough food to eat and have no clean drinking water.

But on the contrary, we see civilized countries give equal respect to the children. And try to improve their imaginations and pay value to their ideas.

But unfortunately in Afghanistan especially in provinces less attention is being paid to what children think or what ideas they have. Not knowing that one day these children with their world changing ideas can take their countries to the higher stages of civilization and modernization.

And if we want to reach this goal we have to provide the children with good education and meet their basic needs such as clean drinking water, safe place to live and secure them with health insurance.

We are sure solidarity of world children can give great hope to Afghan children to have a better life in the future.

Obaid-son of Gulam Jilany to Will-son of David

Hello, Mahmoud, my name is Will, son of David. I am 15 years old and I am in class ten. We do not have positions in our classes but if we did I don’t think I would be very high up. I live with my mother and I have a brother named Joe. He is 12 years old. I live on an Island called Bainbridge. We take large boats called ferries to travel into the city. Above is a picture. I attend many classes but my favorite is art and math. In the future I want to be an architect or artist. What kind of doctor do you want to be??

Dear Will, Hope you are fine. Mahmood is transferred to other orphanage that is why Obaid is your new pen pal. Here is his letter. Anoosha

My name is Obaid son of Ghulam Jilany. I am writing you from the
Allahoddin orphanage. I actually wish to meet you one day. It is really nice to have a pen pal in America. I
also wish to be a doctor in the future to serve my country. I like to play football with my friends. My favorite food is mantoo [gound meet stuffed into dough cones and steam cooked]. What about you? In Afghanistan there is no sea. I haven’t seen large boats but I have seen small ones. I attend music classes with my school. I can sing and play Harmonium too. I have 2nd position in the class. I have 3 sisters and 5 brothers. My sisters are living with my uncle and my one brother is in Iran but I have not seen him from many years. But my other brothers are with me at the orphanage. I would love to hear from you back. Regards, Obaid

Update on our initiative for orphans....Marnie

Dear All,
Our meeting this past Monday was productive and we have agreed on the following:

We are an informal "action" committee of nationals and internationals whose formation's only purpose is to request that existing commitments made by the government be implemented such as the National Plan of Action for Vulnerable Children. And that networks such as CPAN be alerted to our report that in the last 6 months of working in Alluhoddin Orphanage we have a very specific eye witness account of serious abuse, neglect and possible human rights violations that we want investigated by which ever organization is designated to do this.

In the last two days the deputy minister has responded to vice President Khalily's directive that the issues at Alluhoddin orphanage be corrected, much to my gratification. But PARSA is not an advocacy organization nor are we an appropriate oversight mechanism. We wish to see systems in place that address the issues we have encountered systemically so that there is a movement forward on this, and an authentic effort on the government part to care for these children. The people that joined the meeting are directors and Afghan community leaders who have an investment in fundamental change in the lives of Afghan children who are living in orphanages and who have direct experiences of the current problems with the lack of oversight.
Please feel free to attend our next meeting on Monday, April, 23rd, 10:00, PARSA offices at Maristoon. In this meeting we will finalyze plans to present a report to MOLSA /CPAN. Thank you.

A letter from my mother back to Anoosha....Marnie

I have to share some of these exchanges, especially from my mother, who was here in Afghanistan. These letters mean everything to these kids. I was int he orphanage the other day...I don't spend much time with the kids because my job is funding and paving the way for my staff to get their job done...increasingly difficult right now as we are making policitcal waves...but the girls lit up when I introduced myself as Rosses daughter....they wait breathlessly for her group letters...here is her latest.

Dear Anoosha....I just read your piece on pollution in Kabul with interest, because here we are very aware of the cost of our way of life in pollution, destruction of
our natural resources. It is a worldwide problem. Here in Seattle and the northwest part of the country, many people are becoming concerned....we have a great wealth of resources in our Puget sound waterways and the fish that come from them, as well as heavily wooded forests that many builders want to cut down to make room for more houses, businesses. Washington has a strong agricultural interest....on the west side of our Cascade mountain range, there are fruits, berries & vegetables (flowers too) while on the east side of the mountains, which is drier & hotter, the farmers have large acreage of wheat,potatoes, orchards of fruit, nuts, etc.

In fact the eastern side of the state reminds us of Afghanistan with bare but beautiful hills and dry, arid climate, more sun etc. It is hard for me to visualize Kabul with 4.5 million people but I can imagine what damage the wind does with the shortage of trees. When we were there in mid 60's I think it was closer to 500,000 + people. And spring was a lovely time, with the new growth on all the trees. Crops being planted.

I just wish we could send some of our trees your way. But thinking and talking about these concerns is the first step to making change, then ultimately people around you become aware. Education is the first step. You are right about the government not being able to reduce pollution alone. It will take many people thinking about it and planting some trees in their compounds, then some vegetables & flowers for the families needs, then perhaps a tree planting program to start replacing what has been lost through the wars. It will take time, but I can see you have such an interest in making life better around you....sometimes we can only take little steps to begin with.

Also I can see the difference you have made with the children in the orphanage....there are more happy faces! The past weeks I have had some health issues, but I haven't forgotten the children and hold you all in my heart daily. Will resume writing when possible. I would like to continue (I like to write) but now must get ready for a dentist appointment this morning. More later. Lovingly, Ross
This is a picture of when we were here as children with our parents...this is a graveyard.

POLLUTION IN KABUL CITY-ANOOSHA

Pollution in Kabul City

Citizens of Kabul City can feel the footsteps and beauty of spring after a harsh winter. But meanwhile, with regret spring has started with heavy dust and pollution. Each and every road is dusty especially when a car passes with a full speed creating a huge army of dust. Sometimes even breathing is impossible. People can hardly walk on the streets during day time. I think the main cause of this problem is the war which has ruined every thing and the huge population of this city growing now up to 4.5 million though Kabul was made for 1.5 million people. Severe shortage of trees is also a major factor for pollution

Even though pollution is a global issue, still people can do much to reduce pollution and protect their cities. I am sure there might be many ways to reduce pollution. For instance, we need to keep our communities clean and tidy. We can plant more trees. Perhaps in Kabul we can create voluntary youth organizations to clean our city on a regular basis because the government can’t reduce pollution by itself.

Prepared by Anoosha Wahidi

Kabul, April 2007

On finally taking broader action on the condition of the orphanage-Marnie

Dear Colleagues,


My name is Marnie Gustavson, and I am the executive director of PARSA, a small international NGO headquartered in Kabul. I and my staff have been working intensively in Alluhoddin Orphanage for the last six months-conducting an afternoon program for children who need intensive care-from medical attention to psychosocial therapy. Over the course of the six months my staff have brought me disturbing reports about the management of the orphanage, abuse, neglect and practices that could indicate deeper problems. Last fall, my colleague, Mahbouba Seraj and I, began an effort to bring these reports to the attention of the Ministry and to government officials. In our attempt to bring about change we repeatedly met people who knew about the problems but felt helpless to do anything about it-including a donor who has put over $20K into repairs, and parliamentarians who have brought the problems to the minister. This winter the difficulties for the children were acute. Mahbouba managed to secure the attention of vice president, Dr. Khalily, and accompanied him on a surprise visit to the orphanage a month ago-where he discovered no staff present other than door guards at 9am in the morning. He, again promised change. We have not heard from him since that time-and although there are superficial changes, my staff is now being harrassed by the management at the orphanage-as we have been identified as the whistle blowers.

I approached the US Embassy this week, and the Human Rights Office, has heard of other complaints about orphanages that are government run-and they have agreed to work with me to bring pressure on the government to bring about change. I would like to invite other interested parties to meet with us this week and to join with us to do so.

I want to establish my intent as far as this action goes.
Social Welfare programs for children are problematic in all parts of the world. I have worked with them for 15 year in the US and encountered gross abuses there as well. This is not a problem specific to Afghanistan. Raising public cry about child abuse can initiate short term changes- and create a degree of hysteria and knee jerk responses but I have not seen that it provides long term change very often. Our children around the world are still terribly vulnerable for all the outcry about it. I am very clear that Afghan's do not want their orphans in this environment-but reconstruction being where it is-there is a certain resignation about being able to change it.

In this initiative I would like the international community to to promote a program of capacity building-teaching the government systems of intervention that are democratic and that honor the rights of the government workers-as well as the children. Removing certain individuals from their posts, however much I would like to, will not create any long term change. Having the government take on a program of democratic intervention will. Supporting them in creating this protocol will start to by pass the current political considerations clearly in place. I am interested in this effort addressing all government run institutions that care for children in this country. I would deeply appreciate assistance from experts in this type of policy setting and intervention.

As an international community we need to have no tolerance for institutionalized abuse and neglect of children. I am not sure how this will play out but I am dedicated to seeing this through until the Afghan authorities involved join us in this commitment. We need to establish a baseline for the children's care and be very loud and insistent about the accomplishment of that.

Our first strategic meeting for this inititative will be in PARSA offices-10am on Tuesday. Please let me know if you would like to join us and I will send a map. My best to all.

This weeks visit...Marnie

Ariane took photos that capture the avidity with which the children listen to Anoosha, right, as she reads the letters. Ariane told me that she was amazed at how carefully they listened to a hygiene lesson today....with no water or cloth to practice the lesson, Ariane said "they were listening to a world they can only imagine-but so intently.

We have 12 pen pal partner with four girls still needing pen pals. Tahera, Shakera, Fariba, Farida...I have loved seeing 16 year old Anoosha confront the sadness of the orphanage and then delight in the correspondance
with all of you as well as having the amazing job of delivering your letters. She has loved every minute of it...

A NEW HOPE FOR THE ORPHANS

Last week I went to the orphanage to give the orphans their first letters from their pen pals. They were so happy to have the letters and especially the pictures of their pen pals. A couple of the orphans told me that now they have hope and know that there are other people who listen and care about them.

During this visit an American lady by the name of Ms Julia Bolz also accompanied us to the orphanage. She was keen to meet the orphans to become aware of their living and learning conditions. She was very pleased with the pen pal project. Because when I gave the letters to the orphans, a great hope was visible in their faces which pleased me too.

Meanwhile I visited the new PARSA room at the orphanage. In this room I saw a group of children sewing and drawing by the help of very active PARSA staff. I believe they really enjoy the help and assistance of PARSA staff. But still we have not found pen pals for all of the orphans that is why some of them were a bit unhappy. But I assured them that soon we will find pen pals for them too. We need pen pals for: Haleema, Tahera, Fariba, and Farida.

This week I am going to give the boys their first letters from their pen pals. I wish to see the same happiness and hope on their faces as of the girls.

I am so happy that with the help of this project we can expose these children to different experiences from other parts of the world, new skills and meanwhile we can bring a smile and joy on their faces.

Anoosha Wahidi
1st April 2007