Jawzareen Valley-May Journal 2008

Jawzjareen Valley, Bamyan
April/May 2008
Journal

April 27th
7:00 am our team loads into our battered SUV and we head for Bamyan. This is the first trip to Bamyan that I have taken without guests from out-of-country and although the road is worse than it was last trip, we are relaxed, happy to get out of Kabul and ready to get to work. I have Palwasha with me, 11-year veteran of PARSA and one of the Afghan directors. She has brought her mother as chaperon. It is very difficult to hire women who will travel, and most of the time tradition requires a chaperon. We have Sami-gak, (Little Sami), who has worked for PARSA since he was about 14 years old. He is one of the youngest staff members and everyone bosses him around. He is always happy for a road trip to Bamyan, where he assumes more responsibility and is treated as an adult. And then our great driver, Gul Achmad, who is quiet and competent.

We are headed up to Jawzjareen valley to hire our teachers for the “Community Village Schools” and get our programs started. Twelve teachers from my home, Seattle, have raised $12K to start this project. PARSA has other education projects in the Paghman district, but this is our first project integrating education, economic We We are headed up to Jawzareen valley to hire our teachers for the “Community Village Schools” and get our programs started. Twelve teachers from my home, Seattle, have raised $12K to start this project. PARSA has other education projects in the Paghman district, but this is our first project integrating education, economic support and health education (and hopefully later healthcare) under my watch as executive director.

We spent almost a year and a half traveling up to Jawzjareen, speaking with the villagers about what they needed before we launched this program. (The history of this project is posted on our web journal www.parsakabul.blogspot.com).

The nine-hour ride (150 kilometers) is bone jarring, but we have left early enough so that we arrive in the afternoon to our office/residence. Rides like this are the only time I wish that I didn’t understand so much Dari. Afghans have to be the most garrulous people in the world. They love to talk about anything and everything and my Afghans chatted non-stop while I tried to sleep, for the entire nine hours.

Taher and Zahra, a couple with children who are based in Bamiyan City, greeted us. They are tremendous and we are lucky to have them. But Zahra had month’s worth of complaints she was ready to take up with me the moment I arrived. I excused myself, scheduled a discussion for the morning and we ate dinner and went to bed early. A cat has adopted us, and he settled in with me for the night so I felt quite at home.

April 28th
This is our first day to go up into the valley with Zahra and Taher crammed into the car as well. There are four villages up there and we have quite a few decisions to make as we get started. On an earlier trip, Yasin had secured agreements from elders in the villages, to provide us with space to begin our school. We are hoping to walk to all of the villages, as we have to determine where to place our program so that it is not too far for any of the women we enroll. Our goal is to start with 28 women in our economic program and around 40 women in our literacy program. We also are prepared to start two Early Childhood Development Programs with 60 children under the age of 5. Additionally, we have to secure land for our “Kitchen Garden” program.

Jawzjareen is only 45 minutes away from Bamyan city, on a very bad road, but they receive no services and have a number of very poor families. Two families are orphaned and the oldest child, are providing for the younger siblings. We have met over 10 widows with children, who live high up on the mountains, where there is no water and bad soil. There are also disabled adults who are trying to care for their families. This area does, however, contain a number of wealthy Afghan potato farmers who are very miserly with their support to other community members. Where as in other communities, such as Paghman we will be providing economic development training to the entire community because the whole community is so poor-in this one I are very focused on providing just for the marginalized. The good news is that there are people in the valley that have money so our women won’t have to go all the way to Bamyan to sell their products.

Yasin has worked very hard to convince wealthy members of the community to provide land and school space for free. Today we will see how successful he was.

Palwasha, Sami, and Gul Achmad are quite light hearted, being out in the beautiful weather and spectacular landscape. We are stopped on the road up to the valley by a huge truck delivering rocks to an irrigation project and we opt to get out and walk the rest of the way. We walk by the public school, holding mostly boys. It is over a mile just to the base of the Jawzjareen valley over very tough terrain and most girls are not allowed to walk so far to school. Additionally, all family members are working the fields so education is less of a priority than providing for family. Projects like ours are being conducted by a number of agencies around the country as an interim education strategy while the Ministry of Education attempts to get public education going again. Still it is estimated that only 40% of the children in the country are receiving education, 80% of girl children are still not being educated. It was estimated that there is a shortfall of over 75,000 teachers to provide education to the children of the country. Over half of the Afghan population is under the age of 19 years old.

We hope that girls in our literacy courses will go on to a public school education, but we also understand-firsthand- the problem of distance.


We are met at the beginning of the path to Orashgosh village, by one of our teachers. Yasin tested over twenty possible teachers and selected Akil and his sister Negbah, as our teachers for this program. They had a high school education in Pakistan and both have a bit of English. However, they have no teacher training and teaching them to teach will be one of our objectives this year. At the public school, I took a picture of a proud teacher, stick in hand, with his students all lined up-and made a note to myself to connect with the teachers and see if they wanted to participate in our teacher training. Most education here competes in quality with schools in the middle ages.

We go through the hiring process, and then outline the plan for the next couple of days, including meeting with all the women that want to be in the program. Akil makes an appeal for a literacy course in his village and we say we will consider it as learn about the distance between the villages. I ask him where he was going to teach our classes for children and he take us up a sheer cliff to a little room teetering over a 200-foot fall. I ask him how he proposes to get his little students to the school, which he hadn’t considered. Much discussion and we are led to the mosque that he said they only use once a year. It is a great classroom. We tell him that he should gather the women of the village who would want to attend literacy courses at 10 tomorrow so we can consider whether to have an additional course in his village.

Akil, Negbah, Zahra, Taher, Palwasha, Sami and I set off for the next village to meet with the elders. We have forgotten to pack a lunch and are hungry. The “Wali” (leader) of the next area, is found quickly and we meet with him in his mosque. He is very amenable to having courses in the mosque. We are served a coarse but delicious country bread with yogurt as we talk. He tells us that he will gather the women the next day to meet with us about starting a literacy course. We are very tired and sore after our long drive yesterday, so we are happy to finish our work in the valley for the day….as beautiful as it is.
I have observed that as heartbreakingly difficult a life Afghans have, they can let their troubles all go and enjoy themselves immensely. My group was so happy to be in the country away from Kabul. Young Sami-gak, walked down the valley road holding my hand and swinging our arms, telling me that I was like his mother. I tried to think of a professional response as his executive director but gave into the lightheartedness of the day and let it be. He works his heart out for me and PARSA, as do I for him, and my western work style just didn’t apply today.

April 29th
We were out early and back up in the valley today. Lovely day. At the first village, Orashgosh, 50 women gathered to meet with us. Palwasha and I talked about the opportunity of learning to read, as well as have their children start to an early childhood development class. I made the comment that life is richer and sweeter for people who are educated. One exhausted looking woman told me “What life? I am like a cow. I have no life but work that I am born to and will die doing!”

A young bitter man, Mirage, was in the back observing. He chastised the group and asked them why they didn’t tell us really how awful their lives were. I asked him to leave, and I would talk with him later as I felt he was intimidating the women. I learned later that he was 21 and orphaned when he was 14. He had been caring for his brothers and sisters all this time farming on a small, rocky patch of land. I am going to see if I can hire him to help us maintain our kitchen gardens.

We left Orashgosh and moved up to our next village. We first unpacked our supply boxes so Palwasha could brief the teacher’s on the attendance and what the supplies were for. Unfortunately, she hadn’t remembered to check the boxes before we left and we discovered that our operations manager had bought over one hundred tiny aluminum cookware sets for the ECD classes-complete with plastic carrots and that we only had 10 literacy books. About 60 women waited for us at this location. Our original plan was for between 30 to 40 women from all locations. The women informed us that they would be moving to the summer grounds with the villages herd of sheep, goats and cows in two months and they wondered how they could be in literacy class if they were going to leave it. I said we would work out summer activities and visit them up in the summer grounds on my next trip…something I have always wanted to do.

|We made our scheduling arrangements. Akil is going to teach two children’s classes, and Negbah will teach two literacy courses. Then we went further up the mountain. Palwasha wanted to meet the widow I met a year and half ago that inspired the program. She hiked way up the mountain while I went with Taher to negotiate for land close to the river for our gardens. We hope to build a small two-room center down there…but have to work with the community because it is prime land.

Palwasha discovered that the widow had bought a cow with her earnings from quilting for PARSA over the winter…I try all our ideas out on her. She is a hard-bitten, proud woman who chews tobacco. Palwasha bought some “dogh” a special yogurty mild drink, from her and I was extremely pleased to learn how well she had thought everything through and invested her money. She has five beautiful daughters, and Palwasha invited them to the classes.

Taher and I met with the elder of the second mosque school to discuss renting land. All businessman, now, he offered to rent it to me for $200 for six months…a small piece although it would support the 14 families we want to work with on a kitchen garden. In Bamyan everyone grows potatoes, which they sell for a cash crop. Unfortunately they end up buying staples and vegetables from Pakistan and an exorbitant rate. We plan on working with our poor families to grow vegetables that the villagers would get from Bamyan city, to sell in the village, along with other products from the garden.

I refuse his offer as too expensive. This is a very short trip to be followed up in a week by a more comprehensive training from our team from Kabul. I am just establishing the perimeters of the program and making sure I have the right PARSA staff working on the project. Haggling over the garden land I will leave to Yasin or Palwasha, who have an Afghan’s love for bartering. Additionally, as young Afghan community leaders they feel passionate about wealthy Afghan contributing to less lucky community members, and do not mince words when dealing with the “wali’s”.

We all convene at the bottom of the valley and eat eggs and bread by the river. Sami has found a group of youth who are fishing and convinces them to give a try. We brief Taher and Zahra on their tasks in the following week but we have hit a snag with transportation. Local transportation to this area either requires an overnight if traveling by bus for $1.00, or will cost $20 by minibus. No budget for this kind of transport and if we don’t solve it our ability to monitor and support the economic programs will be severely limited. I would like to have Taher and Zahra work in the valley everyday. Another problem to solve this month. These kinds of costs are what limit the development community at our level of fieldwork from doing a good job.

We haven’t been able to visit the two upper level villages to recruit people into the courses but will do so in the next two weeks. All courses start tomorrow-and we will see how much enthusiasm the women have for education by how many of them take time out of their busy days to attend.

April 30th
It is time to travel back to Kabul. I have scheduled Zahra and Taher to visit the programs the following week, and then our training team will be up there for almost two weeks of intensive work. Word back from the villages is that 60 women showed up this morning for our second literacy course scheduled in the morning. The “Wali” responsible for that course has already asked a man in the upper villages to find a location for another course as he doesn’t have enough room for all of the in his mosque. So there is a request for yet another literacy course and for PARSA to work with over 160 women. This is way over the 30 to 40 women I had planned for, but I am going to go back to Kabul to figure out how to do so. Our next team will establish how many women are really serious about studying over the course of their time here.

Negbah, our teacher is undeterred by the fact that she only has 10 literacy books, and with Palwasha’s help she figures out how to conduct class using a blackboard and giving each woman a notebook and pencil. Palwasha gets a call back to Kabul to order 150 more from the Ministry of Education.

We load up our car, and pack my goat “Gul-lak” or “Little Flower”. She is part of our dairy project for livelihoods, but we need to work with her and her sisters back in Kabul to figure out our dairy program. She has wintered with another herd, and is pregnant, but she does remember me and is quite happy with some good snacks.

The nine-hour ride home is not enhanced by the smell of goat, I must say, although she traveled well. Nine hours of non-stop chatting and exhausted we hit the checkpoint just out of Kabul around 4:00. The Afghan officer there took one look at me and told me that I needed a registration card for traveling out of Kabul. I pulled out my Ministry card for “Foreigner’s” which he looked at and then said that was for traveling “out of country”. I need a traveling “in country” card. Over the years, having encountered every type of bureaucratic requirement, most an opportunity to collect a fee - I resist. I told him that I would be glad to come into his office to fill out the required paperwork, but I would have to bring my goat as she was a bit carsick and I couldn’t leave her. He smiled and wisely waved me on.
Marnie Gustavson
May 2008

Journal from Chagcharran, Ghor Province

Chagcharan Children’s Center
Ghor Province
Journal

Tuesday, May 6th
Yasin Farid, PARSA National Country Director and I flew into Chagcharan for the first time early in the morning. Dawn Erickson, and two of our national training team, Atiq and Mohsin has spent two weeks earlier in the month setting up what we call the “Good Job Program” with the orphanage staff and our Chagcharan office and residence.

Ghor is ancient and the light down here is other worldly…honey brown hills, green poplars and very green valley in honor of spring. The famous Minerat of Jam is three hours away-Herat and the Iranian border nine hours away. (Rory Stewart’s book “The Places In Between” is a good to book to read about this part of Afghanistan.)

Yasin and I walked through the bazaar as our way of getting acquainted with the area, finding good prices, and pleasant shopkeepers.

A quick trip to our PARSA offices/home and then off to our guesthouse where we are staying until our place is ready. Andy, an American working with CRS is in residence, the only international in Chagcharan outside of the military complex. A nice welcome from CRS staff.

Wednesday, May 7th
Yasin and I begin training orphanage staff today in the “Good Father/Good Mother Life Skills “ course. In the national orphanages there is no formal activities program or system of supervision for the children. The children attend school (in this case the public school) and the staff show up for work and mediate fights if there are problems but for the most part sit around, drink tea and talk for the day. This program is a pilot in Afghanistan and we have built in a performance based bonus system for the staff hoping that boosting their wage level above $40 a month will create some enthusiasm for our new program. In the earlier visit, Atiq and Mohsin had oriented the orphanage staff to their new job descriptions and Yasin and I were now setting up the schedule and training the staff in the new program.

The staff met with us in a dingy room in the administrative office, ready to go. We introduced them to our “case management” model of care, adapted to the Afghan culture that we call “Good Father/Good Mother”. Each staff member working directly with the children, including the cook and principle will be responsible for a group of 10 orphans. They will become the “parent”, and work with the children for a minimum of 1.5 hours a day following a “life skills” curriculum that we are training them to develop. We hope that this direct involvement with small groups of the orphans will change the work culture of the orphanage. Yasin speaks very directly to the staff, talking to them about the difference between an Afghan home and the orphanage as a place for a child to be raised.

“In the Afghan Family, children learn about life from being around their parents. Girls learn to cook, and care for the family or even how to aspire to a professional job by observing their mother, talking with their mother, and sitting with her female relatives. Much time is spent doing this.

The Afghan boy learns how to be a man from his father and male relatives. He watches them work, and care for the family and he finds his place, his value and his profession by following them.

For an Afghan child without a father or a mother who can care for him/her there is no opportunity to learn these things. In the national orphanages, children go to school for maybe 2-4 hours a day. The rest of the time of the day is spent sitting or playing with other orphans. There are no opportunities to learn about life from a loving Afghan adult or older sibling.

What happens is that girls are not prepared for being the mother of a family or a professional in the work community. If they do not know how to care for a household if they are married, they can be beaten, or ostracized from her husband’s family. If they have no support for developing themselves as professionals to learn how to work and make a wage they become dependent on others as an adult.

What happens when boys are not prepared for their responsibilities as fathers and wage earners is that they can be vulnerable to bad influences from adults who want to take advantage of them. They can live a failed life as an adult with no hope for a happy future.

The Healthy Afghan Child Program is a program designed to give orphan children living in an institution access to an adult who will care for them like a mother or a father. We call you “Good Mother’s” and “Good Fathers”. You become responsible for training the children assigned to them for life. Health, education, and discipline are your responsibility.”


To our satisfaction, the orphanage staff is quite inspired by the idea of this “Good Father/Good Mother” arrangement. Afghan’s are so family oriented. We chose this idea to see if we could elicit more compassion from the staff if they think of themselves as foster parents instead of government workers. Also, all staff members can participate, as the requirements are not education but the life experience of being a parent. Yasin is used to the resistance of the Kabul orphanage staff and is hopeful that their response indicates that they will adopt the new idea. It means a lot more work for them but they say that they know their work with the children is inadequate but have not known what to do about it.

Yasin spent the balance of the afternoon helping the staff divide the children into groups of ten and assigning them to staff. Orphanage “teacher’s will have 3 groups of ten as their time is dedicated just to being with the children.
We complete the day by touring the orphanage. Lithuania is building a new orphanage for the children this year, to be complete in September. After talking with the children we learn that they were evicted from the orphanage last November (winter) because there was no money coming from Kabul Ministry. A terrible time to be ousted from the orphanage. Apparently, they boys went to stay in the Mosques. We are hopeful that this year this won’t be the case but we make note to take this up with the Deputy Minister, Wasel Noor when we return to Kabul. We also learn that they do not even have an outhouse, and they are using the hallways as a bathroom during the day because of privacy.

There are only 150 boys enrolled in the orphanage and no girls. Yasin and I take a quick poll of the boys asking them if they have sisters and where their sisters are. Five boys had six sisters “back in the village” living with “uncle” working for the family. In our next component, Atiq and Mohsin are going to work with the orphanage staff to conduct assessments of each of the children to make sure that the children in the orphanage are the most vulnerable in the region. Plans for the new orphanage include a residence for girls.

Ministry strategic plans move away from residential orphanages and towards supporting families to keep their orphans in the villages. Unfortunately the public school system is terribly inadequate, especially in regional areas. No education for the children means no future. As orphans in the village they are often just relegated to labor, which can be their lot the rest of their life even without the possibility of marriage, as they have no immediate family to support them.

Thursday, May 8th

Yasin and I continue the training “Good Mother/Good Father” with the staff. The staff is very clear about their new roles but they say that the head of “DOLSA” –the ministry director for the region has rearranged their responsibilities and removed two staff members from the program. I stop the training and drive over to the DOLSA headquarters to find out why. I am prepared for interference and argument. I was delightfully surprised to meet with a young Mullah who listened very carefully to our case and then told us: “I am completely in support of your program. Having the staff work in this way with the children is the best way to have them be responsible for their care. I even want the principal to work with a group of ten. I just removed two staff members who are not directly accountable for the children and who only wanted to participate because of the bonus system you are providing.”

I was delighted with his cooperation, again so different than our experience with Kabul orphanage staff. He completely comprehends the program, thanks to Dawn’s lengthy time with him on the prior trip and I feel that we have a real partner.
Yasin and I went back to work with the staff and today we talk about the difference between being a teacher and a “Good Father” (or Good Mother). Yasin facilitates the discussion:

“What is the difference between a teacher and a father or a mother?

The staff came up with these answers:
The teacher’s job is to teach the children:
How to read, write and how to be good citizens.

“A father’s job is to teach the children:
How to use reading, writing and to be a good citizen.”

“A teacher’s job is to teach the children:
How to be a good Muslim.”

“A father’s job is to teach the children:
To be a good Muslim.”

In the afternoon, Yasin works with the staff by himself, while I work on reports. With the head of DOLSA’s support and with the teacher’s apparent enthusiasm for the program we know have a means to distribute items to the children such as tooth brushes, clothing and school supplies. National orphanages are notorious for staff stealing these items from the children, but I am confident, as I watch the training unfold that the context of being a “Good Parent” the staff will insure that his/her children will get the items they need. Down the road we will reward the staff member with the best cared for children. Changing the context from a school model where the children fend for themselves, to a family model where the adults are responsible for specific children is going to be a great innovation in the orphanage social protection system. We have created “case manager’s”, but using Afghan family values so everyone can understand what is expected of them.

After the afternoon session, Yasin reports that the teacher’s worked hard to learn the seven parts that we expect them to conduct when they are spending the 1.5 hour with their group of children. He was inspired to demonstrate by working with a group of children directly, and teachers and children had a great time.


Time Activity
Step One 10 minutes Children sit quietly in a circle. Instructor tells them what the schedule for the afternoon is and what is expected of them.
Step Two 10 minutes Instruction on the objective for the day.
Step
Three 30 minutes to 1 hour Activity related to the objective of the day.
Step
Four 30 minutes Exercise or inside group activity such as kids yoga.
Step
Five 20 minutes Writing in journal or other creative project.
Step
Six 5 minute Clean up
Step
Seven 5 minute Sit in circle –Instructor complete session with story or acknowledgement of children.


He saw a forlorn beggar child watching from the sidelines as Yasin was playing with the children. Yasin asked him if he was part of the orphanage. Apparently, the boy and his brother were from another province. They were living with a man in Chagcharan, who told them to beg and bring him the money in exchange for room and board. Yasin is going to try to get them enrolled in the orphanage.

Teachers appear to be on for the work and excited about the new program. They finished the day by “brainstorming” on the theme for the month “Healthcare and Self-care”. We will have them start their program next week when Mohsin and Atiq can support the initial week, but we need to find toothbrushes and soap, as lessons about brushing teeth without access to a toothbrush are pointless. Dawn is working with Afghan Red Crescent Society to locate some hygiene supplies for the teachers to distribute to the children.

Friday, May 9th
Today is a day off and Yasin and I take a trip into the villages to locate rugs for our office and to see how the people are different from other regions. We had a great time in the village. The people are pleasant, tolerant and pleased to spend time with us. The countryside in springtime is beautiful with lush green valleys juxtaposed against the desert hills.

Saturday, May 10th
Our last day of training for this trip. Yasin is working with the teacher’s to develop a day-by-day plan for the month. He reported to me that the teacher’s had a big discussion about the program. They realized how important it was going to be to the children that they do the program everyday. Yasin was delighted with their realization, and feels that now they really understand the program. He also, created another level of accountability, through the journals that the children are going to write in everyday. He told the teachers that PARSA would review the children’s journals randomly as a way of monitoring whether they are working with the children. The teacher’s did not resent this but seemed to feel that it was another indication of how important the program is. Yasin also teaches the children how to make a plan for the day in their journal. He is very satisfied with the work of the training and feels that the staff will take the program on.

Yasin and I finish up arrangements for our office and prepare to leave for Kabul.

Sunday, May 11
Yasin makes an unscheduled trip to the orphanage before we leave for the airport. He has promised to check the children’s journals. He reports that the teacher’s were very busy getting organized and doing all of the right things. We prepare to turn over our work to Mohsin and Atiq, who will be arriving Tuesday for a two-week stay. They will start the “Good Mother/Good Father” program and begin detailed assessments of the children as well as train the staff to make “training plans” for the children.

We are very satisfied with our trip, especially the response of the staff and the head of DOLSA….
Marnie Gustavson
Chagcharan
May 2008

Report to Betty Tisdale and Helping and Loving Orphans (HALO)

May 6, 2008


To: Board of Directors of HALO, Betty Tisdale, HALO Founder
Fr: Marnie Gustavson, Executive Director, PARSA

Re: Update on HALO’s contribution to PARSA


HALO has been contributing to PARSA for over four years. During my tenure as executive director, HALO has been contributing $1,000 a month toward our work with orphan children in Afghanistan. This steady support from HALO has allowed us to develop a groundbreaking program for orphans in the national orphanages. The money supports four Afghan staff members who work in our “Well being clinic” specifically on the “Healthy Afghan Child Program”. HALO has seen us through very difficult years as PARSA challenged the Ministry responsible for the welfare of the children. PARSA initiated an investigation into the practices of the Ministry staff, and the orphanage staff and their aberrant and neglectful care of the children.

This spring, based on the foundational contribution of HALO over the years, PARSA was awarded a contribution by the country of Iceland to pilot the first complete “Healthy Afghan Child Program” in Ghor province, with the orphan children and orphanage staff. Ministry staff is hoping that this program will be replicated around the country throughout the 32 national orphanages. Staff supported and developed throughout the last four years is now traveling to Ghor every two weeks to train the orphanage staff there.

At the same time, PARSA staff is working in Tai Maskan, and Alluhoddin orphanages in Kabul. Overall, PARSA is directly working with 900 children and over 100 Ministry staff. HALO’s steady contribution over the years is what has made this possible.

This year, during Betty Tisdale’s trip to Afghanistan, she identified a project that she committed HALO’s support for, called the “Center for Creative Abilities” (CCA). CCA is a vocational training center for specifically for disabled people and orphan children designed as a program that develops economic paths for marginalized people helping them to become economically independent. In the case of the children that PARSA works with institutionalized in national orphanages, there is no training available to them to develop them into income earners as adults. The tragic outcome of this is that orphans end up “institutionalized” or habitually dependent and are vulnerable to exploitation by adults in the criminal elements, or to Taliban influence as they mature and as they are sent out of the orphanage. Distant relatives will marry off girls who do not learn any job skill for a healthy sum, or by corrupt orphanage staff.

CCA is developing “earning paths” that can be taught to teenagers that will insure their ability to continue their education if they choose, as well as their economic independence. Additionally, PARSA is developing programs that can be transferred to the orphanage teaching staff, such a Camilla Barry’s science learning center. These types of programs will enrich the education of the children and support them in job skills trainings.

HALO has funded the renovation of the original “Depot” at Afghan Red Crescent Society for $12,000. This building will house training rooms for vocational skills training such as furniture painting, cosmetics making, products made of recycled materials such as the fuel bricks made of twigs and discarded paper. Additionally, there will be a science laboratory, and kitchen for orphans, as well as a library. PARSA plans on pioneering over 10 products that are from waste materials found in Afghanistan’s towns and cities.

Afghanistan’s challenge with its orphans is complex as most issues in Afghanistan. Yasin Farid, national director and I are in Ghor province working with our Healthy Afghan Child Program as I am writing this report. Yasin is starting to assess the problems that the children are facing. The cultural strength of Afghan families is that it is required that extended families assume responsibility of children with no parents. Unfortunately, the economic situation here makes this a heartbreaking situation as additional children added to a family means economic hardship.

Yasin was working with the teachers and children, demonstrating an hour and half “Life Skills” program and he noticed that a very dirty, forlorn child was observing him. He asked him if he was an orphan in the orphanage and he said, “No, my brother and I are orphans from Badghis province.” Yasin asked him why he wasn’t in the orphanage and the child said,” A man brought us here to work for him. In exchange for a place to sleep and food, we work for him and he sends us to beg. He takes all of our money so we can stay with him.”

There are over one million orphans in Afghanistan. 9000 have the opportunity to be educated in the orphanages. The problem is overwhelming but HALO has provided us with long-term support that has allowed us to grow and develop solutions for these problems that we are now implementing in partnership with the Afghan Ministry accountable. This is the kind of support that will make a difference to the future of Afghanistan. On behalf of PARSA I thank all of HALO’s donors and especially Betty Tisdale for her vision and commitment to these children.