Nangarhar Women's Community Health Seminar

The new ILC International Learning Center at Nangarhar University offers a classroom learning environment where students can gather to hear lectures and presentations. On this day we invited women from the villages and communities near Farm Hadda, Surkh Rud and Hesarak to come to Jalalabad for a one day Women's Community Health Seminar entitled: 'Health Families in Nangarhar Province,' conducted by Judy Hutcherson, R.N., a Rotarian and past president from Fredericksburg, Texas.

Judy spent the day with the 65 women, who arrived in vans and taxis from the various areas of the province, to learn about health, hygiene, nutrition, childbirth labor and delivery and other topics. The Deputy Director from the Ministry of Health for Nangarhar Province welcomed the women and encouraged their participation in future similar gatherings. Two Nurse Midwives from Surkh Rud area, a Field Health Worker and Trainer from Hesarak and several women who represented large numbers of women from their communities, were in attendance and spoke to the group.

At one point the question was asked: 'How many of the women in the room have delivered your babies at home without the assistance of a doctor, nurse or midwife?' The photo above showing about 20 women standing demonstrates the number of women in the room that day who had no professional medical support available to them at the time they delivered their children.

Visit to Poultry Farms

We were able to tour four poultry farms which have been sponsored by the Mesa Sunrise Rotary Club and the Mesa East Rotary Club from District 5510 Arizona, through a Rotary matching grant.

All four farms are functioning well and are in their third phase of poultry farming. We would meet with the men of the household first and discuss the project with them, and then we would be invited to inside the home and meet with the women.

I was able to verify that in each case several women were actively involved in the process, and stated that due to the funds generated from the new poultry farms that some of the items that could be seen in their homes, such as new window treatments and a new floor carpet in one household, and a new outfit for each family member in another, were due to the additional resources provided by the poultry farms.

We discussed the need for some further training and follow up at each location, and we have arranged for the Nangarhar University Agricultural Department to provide mentoring and additional communication and training for the poultry farm families. Each of the husbands and/or sons has agreed to allow the wives and daughters to participate and are eager for additional support.

Jalalabad Nangarhar Women's Prison Visit

We had the opportunity to visit the Nangarhar Women's Prison and bring some furniture and supplies to begin the set up of the new Women's and Children's Learning Center, which was recently completed with U.S. and Afghan government funding.

New and repaired plumbing has added functional bathrooms with showers, a large water tank for washing, laundry and personal hygiene. The entire complex has been repainted and repaired and improvements have been made to the grounds and inmate quarters.

We brought fabric, sewing kits, sewing supplies, furniture, books for women and children, art supplies and children's toys for the new center. We met with the women to discuss nutrition, hygiene and family health issues, with the teenagers and young women to make beaded bracelets and meet with the young women, and organized the children into two play groups where they learned to take turns sharing puzzles, games and craft projects.

I spent the majority of the gathering time with the children, who were ages 5-12. At first, when the puzzles and books and toys were brought out, there was a frenzy to try and take the items for themselves, but eventually they understood that the purpose of this gathering time was to sit and share the experience of watching each child take a turn and put the puzzles together.

It became apparent early on in this process that most of the children had not been in any kind of a learning or school setting for some time, if ever, and had to be shown how to sit in a circle on the floor together, facing each other, and then to allow each child to hold the one puzzle, take the puzzle pieces out and place them on the floor, and watch as the child whose turn it was, was allowed to figure out for themselves which puzzle pieces fit into which space. As each child accomplished this task, I would invite them to clap their hands and applaud the accomplishment. At first this seemed strange to them, as they had obvious never done this before. But after about six or seven turns with the puzzle, they learned how to wait their turn, pass the puzzle to the next child after their puzzle was completed, and applaud for each other as the puzzles were completed.

The desperate need for the children to be provided with regular and ongoing teaching by a loving and competent teacher is almost impossible to over emphasize. At one point during the day when we had gone outside of the classroom into the compound courtyard, to take pastel colored chalk and draw hearts and flowers and smiley faces on the sidewalks, two of the smallest children in our group began to scrap and fight, and to try and take each other's chalk pieces. They began to hit each other rather fiercely. The two little children, probably no more than 3-4 years in age, were both standing on a ledge above me, so they were about at my head's height. I reached out and gently tugged at both of them and held them close to me, and said through the translator: 'We must learn to be kind to each other, to be friends, and love each other, to be gentle,' and then gave them both a hug. The two put their arms around me and hugged me back and began to smile. As I turned around I realized that all of the other children in the group had stopped to watch, and there were tears in the eyes of several children. The brutality and violence they experience has been such a part of their lives, they are astonished to witness tenderness.

Time for 2008 Trip to Afghanistan

Tomorrow we leave for our sixth humanitarian trip to Afghanistan. We had planned to fly from Dubai to Peshawar and drive over khyber pass to Jalalabad, but some of our associates in Jalalabad recommeneded against going through Pakistan this year, due to security concerns.

So we have rebooked tickets flying directly from Dubai to Kabul and will fly on a domestic flight to Jalalabad.

We have a number of projects and activities planned for the trip which I will share as we go along. Highlights include a Women's Community Health Seminar, Art and Computer Workshop at a girls school, delivery of a number of high quality textbooks and general subject reading books to six reading rooms at schools in Jalalabad and Kabul, delivery of sewing machines and supplies to the Nangarhar Women's Prison, and a children's reading and play corner, ongoing support for the rural school field health worker, and participation with several Rotary clubs in Afghanistan.

We have been lucky to have made some wonderful contacts in the communities we serve and it is a joy to be invited to visit with them and learn more about the culture and everyday family life.

My Rotary club has collaborated with another Rotary club in east Mesa, Arizona and we have completed construction and implementation of four women's poultry farms in the Jalalabad/Surkh Rud/Behsood area. On this trip we will have the opportunity to tour the four farms for the first time and visit with the women and their families.

In Afghan Pashtun Muslim culture, women are not allowed to be seen or looked upon by a man who is not a close family relative. For this reason, when we visit with the families of the four households where the women's poultry farms are located, it will be impossible for the male members of our travel team to meet or even see the women. The female members of our group will however be able to go into the back women's area and enjoy a visit participate in discussions with them. The ladies are always very sweet and shy, and have questions for us, as we do for them.

I always feel lucky to have these more intimate insights into the lives of the women in this part of the world. They are a mystery to us in the West because they are so cloistered and secluded. We don't always get invited to meet the women, it usually seems to depend upon the man of the house, whether he likes us or not, or perhaps has to decide if it is worth the complications it may cause by introducing the strange western females to his wives and daughters, versus their interest and excitement at being able to visit with foreigners.

If we behave ourselves and keep our headscarves on our heads and try to behave in a 'demure' and non aggresive, polite manner, we are generally invited to meet the females, and I am always delighted when permission is given.

Getting to Afghanistan

When I first became interested in developing a new non-profit organization, I knew that to work with children and families in Afghanistan it would be imperative to travel there. The more I read and studied about the Afghan people, particularly the Pashtun Afghan people and culture, I became fascinated with this unique and beautiful part of the world. I was saddened by the degree of suffering and poverty that existed there. I was also shocked by the long history of violence that seemed to be a constant part of the history of Afghanistan.

But getting there, I knew, was important, in order to make contact and establish relationships with individuals or groups within the country, who were familiar with and were a part of the culture and customs.

I was very lucky to have been introduced to several NGO's and organizations that were just beginning to re-emerge and work again in Afghanistan. Several were cordial and willing to assist us with the logistical challenges of travel, accomodations, introductions to local schools and community leaders.

Our primary contact was the Abdul Haq Foundation, based in Peshawar, Pakistan at the time, the home of the late Abdul Haq, an Afghan mujahadeen fighter well known and respected within the Afghan community, who had been killed in October of 2001. His brother Haji Qadir, the governor of Nangarhar Province and Vice-President under the new interim Afghan government, had also recently been assasinated in Kabul, and the family was in mourning as we had prepared for our trip. We had nevertheless been invited to stay at the Abdul Haq guest house in Peshawar and graciously offered assistance with accomodations and logistical support into Afghanistan.

Our first trip over the Khyber Pass and into Jalalabad, Afghanistan, the first major city traveling West between Pakistan and Afghanistan, was memorable and in many ways indescribable. The United States and allied military forces had recently entered the country, and it was only as of November 2001 that westerners were allowed into the country. Thousands upon thousands of returning Afghan refugees were traveling back into the country. The roads were teeming with buses, trucks, cars and taxis loaded with people and belongings returning to their homeland.