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.