Kabul Women's Prison visit

The past few days I have been visiting at the Kabul Women's and Children's Prison, which is located in an area near an almond orchard. This facility is now operated under the direction of the Ministry of Justice by the Director General of Central Prisons. The Corrections System Support Program, a State Department program, has worked to develop relationships with the prison staff and key personnel to assist with training and mentoring. This young fellow is about 12-13 years old, although he does not know his age because Afghans do not celebrate birthdays or know their exact ages. He lives in the Kabul prison with his mother and brothers and sisters, and because he has learned his lessons well, he has been invited to be the teacher for the small kidergarten class of about 14 boys and girls. Today they are learning literacy skills through a humorous story.

There are pictures on the walls created by the children and the classroom is bright and colorful. There is plenty of light and two infants are playing or resting in the same room in their cribs, watching everything going on. Nearby is a room that is on a secure enclosed balcony outside looking over the compound and out here is where the smallest children play and gather. When we arrived they gathered around us and we sat and played with them for awhile. They expected me to have a lesson or something for them, so in addition to handing out cookies and juice, and dropping off two large boxes of supplies from Lakeshore Learning Store in Ahwatukee, Arizona and Barnes and Noble Bookstore in Gilbert, Arizona, I decided to teach them an American song. So we all sang the 'If you're happy and you know it clap your hands' song which they seemed to enjoy and learned very quickly.

The AWEC Afghan Women's Education Center in Kabul is providing a literacy teacher for the women and older girls, a vocational and sewing instructor, and a computer trainer. We had planned to come and meet with the Women's Prison Commander and his staff and offer to provide an additional teacher or other instructor as needed, however the Prison Commander has requested a doctor be provided instead, stating that at the present time, when one of the female inmates is ill, they are required to put her in a taxi and take her to the Rabia Balkhe women's hospital or another hospital, and wait for her to been seen. So we have arranged to hire a female physician who lives in Kabul and has her own small private practice. She was educated at Kabul Medical School and has training from the Manitoba Medical University in HIV/AIDS treatment. She will begin immediately and will work two days a week for about 5 hours each day. There has been an urgent need for both a doctor and a dentist to work at this location for some time. We are now working on arranging for a dentist to work here as well, and hope to obtain funding to allow for a dental office inside the Women's Prison, so that dental care can be provided on a regular basis.

I was very impressed with the Kabul Women's Prison commander. He seemed to genuinely care about the female inmates and their children, and had several suggestions for small improvements that could be made which would be meaningful to the women. We have set up a new book corner and I purchased several locked wooden cabinets with glass case fronts where books in English and Dari are now being stored. At a meeting we held with the Commander, two of his female block lieutenants, two language assistants and the Gender Specialist Beth Presson, who works for CSSP Corrections System Support Program, the discussion eventually turned to the prison guards and staff. They wanted me to know that they appreciated all the good things that were being done for the female inmates and their children, but wanted to mention the struggles being experienced by the prison guards, cooks, security, laundry workers, cleaners, etc.

It was explained to me that the salary for most prison workers was somewhere between $90 per month up to $140 per month, and a handful of cleaners made $40 a month. This wage is far below a living wage, as it costs a minimum of $75 a month for rent, and it costs $49 a month to purchase food for a family of 6. With the increased cost of fuel and food over the past year, many of the prison staff (mostly women who are single parents) are struggling.

I told them that this year I was only prepared to offer the one new employee to be hired at this time, and we had all agreed that we were going to plan to hire the doctor, who was willing to begin working immediately. There is already a full time nurse with a small medical clinic on the premises and they will now share this space.

I did acknowledge that there was obviously an urgent need for some solutions to these difficulties, but at the present time it was impossible for me and our small organization to address them. I promised I would seek to find financial support on some level, and mentioned to them that more than once in the past as I have been introduced to a problem or a need while working in Afghanistan, often the solution does present itself in the due coure of time, so we can be hopeful about this.

We estimated that if each one of the 90 employees who worked at the Kabul Women's Prison was to receive a one time salary increase of $50 per month, this would dramatically improve conditions for each family, bringing them for poverty to middle class, and would go a long ways toward improved morale, nutrtion and family health, and a general sense of well being. I figure $50 per month x 90 employees = $4,500 a month x 12 months = $54,000 per year. Throw in an extra $100 as a bonus during Ramadan $100 x 90 = $9,000 and the grand total needed per year is $63,000.

This may seem like alot of money to middle class or upper middle class Americans, but there are people in the world who throw away that much money on silliness every day. For some multi-millionaires, this amount of money is just one less jet trip to Beverly Hills to get the eyebrows plucked, so we are seeking a generous annual donor for this life saving sponsorship is anyone out there has a rich uncle.