Herat, Ancient Beautiful City August 2010

Ancient Queen's Palace, Herat, Afghanistan

We visited Herat during August of this year and I am constantly amazed at the ancient beauty of the buildings, the landscape, the cities and the people. Our arrival was just a few days before the beginning of Ramazan, which allowed for the opportunity to witness the detail and experience of the daily fast and other aspects of this important annual event in Afghanistan and throughout the Muslim world.

Each day our driver, language assistant and people we visited were willing to assist us with our daily tasks in spite of the heat, their fatigue and hunger. We were offered drinks and meals at every stop, as though this was not a problem for them, and the hospitality was everywhere.

We had the opportunity to visit the Citadel in Herat and tour inside the walls and up the steps of the compound, that can only be described as magnificent. Carmen Gutschow, an archaeological and restoration expert from Germany, gave a tour and gave historical context to the many layers of buildings, walls, towers and structures currently under renovation.

The Herat Citadel will be open to the public sometime during the spring of 2011 with art exhibits, lectures and public activities scheduled. Public spaces will also be available for meetings, conferences and other cultural events that will showcase historic artifacts, books, pottery and artwork.

Herat has a number of shops located around the Herat Mosque that are filled with musical instruments, old coins, blue and green glass objects, brass and silver serving pieces, old guns, pistols, buzkashi horse whips, extensive collections of jewelry, headgear and every imaginable ancient Afghan artifact. We enjoyed walking though the shops and would often come upon something not often seen anywhere in the western world. There was one large metal bowl filled with giant rings that had an ancient looking seal on them, the kind one would use to seal an envelope with wax. Now that's something you don't see every day in the west, where many young people don't even write letters.

Connie Frisbee Houde, a professional associate and well known photographer from New York, has been to Afghanistan several times before, and she and I both enjoyed visiting Herat.

Delicious traditional Afghan meal served to guests on the floor.

One of the greatest pleasures of traveling in Afghanistan is having the opportunity to meet with and visit with local Afghans. As we spend time together, occasionally we are invited to their homes and this is probably the very best part of traveling and visiting here.

The traditional Afghan meal which is my favorite is kabuli palau (rice with raisins and carrots), beef or chicken with peppers or vegetables, mantu (ground beef and spices served in a noodle type wrap), sabzi (spinach), okra, salat (fresh cut carrots, cucumber, tomato and cabbage) and nan bread. This meal was served to us at the home of an associate in Herat and I believe his mother is probably the best cook in Afghanistan, everything was made with love and beautifully presented.

We visited the Herat Women's Prison in Herat and the Female Juvenile Detention Center in Herat as well. ChildLight Foundation has worked in collaboration with the prison directorate and established a vocational training program with 5 team leaders within the female inmate population. The 5 areas of emphasis are: Dari literacy, English literacy, computer literacy, knitting projects and Kindergarten teacher. On a recent visit to meet with the female inmates and their children, the CSSP Corrections System Support Program Judicial Advisor for Herat Women's Prison, Michelle Lindo, was there to assist with the distribution of soccer balls made available by Lt. Jasmine Scott, JAG advisor,US Navy, from San Diego, California.

Michelle Lindo, CSSP Advisor Herat

The CSSP Teams work with the local prison commanders at the men's and women's prisons to provide support, mentoring and logistical support with building and construction projects as well as training and teaching of female inmates and staff.

Michelle has worked with the staff and inmates for several years and is loved and respected by the female inmates and especially their children.

The CSSP team will often provide special activities for the children such a pinatas with candy inside, soccer balls or other equipment, toys, furniture and supplies.

There are presently about 120 women and 35 children living in the Herat Women's Prison, and about 50 children over age 7 have recently been moved to a new family shelter nearby to their mothers, where they receive meals, heath care, clothing, daily classroom education and regular visits to their mothers.

Lieutenant Jasmine Scott, JAG Judge Advocate, US Navy

Jasmine Scott arranged for soccer balls to be sent from friends and family in southern California for the children at Herat Women's Prison. The day we visited they were being distributed, much to the delight of the children in the courtyard playground area. Lt. Scott works with CSSP to provide legal advocacy for female inmates and their children.

The knitting group at Herat Women's Prison is composed of a group of about 15 women who enjoy knitting for themselves, for the other female inmates and their children and to provide knitted clothing and items that can also be sent to female inmates at other women's prisons in districts in Afghanistan. ChildLight Foundation has provided yarn and supplies for this project and continues to support the vocational training knitting program.

Variety of knitted clothing made by female inmates.

The kntted items shown at right are examples of the knitted objects that were created recently. Some are being gathered

to sell either in the bazaar or through the US Embassy, so that a portion of the proceeds can be returned to the knitting team. A portion of the proceeds is held in reserve for purchase of future knitting yarn and supplies, and a small portion is returned back to the female inmates.

A large box of knitted items was shipped to ChildLight Foundation in the US and will be offered for sale at the next annual ChildLight Foundation Fundraiser. Proceeds will be returned back to the female inmate knitting team for future knitting projects.

October in Afghanistan

Last week I took a trip to the Panjshir Valley with the Kabul CSSP Team. We took our own vehicle and driver and followed up through some of the most beautiful country I have seen in Afghanistan, following the Salang River for a time and then turning a hard right, traveling East through small villages and clusters of wooden merchant and vendor displays on up to Panjshir.

We met with the Commander of the men's prison there and also with the US military PRT Commander. Both men expressed their struggles and challenges and also described successes in their own respective areas of responsibility. The CSSP Team (Corrections System Support Program) was actively involved in developing support for the prison commander, as well as communicating about collaboration with the PRT Major.

We then drove down to Parwan and I was able to tour the Parwan Women's Prison for the first time. The female quarters are composed of essentially three small, dark, tightly occupied rooms, with women and children occupying the rooms. I had invited Laura Bradford, a Dental Hygienist from Caldwell, Idaho, who is working with James Rolfe, DDS in Kabul, to join us. Laura brought toothbrushes and toothpaste for each of the female inmates and children and discussed oral hygiene and the importance of brushing the teeth twice daily after meals. I was not sure how much of the discussion was getting through to the ladies, but they seemed willing to cooperate with us on some level.

I would love to see some visible improvements to this location over the coming year or two. The women's facility is in severe need of a general painting of the interior of each room, exterior of buildings and perimeter walls. There is space outside for a small garden and sitting area, but a couple of trees would need to be planted.

We delivered some personal care items: soap, lotion, toothbrushes, toothpaste, some small soft toys and notebooks and pens for the children and young women. There is an empty room that could be cleaned up and organized into a new small reading room library with tables and chairs for literacy, vocational training and sewing for the women and school for the children. I hope to return to this place again. There are hygiene kits and school bags coming to CSSP in a couple of months and some of these items will be delivered here.

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.

Kabul Teeming With Life

The combination of sweeping, beautiful landscapes, cities jam packed with yellow taxis, and NGO vehicles, boys on carts with donkeys, people who waunder in and out of traffic without fear, the ubiquitous blue burkhas seen with children in clusters of two or three, followng behind a lone bearded man who leads them along, are just a few of the images that come rushing back at me as I arrive in Kabul again for the first time in 8 months.






I am in Afghanistan for six weeks and have lots to do. Since traveling her on one annual humanitarian trip with a small group of kind, like-minded individuals from the US and Australia, each return increases my love for the people here and the sorrow at their difficulties. I have experienced the inherent joy and amazement that comes from spending time with a group of human beings who are in virtually every observable way, completely different from me as any group of people can be. And yet as I visit and work with them, with my drivers, their families, the students and teachers, merchants in the shops, people on the streets, women in the women's prisons, I am astonished at the universal nature of human connection and human frailty I observe. I have been pleasantly surpised at the similarities, which are not immediately apparent to the casual observer. One must come to understand the circumstances to be able to know a little of the story.



Once I am able to communicate with Afghans through my interpeter, we often laugh at the same things, find similar circumstances amusing or tragic, are exhausted and exasperated by the same kinds of human behaviors and life here seems to encompass a great resiliance I want to learn about.



Yesterday as I was driving to visit the Baghe Badam Kabul Women's Prison, my driver told the story of how is 12 year old daughter had been warned by a Taliban man in their village not to go to school. She disregarded his warnings and eventually after several more warnings, he attacked her with a stick and he broke her leg and she had to be taken to the hospital. Fortunately she received good quality medical care and is healed now, attendng sschool in an anonymous setting, determined at 13 years old to continue to learn and understand the world she lives in. This kind of courage coming from a preteen is hard to fathom when you live in a world where most 12-13 year olds spend most of their time text messaging to one another in a safe, refrigerator filled environment.







As we arrived at the women's prison, I was given a tour of the new facility and because I am a woman and am working with children in Afghanistan, I was allowed to enter the gate into the compound. Forgetting the rules of the road here I gestured to my driver to follow me into the gate but he was stopped by men and women who explained that because he was not coming to visit as a male relative, he could not pass but must wait in the shade until I returned.

The Kabul Women's Prison has 119 female inmates and 57 children, and a large staff of male and female prison officials, guards, cooks, housekeepers and others who keep the place operating. We met with the Commander, who introduced us to the block commanders who work closely with the female inmates. Our plan has been to offer one new teacher or other professional to the site in order to support their existing programs.

The Afghan Women's Educational Center in Kabul is actively involved her and provides a literacy teacher, vocational and sewing instructor and computer trainer. The Commander asked if rather than hiring another teacher, would be consider hiring a physician to come to the prison on a regular basis. We are working on developing this now. In fact, I have to go right now because I am meeting a candidate this morning for an interview.

Will upload photos and more info later.

Diana

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.