To live and to die for - Kabul - Nov 2003

We did a project visit and it was great to see the chowkidar (watchman) from my old Office in Peshawar - He had been a medical student then and was doing night shifts to support his study. Now some 5 years later he is a doctor and running a basic health clinic and a small hospital for women and children in Kabul. It is very impressive work and he has a lovely 'spirit' to him.

I was told about Pul-e-Charki, the last main check post on the road from Jelalabad, before you get to Kabul. The same NGO has run a basic medical clinic there for years, all during the fighting. Apparently Coalition forces were doing live target practice on a range there and 4 children, who strayed onto the range, were accidentally killed. Both the community and the military were devastated and they offered to make amends in some way. After discussion with community elders, it was agreed that they would build a small kindergarten and a secondary school, plus a medical clinic for the community. They kept their word.

The community then insisted that this same NGO run the clinic since they were the only ones who had demonstrated any commitment to them over the past few years. It is being opened as a mother and child clinic.

So it was both a vote of confidence from the community and an example of hope thriving in the midst of despair - of good coming out of awful and evil situations.

I haven't seen many UK International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops here so far. At present Canada is taking the lead but I did meet some of the Finnish troops. They were amazed to meet a Finnish lady who has been here 26 years working with an NGO. Her commitment impressed them no end. She was taking us on a brief 'tour' to the British Cemetery. It had been tidied up for Remembrance Sunday last week  and was looking very neat and green, especially after the rain.

I saw the grave of the Dutch/Finnish couple who had been murdered about 20 years ago resulting of the withdrawal of the whole NGO team in protest. There were other expats:   a Danish explorer, a British pilot; Czech, Polish, German, an Italian cyclist who had died in Kandahar  - There were also hippies, who had been in the ‘Dilaram House’ run by Floyd McClung in the 1970s. It was more of an International 'Christian' cemetery, than a British one and well reflected the international expatriate community in Kabul.
There was also one wall with gravestones from British troops, who had died during the second Afghan War in the 1870's – recently restored by current UK troops on duty in Afghanistan. And the opposite wall had memorial plaques to the troops of ISAF,  who had died as peacekeepers over the past 2 years. Including the Spanish troops whose plane crashed and the Germans, whose helicopter had been brought down, as they were leaving the country, on their way ‘home’ after a tour of peace-keeping duty.
 
It certainly makes you think - about people’s lives and what they stand for! And also what we live for and what are we prepared to die for?  

From your own correspondent

Kabul November 2003

Disaster Preparedness: Kabul Nov 2003

Your correspondent here writing from Kabul, the city liberated by that other 'Simpson' - John Simpson of the BBC. No relation unfortunately.

On Monday I visited north of Kabul - the area called Shamali - it was the area where the Taliban had practiced their scorched earth policy and where many villagers were killed. We drove an hour or so in the back of a sturdy Landover.

It was good to see local people have returned and are starting to rebuild their lives - It had snowed the night before so it looked stunningly beautiful. We were in a village at 3,300 metres (started at around 1700 so a bit of a romp - nice to get out in to the open air, clean and fresh). Our local partner has been running a disaster preparedness programme, which includes teaching about earthquakes and flooding terrorism, war and how to survive. In addition there is a more basic programme of disease prevention through building simple toilet constructions - they provide some material (£50s worth) and the villages construct them. Good co-operation.



The villagers were very friendly and pleased to see us. It was Ramazan, but they wanted to give tea - which we declined, but they insisted we took an apple each for the journey. Wonderful hospitality from people so poor.

On the way we saw a mine at the side of the road, a foot or so from the wheel of the Landover, we took photos and took a reading on the GPS (Global Placement Satellite) and decided that on the way back we would mark the spot with stones and let de-mining know. So as we were returning a villager with us, bent down said 'that's not a mine and nonchalantly picked it up and threw it away!!' It was casing of some kind from a shell, but looked very authentic buried in the ground. It caused a bit of a laugh anyway.

There was a nasty shooting incident in Ghazni - a UN French lady shot and killed - just 29 years old and much respected locally. Apparently over 1000 vehicles followed the vehicle carrying the body back to Kabul as a sign of respect for the work of the International Community and disgust at the brutal killing - in Pushtoon culture, you DO NOT kill women - It is very much against ‘Puktoonwali’ - the cultural value system).

The UN are pulling out of the south, but continuing their work overall. It is yet another 'security incident' here in a yet unstable but ever hopeful Afghanistan.

From your own correspondent
November 2003

Hope Journeys Kabul Nov 2003

Mar Jan left Afghanistan for Iran to make enough money to marry. In Iran he became a heroin addict so he couldn't return to Afghanistan. Instead he went to Peshawar in Pakistan. ‘I was useless. I had dirty shoes, dirty clothes, and no one would let me into their home. I slept under a bridge for eight years and would eat thrown away food. Once I was accused of stealing and a policeman beat me on my head with his gun…There was no place for me to go… and no-one to help me except God….’

NEJAT  (a Persian, Pushtu & Urdu word meaning freedom, salvation, deliverance) started work in 1991. In Hayyatabad, Peshawar it provided a 20 bed facility for harm-reduction, detoxification and rehabilitation.

‘With a waiting list of over 3000, the centre provides residential care for 240 addicts each year, through its 3 stages of Reception - 2 months of preparation aimed at self motivation and harm reduction, Residential - 4 weeks detoxification, counselling and education, and Re-integration - one year follow up including job placement support’

ORA Annual Report 1999 ‘Hope Journeys’

This is the programme I used to work with as Drug Advisor, helping with the staff training and development programme.

The work expanded in four districts of remote Badakhshan, NE Afghanistan - Sheghnan, Ishkashem, Zebak and Wakhan. I was always impressed with the dedication of the Afghan staff, who walked overland to the centres for a fortnight and then spent a year in primitive conditions, often in extreme cold, dedicated to serving their people. When we went we drove 4 wheel-drives for 2 days to get there. A journey I will never forget. Refugee camp based detoxification programmes – in Khorasan, Jalozai and Akora Khattak - were also set up for women and children unable to attend a residential establishment. I remember visiting Uzbeks families who were re-establishing carpet weaving to break out of the poverty trap of addiction.
Over 10 years NEJAT treated around 9000 addicts including women and children, (c 4000 beneficiaries in Pakistan and c 5000 in Afghanistan). The work of the Nejat Centre Peshawar (1991-96) was externally evaluated and the report ‘Nejat the first 5 years’ suggests an impressive 2/3-success rate (66%) -very high in this field.

The NEJAT director on horse-back in remote Afghanistan

Qasim, the Director, is an ex Mujahhadin commander who fought against the Russians and is now fighting a war on Drugs. He has doggedly lead and built up a team of Afghans who are helping their own people tackle this debilitating problem. With increasing funding problems the programme has been run more and more on a voluntary basis. As I look back I am struck by the overwhelming needs, extremes conditions, high staff commitment, which contribute to the uniqueness of the project. They are helping to create civil society through the various tribal groups co-operating in the programme- Pathans, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazaras, Afghans and Pakistanis together. No mean achievement in an increasingly fragmented society.

Now the work has shifted to Kabul and the other centres closed down. It is a new phase. It almost feels like the old has died and they are starting all over again. But Nejat continued to make a significant contribution to rebuilding lives and thus rebuilding Afghanistan. Hope journeys on.

******

Mar Jan was helped by NEJAT workers who met him under the bridge and invited him to become a friend (‘dost’): ‘I couldn’t believe it, how could they be friends with someone like me. The smell from my head wound was so bad that no one could be around me. I went with my new friends and they made me have a bath, they dressed my head wound and cleaned out the lice, and I was admitted into their rehabilitation centre…. Now I am well and my head injury is completely healed. I am working as a volunteer at the NEJAT centre. My previous drug user friends do not even recognize me. They think that Mar Jan died'

from your own correspondence

NEJAT, Kabul, Nov 2003
(and Peshawar 1996-98)

A recent Times article on Nejat can be found on the BBC website

Afghanistan's home-grown drug problem

By Andrew North BBC correspondent in Kabu

Let go and Let God Islamabad Nov 2003

Let Go and Let God

I travelled to Islamabad on Thursday and had 24 hours with our CMS people there. Carol and Roger work with ICAN (Islamabad Christians Against Narcotics) and Nigel and Joan are good down to earth Yorkshire folk (he was an ambulance chief). They have just arrived and are starting language study. They will be going to Quetta Mission Hospital - mispronounced locally as Machine Hospital ! where he will be administrator and she will initially teach English to medical staff.

We visited ICAN and I enjoyed talking to addicts again. It made me feel at home and took me back to our Ibtida years in Karachi (1986-1996) – In fact IBTIDA originally helped ‘birth’ ICAN at the invitation of a CMS MP at the time Rev Graham Burton, who was vicar of St Thomas’s Islamabad.

The programme is struggling with funding, but has just managed to get an interim contract, where they do a 10-day detox for another programme - Nai Zindegi (New Life). It’s not ideal but it keeps them going. Aamir’s vision is to re-establish themselves as a Christian Drug Rehab, offering spiritual treatment based on the 12-step programme. CMS has been supporting the project through an annual grant, and personnel who can help with staff training. Aamir attended the ISAACS training programme at the Freedom Centre in Wadi Natroun, Egypt and this has encouraged his vision to ‘let go and let God’

He is a part of the ISAAC drug network and also chairman of the Pakistani Drug and Aids Workers Network (DAWN) We met most recently at the ISAAC training conference in Spain in May.

St Thomas's Church is ICAN’s spiritual base, as well as home church to a Pakistani working in Kabul. Shakeel is helping to capacity build and train the personnel there, both expat and Afghan. He is a very gentle guy and really good for this International NGO. He is their first Pakistani team member, having worked previously for another partner organisation in Pakistan - DOER Trust. DOER stands for the development of existing resources. Exactly what Shakeel is good at.

Unfortunately Rev Irfan Jamil, the new vicar of St Thomas’s (and possibly the best scrabble player in Pakistan!) was in Lahore, so we could not meet up.

There's never enough time when I visit Pakistan and I always get in trouble for not meeting some people.

From your own correspondent

Islamabad
Nov 2003