|
Inside This Issue
|
MRDS Online Newsletter:
Fourth Quarter 2003
|
See It, Believe It: Change Happens
|
Writing skills are essential in an era of openness.
Girls sing as they celebrate the opening of a new
school building |
Skeptics may well wonder how a handful of relief and development
workers with a limited amount of money can make a difference in a region
that USAID called one of Afghanistan's "worst affected and
least-served."
Having worked for dozens of organizations around the world, I can say
hands down that these are not your typical workers. To work in
Afghanistan means leaving behind security, friends and family, personal
freedoms and the comforts of home. More often than not, there is no
running water or electricity. There is sickness due to poor diet and
living conditions. There is tremendous stress. While I was there, there
was a $200,000 bounty on the heads of aid workers, their vehicles were
shot at by armed men and the U.S. Embassy was put on "high alert - ready
to evacuate" status.
Despite Herculean challenges, my colleagues' relentless energy,
compassion and conviction are providing hope and relieving the struggles
of everyday life. And their smiles and acts of kindness are putting
another face on America, which has often been misunderstood in the
Muslim world. They clearly are making a difference.
The story, as always, is complicated. Outside the precincts of Kabul,
the capital, much of the country still looks lawless and untamed to
Western eyes. Still, to leave out the undeniable changes for the better
is to give an inaccurate picture.
My visit late in 2003 was my first since April of the previous year. In
Mazaar-i-Sharif, the major city of the north, new buildings stood where
bombed-out shells and squalid refugee camps had been. In the bazaar,
where there had been only a few booths with rotten produce, ripe fruits
and vegetables spilled out of rows of stalls. Men who had been soldiers
made bricks, repaired equipment, sold carpets. Women, invisible for the
six years of Taliban rule, bustled about the bazaar. And, children, who
had not been allowed to laugh, play games or listen to music, were
playing kickball, dancing and flying kites. The hostility I felt so
deeply 18 months ago was gone. Suspicion and rage had given way to
tolerance, perhaps even acceptance.
|
|
.jpg)
Every girl needs a school: New attitudes plus new buildings equals
new opportunities. |
|
In the district northwest of Mazaar, where Millennium's partner, CAFE,
focuses its resources, irrigation ditches cut through what had been
barren fields, wheat had been planted and harvested, orchards replanted,
and houses rebuilt. People were no longer starving, and they no longer
wore rags.
I had the privilege of attending the opening of the girls school funded
by our "Adopt an Afghan School" project. On the walls were dozens of
cultural exchange items sent by children in the Pacific Northwest who
raised funds for the school. Filling the classrooms were the unveiled
faces of 420, beautiful girls reading, reciting and singing. Little
wonder the world seemed to be overflowing with hope and possibilities.
Now these are the seeds of change.
---Julia Bolz
|
[top]
You Go Girl: Change Comes Alive
|
The girls school I visited is just 15 miles
northwest of Mazaar-i-Sharif as the crow flies, but the trip
down the dusty, bumpy track through the flat desert takes 1 1/2
hours when everything goes right.
The mud, domed roofs of village homes can be seen
from miles away. The new school building has cinder-block walls,
a cement floor and an iron-beam roof to withstand the
earthquakes that regularly rock the area. It' s just eight
rooms, with black paint on the walls for a blackboard.
Although none of us would find the building
anything special, what was inside still makes me light up. Girls
were reciting and laughing. In another classroom, I heard poems
and singing. I couldn't believe these were the same malnourished
girls who had been forbidden to attend school, sing or play
outdoors. The transformation was remarkable.
Because of the Taliban's ban on female education,
the 420 girls, from 4 to 14 years of age, were starting in the
first grade. Although none of the seven teachers had been paid
in months, they continued to work, knowing that education will
truly make a difference in their country.
Not surprisingly, when we asked the girls what
they wanted to be when they grew up, most said in unwavering
voices, "teacher."
Julia Bolz
|
[top]
Behind the Front: The Work in
Iraq
|
Over the past few months, Millennium Relief &
Development Services has grown from a single office in Erbil, to
offices in Baghdad, Basra, Duhok, Kirkuk and Suleymania. Some of
the short-term projects and on-going programs include:
-
School reconstruction in poor areas of
Baghdad, through grants from USAID.
-
Distribution of 48,000 boxes of
non-perishable food to poorer parts of Baghdad, Basra and
Erbil, and to orphanages and homes for the elderly.
-
Engineering survey of the water system in
Kirkuk for the Iraqi government.
-
Expansion of the women's income
generation program for widows and young girls not in school.
-
A business institute to offer
English-as-a-second-language instruction and computer
skills, in conjunction with the Iraqi Chamber of commerce,
expected to open in early 2004. About 200 people attended an
orientation meeting for an English language class.
-
Blanket distribution to University of Baghdad
students living in cardboard "rooms" in classrooms.
-
Distribution of medicines to hospitals and clinics.
|
School desks were repaired and painted as
part of the school reconstruction effort in Baghdad.
Donate to the
Iraq Relief effort
|
[top]
President's Letter:
Taking in the Help Wanted Sign
|
Eleven development workers bound for Iraq
assembled in Houston in November for the final phase of their training.
Jamie of our staff and I accompanied them to their new homes in various
cities in Iraq.
So quickly did these well-scrubbed young Americans
settle in that within a week of their arrival one of them, a water
engineer, was working on a survey of the Kirkuk water system for the
government of Iraq.. He might have set a record for quickest adaptation
to a new culture.
Even as insurgents continue their struggle to regain
power, even as sporadic violence continues, caring people are rushing
into the breach to bring deep and lasting change to Iraq.
In our cover story, Julia Bolz describes her experience
in Afghanistan and the dramatic differences there despite continued
upheaval. Unfortunately, we do not see neat divisions between times of
strike and those of peace. The process is ragged and often painful. That
is not to say those differences are illusory. As Julia's words and
pictures describe, for many it is vivid indeed.
|
[top]
|
