ORPHANS & WIDOWS LIVELIHOOD PROJECT KABUL AFGHANISTAN

By John Jedryk, International Service Director, Rotary Club of Canberra East

Rotarians have a reputation for undertaking worthwhile projects in the most unlikely places around the world, so why not in Afghanistan?  After almost 30 years of war there are more than one million destitute widows and many thousands of orphans.  The need for help is almost overwhelming so I decided to undertake an international Rotary project.

As the current International Director of the Rotary Club of Canberra East (RCCE) and having worked in Afghanistan since 2005 on various government sector reform projects, I decided to see if Rotary could make the difference’ in this war-ravaged land.

It took months to find the Kabul Rotary Club and its President, Engineer Dad Mohammad Baheer since no one knew their contact details. When I finally found him I asked ‘what was the greatest need?’ – ‘helping orphans and widows’ he said.  So we visited a large orphanage (700 children, ages 3 -16 (girls and boys) and found they needed literacy skills; we visited widows in community centres who desperately needed livelihood skills (ages 10 – 60).

So the “Kabul Orphans and Widows Livelihood Project” was initiated in late 2007 with funding totalling A$11,000 (US$9,700) based on contributions from the Rotary Clubs of Canberra East and Weston in Canberra, North Ryde in Sydney Australia, and from Rotary eClub One (D5450, USA) and the Kabul Rotary Club in Afghanistan.

The project goals were firstly to help orphans gain literacy/computing skills and secondly to assist widows and destitute girls gain livelihood skills i.e. computing skills and sewing skills.

With the A$11,000, the Kabul Rotary Club President Baheer and I were able to purchase firstly six new computers, six new printers, ancillary items such as desks and funds for IT trainers. Two of the computers were given to the orphanage and four went to the women’s community centres.

Secondly we were able to purchase 35 hand operated sewing machines including seven embroidery machines, 35 sewing kits, many metres of material as well as some funds for teachers to train the widows/girls in sewing as well as in literacy skills. In addition, some 500 writing pads, 1000 pencils/pens and other stationery items were also purchased.

In a country where the literacy rate is 43% for males and only 13% for females, the focus on helping mostly females is critical. By comparison, literacy in neighbouring Pakistan (also a poor country) is 66% for males and 42% for females. The project helped an orphanage with 700 orphans and 10 Community Centres which combined, have some 2500 widows and girls.

By the end of 2007, community Centres had six contracts to provide embroidery items and tailoring services to retail market outlets. Early estimates are that each Centre can earn US$150 per month which is about half a civil servant’s wage. This will improve as the women become better skilled. The income is shared in the Centres. In many ways the project is like a microfinance project but without the administration of having to collect repayments. Rotary President Baheer in Kabul keeps stressing how the project has had a very big impact for little outlay and has made a big difference to many lives.  The computing literacy skills will take longer to acquire but will lead to even higher skilled and higher paying livelihoods, the type of skills crucial to the future of an educated Afghanistan.

Other benefits/outcomes have included:

•  The support of RI’s Education/Literacy aims.

•  The support of programs like UNICEF/USAID.

•  Direct help to most under privileged in Kabul.

•  Implementation of an effective counterinsurgency measure - supports efforts in fighting terrorism because poverty is a fertile field for terrorism

•  The realisation that education/livelihood development is critical for poverty reduction - allows for better democracy and provides job opportunities.

Another critical benefit has been to re-establish the Kabul Rotary Club. The Club had problems in the past, under previous Presidents, with funds being unaccounted for. It was therefore imperative that a Rotarian was on the ground to ensure the project was actually carried out. President Baheer provided receipts and arranged monitoring visits to ensure the items purchased were in place. In the case of computers, I was able to purchase them myself thus eliminating the potential for corruption and administrative costs. In this way, ‘onsite’ Rotary management has succeeded where many international agencies have failed. The project has been an outstanding success and much appreciated by President Baheer in his thank you letter to the participating Clubs, in which he said,

“Afghanistan is still a very poor country and dangerous for foreigners but John (Jedryk) went with me to see orphanage and widows who are in the poorest part of Kabul. He saw first hand their conditions and urgent need for help. We purchased computers, hand powered sewing machines, sewing kits, materials, books, pens, some small tables and paid a small amount to several teachers, these are the projects which are very low cost and high impact for self sufficiency, particularly for widows and women headed families”.

He added, e “These projects are very important to my club because it shows our members we have international support for good causes”

Security remains a major hurdle in Afghanistan.  Just getting around Kabul is dangerous: chaotic traffic, vehicles, men pulling carts, bicycles, women in blue burqas, all vying for space on overcrowded roads. Interspersed are the regular convoys of American Humvees with machine gunners on the front vehicle facing forward and the gunner facing rearward on the last vehicle to protect the convoy in all directions. Such difficulties are one reason for the above heartfelt letter of thanks received from Rotary President Baheer, and reason to celebrate another Rotary success story.