2008 08 Newsletter

8/3/2019 2008 08 Newsletter

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PARSA Marastoon, Afghan Red Crescent Society PO Box 31292,Kabul, Afghanistan Seattle, WA. 98103

Email [email protected] or [email protected] (0)799 020 588 or 93 (0)70 284 286

Please note our newaddress:PARSA

PO Box 31292,

Seattle, WA. 98103Your donations are

deeply appreciated!!

August 26, 2008

This month two events in Afghanistan impacted our morale atPARSA. The murders of the four staff members of International Rescue Committee were heartbreaking for the“NGO” community in Afghanistan. These workers traveled through a troubled province in two cars well marked as “IRC”

under a dated assumption that charitable organizations areimmune from violence in a war zone. This event underscored the hateful nature of this war here in Afghanistan showing that people such as our staff at PARSA who are working hard to assist impoverished Afghans have become a target for

violence. As we talked about this event we grappled with the strong message that thereare people who do not want us here.

Life for people working in charitable organizations is hard. Pay is low, we travel intorural areas where others can not go because of security restrictions, and governmentbureaucracy is sometimes obstructive and hostile. We hope that the death of these

charitable workers will not be wasted in the long run of Afghanistan’s history.

The other event was the winning of the bronzeOlympic medal by Rohullah Nikpai Tae Kwandoathlete. For our Afghan friends few recent militarybattles won have been greeted more joyously than this young man’s victory, except maybe the fall of theTaliban. His training opportunities were few, hisfood was poor, and no one believed he could everaccomplish what he did. With these two events inmind I would like to acknowledge some of our heroes

at PARSA. I hope that we do not ever take forgranted the generous gift they have given to the Afghan people in the face of adversity, obstacles, their own disappointment, personal hardship and professional risk.

PARSA Discovering the Afghan Spirit

Yasin, PARSA’s national director has the

inglorious job of washing and medicating anorphan…and he loves it.

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Yasin Farid, National Director - Yasin has worked for PARSA in some capacity allof his professional life. He is a master physiotherapist but as National Director atPARSA he works on everything at PARSA. I particularly want to acknowledge hiscompassion for children and disabled people. He has led our advocacy program for the orphans in the National Orphanages. He has often been berated for his work and

he has put his professional reputation at risk to call for an investigation into how theinstitutionalized children were being treated by Ministry staff.

Now he enjoys the respect of the Head of the National Orphanage system and is working to train ministry staff to care for the children as if they are his or her own.He spends two weeks away from hisfamily a month working on the ICRUHealthy Afghan Child Program in

Chaghcharan, Ghor Province. He hasnever been out of Afghanistan and wouldlove an opportunity to learn how othercountries care for their vulnerablechildren and disabled but his visa to theUS is still outstanding after a year. Without his visa, we can not send him tomeet our supporters in Phoenix. In spiteof this disappointment he remainsunflaggingly committed to a future for Afghan people, where Afghans are “kindand loving” to their children of all ages.

Palwasha Madomi, Economic Program Director - Palwasha has worked for PARSAfor over ten years including a difficult period of time during the reign of the Taliban when she spent time in jail. She teaches and manages Afghan women who have to

work for a livingincludingartisans. She islearning to be astrong andoutspoken leaderon behalf of the women she works for anddoes not tolerateunfairness toward the women in her programs or on

Yasin working with an Early childhood Development class

Palwasha with her class of women in Hazarajat

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her staff. She attempts to do this with grace and kindness.

She is now traveling to our project “The Community Village School” in the Hazarajatin Bamyan Province and managing the program which is a very brave act for a professional Afghan woman. She is tireless in her lectures to Afghan communities

about their responsibility to the village orphans and disabled who do not have enough to eat. She has learned to provoke sullen and entitled village leaders into contributing to the people in our program.

Palwasha along with Aisha, her Gift Shop Manager, have been able to make ourartisan’s program viable this year and have expanded into a more solid market inKabul. She was selected out of 300 applicants for the Artemis program through theUniversity of Phoenix but her visa to the US was turned down and she will not be able to attend.Naheed Sharify, Education Director - Naheed has workedfor PARSA for 8 years developing and supporting “hidden

schools for women” during the Taliban and more recentlymanaging 21 village schools in Paghman. She is loving, a true educator and an essential part of the team that PARSAis today. This year she was diagnosed with breast and bonecancer.

We are praying for a miracle for her recovery and someamazing people are coming forward to help us as we cannotimagine PARSA without her. Last week she made all of thestaff a delicious “mantu” and even though she feels very ill,she has done everything possible to help us launch the

“Healthy AfghanGirls Program” in the local schools including knocking on doorsat the Ministry of Education for permission toconduct the program.

Reese Hume, Children’s Program Specialist- Reese is my youngest son and gifted at working with troubled children. He joined mein the spring for a long stint of working with the children in the orphanages. He is wellloved by the children and a greatcommunicator who is unfazed by his lack of Dari. He is passionate that adults need tokeep their promises to children, and he is working with Afghan ministry staff so thelearn to be consistent and fair in theirdiscipline of the children.

Naheed (right) with Salia

Reese with orphans in Chagcharran

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I know he is homesick but he works day-after-day to help me with householdmanagement and constant activity involving the mysteries of Afghanistan’s logistics.He spends weeks in the provinces with no entertainment and nothing to do but work.Given the world’s view of Afghanistan and security, it is courageous of him to comehere to support me and I love him for it.

Mohsen Arrif, HACP Project manager and Abobaker Kohistani, RehabilitationProgram Manager

Mohsen and Abobaker are two highlycompetent men. Mohsen is the NationalProgram Director for all our “Healthy Afghan Children Program” and he bringsorder to absolute chaos. In a culture thatdoes not like to hear negative feedback heis honest, fair and kind. Abobaker isgifted at developing rehabilitation

programs for any kind of disabled people.He takes initiative and always providesmore than expected in the way of performance. Both of these men spend two weeks a month away from theirfamilies to work in Chagcharran on theICRU “HACP” in spite of their familiesconcerns about security.

I could and will at some point individuallyacknowledge all the staff at PARSA for their dedication. PARSA is not just a place to go to work. The young leadersmentioned above have vision and

creativity and PARSA would not exist without them.

Finally, I want to mention Dawn Erickson,PARSA Finance Officer and OrganizationalDevelopment Specialist,Dawn and I were best friends when ourfamilies lived here in the ‘60’s and we have co-managed PARSA for almost two years noweach contributing complementary talents.Dawn is infatigable, has a buoyant personalityand very simply loves the Afghans and the work she has set herself to do here. She isstabilizing PARSA through organizationalsystems and financial procedure, which allowsus to apply for larger funding for our programs.

Principle of the orphanage with Mohsen and Abobaker with anorphan in his extended family home.

Dawn with Tai Maskan orphans and their pet bird.

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She lives at Marastoon with her husband, Jim Springer, also a great support forPARSA and someone who also lived here in the ‘60’s as a child. Dawn is refreshinglyenthusiastic about her life here even after living here plenty of years to have thenovelty of living in Afghanistan wear off. This month she was called a filthy name by aresident and two of her dogs were poisoned at Marastoon, during a general massacre

of unwanted animals by the city municipality. Her relentless courage and love for her work in the face of the Afghans lack of understanding about who we as foreignersare and what we value makes her one of our heroes.

Updates: I have posted lengthier stories at our web journal at www.parsakabul.blogspot.com so you can get through our newsletter more quickly.

The Community Village School in Jawzareen: We thank Hope Worldwide Afghanistan for contributing over $1,200 to buy sewing machines and materials for 20 women in our economic programs (Women’s Garden). Our staff will work with them to develop products they can sell locally. Our wonderful volunteer Connor O’Steen

just came back from Jawzareen and I have posted his personal account of the journey.More villages along this area are asking for schools and programs. We have alreadysignificantly exceeded the 28 women we planned on serving when our teachers fromSeattle granted us the initial $12K to start the program. We are currently serving 140 women. Please let me know if you would like to contribute to this effort and need moreinformation about the program.

The Chaghcharran Children’s Center: In July, 6 PARSA staff and volunteers made

an interesting sight as we drove massive piles of bedding from the children’s orphanage to the river to wash them. We have a training methodology that calls for first theoryand then practice. In June we talked about hygiene with the children and in July we

demonstrated what helping the children with hygiene meant. It was a unique lesson

Volunteers, Will Nunes and Connor O’Steen got us organized at the river

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for all of us. Wedid not know what a stir we would cause but with foreigners

washing orphansbedding in theriver thecommunity had torecognize that thechildren hadneeds that theorphanage is notable to providefor. The exerciseresulted in new

bedding for thechildren, someMinistry staff puton notice for not working, andgreat fun for thechildren and us.

Alluhoddin and Tai Maskan Orphanages:Last week we started our Healthy Afghan Girls Program with 10 teachers/supervisorseach starting to work with 7 to 8 girls. Assessments were completed and training of

the staff in the “Good Mother’s Program began today. Yasin as the senior trainer told the staff that as a part of their work they would need to spend 1.5 hours a day with thegroup in a special activity. The teachers moaned and said they did not have the time. Yasin asked them to write down their schedules which read like this:

1. Arrive to work2. Drink Tea3. Pray 4. Take attendance5. Eat lunch6. Pray7. Go home

There is simply no tradition of actually working with the children in these government positions and in the training, the women recognized that they have no scheduled time with the children.

Funded through Asia Foundation, the government staff will be bonused every month if they perform well as a “Good Mother” or social worker/case manager for the childrenassigned to them. More about the program will be posted on webjournal.

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Marastoon and the Sanatoriums for the Mentally I l l : We just had a visit from the head of the Mental Health Department at the Ministry of Public Health. Dr. Alya reviewed our rehabilitation program with the inmates of thesanatoriums and is looking forward to exploring ways for PARSA to support thenational system for mental health with our programs. She also ordered kites from ourmen to feature at a special day of education on Mental Health. (They make greatkites!)

“Nassim” the Orphan

Last month I traveled with my son, Reese, my nephew, Will, and Connor, the son of dear family friends to Chagcharran towork for two weeks on our Healthy Afghan Child Program.These young American men had a remarkable education on

all accounts but one of the most interesting stories is about Nassim, the orphan. The day I flew in I was hungry, cranky because as usual it had taken 4 hours of waiting to make a one-hour trip. I showed up to our office residence in a rare mood to also discover that Yasin and Dawn had recently takenin an “orphan”.

Nassim was so grateful for our attention. Yasin washed him and applied his medication. Dawnentertained him and mothered him. The arrival of three young men to play with was overwhelming andhe was beside himself with joy and activity. Two

years of raising himself did not contribute to his social skills. (Please see the rest of ourstory on the web journal, address above.)

Donors to acknowledge this month:

HALO-Dedication of theCenter for Creative AbilityHelping and LovingOrphans raised the initial

money to build ourCenter for Creative Abilities, a building tohouse programs that will provide vocational training to workingchildren, disabled people

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including mentally ill, and women “head of household”. We deeply appreciate BettyTisdale’s vision and support for this important project. (Please see the rest of our storyon the web journal, address above.)

“Ringing in the Change” giving

communityOur grassroots group out of Englandheaded up by General Sean Bell hascontributed toward completing theelectrical wiring system in the TaiMaskan Orphanage housing over 400boys. The British RAF volunteers havemade an amazing effort and have provided a moving level of support for these boys.

“Children of Afghanistan” giving communityOur NATO workers in the Netherlands have begun raising funds to support a numberof projects. They will be finishing a school in Joghari that previously fell short of funding. This school is in a very hazardous area and will be critical to building good will in the Hazarajat in Ghazni Province.

All our donors, big and small, areappreciated. $100 funds 20 orphansmedication and related health careexpenses in a month, $50 pays formentally disabled gardening activities,$10 buys art and school supplies for 5orphans.

Wish ListThank you to those of you who havecontinued to read our wish lists andsent everything from printercartridges to sewing supplies and

soccer equipment for the orphans. Your donations of blankets for the refugees, shoesfor the barefoot and bathrooms for the orphans in Ghor make the difference in so

many children’s and vulnerable people’s lives!Current wishes are:3 laptop computers-used Vacuums for the orphans rooms5 desktop computers w/ monitors One heater/air conditioner unit1 hard drive back up One printerFile cabinet One photocopy machinePrinter ink cartridges Desks

Sean and children at Tai Maskan

Allen Mackenzie from COA and children at Alluhoddin

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For Kabul “Friends of PARSA” Volunteer Program Kabul

If you live in Kabul and would like to come to the orphanages and play with thechildren we have a special schedule of activities including soccer, helping the children

write letters to their pen pals, making video biographies. Please either call ReeseHume at 0796612287 or email at jreesehume @gmail.com

PARSAAfghan Red Crescent

SocietyMarastoon compound

0799020588Marnie Gustavson,Executive [email protected]

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2008 08 Newsletter