Afghanistan

Blog Post:  Posted August 19, 2010, 9:52 am by Mark Chadwick

Losing some preconceptions in Afghanistan

Country: Afghanistan

Topics: Livelihoods, Agriculture

I should know by now, but the important lessons are always worth repeating. Although blessed with the opportunity to travel often, I packed a lot of preconceptions when I set out for Afghanistan; this country that dominates our headlines but whose people we know so little.

I was ready for palpable tension in Kabul; no one wanting to linger on the streets, a pervading sadness. But in my short time there (and it was a short time), I saw nothing of that. Instead bustle, chatter, shops with names like “Kabul Asia Fashion”, advertisements for mobile phones, clothes, college courses and smiling teenagers — everything I ought to have expected but somehow didn’t — the old truth (and one time British Airways slogan) that there’s more that brings us together than keeps us apart.

Alongside the more immediate tragedies of this conflict are the missed opportunities of our mutual isolation. It’s a pity that the construction contractor I got talking to on my flight home never got to see anything of Afghanistan except the inside of Kabul compounds and armoured vehicles. It’s a shame that Afghans with expertise in development can’t always get visas to attend training courses in the United Kingdom that will help them contribute even more to their country.

Mercy Corps works closely with communities and implements programmes together with them, wherever security allows. It is a privilege in these difficult times to have the chance to meet with ordinary Afghans in an uncomplicated way.

I had the chance to visit a Mercy Corps agricultural programme, funded by the European Commission, in a comparatively stable part of the country in the east. This programme is demonstrating improved seeds and planting techniques, setting up women with poultry as a source of income, linking farmers to markets and putting money into the household budgets and local economy by hiring local labour to build and improve infrastructure, not least irrigation.

From the air, it’s hard not to be struck by the difference that canals make to the otherwise sparse and arid country and just how important these arteries are to rural life. Building this water infrastructure and helping Afghans improve its management is a big part of what Mercy Corps does around the country.

I accidentally stepped in one of the water channels, to the amusement of local children in one village. I’m claiming this was a deliberate ice-breaking strategy…or at least I’d use that excuse if we hadn’t already been warmly welcomed. Everywhere we were met with great warmth and we had to reluctantly decline many offers of lunch, (although still managed to eat some excellent watermelon). We promised we’d take up their lunch offers next time.

I hope we can.

Blog Post:  Posted July 20, 2010, 11:13 pm by Elizabeth Hallinan

Greening Afghanistan

Country: Afghanistan

Topics: Livelihoods, Environment, Agriculture

I’m just going to say it — people think of Afghanistan as a pile of rocks. I see where the mental image comes from; photos on the news do seem to showcase the sand and rocks in their effort to capture the grittiness of soldiers at war. But I know an Afghanistan of a different color: green.

In northern Afghanistan — where I work on a project promoting improved livelihoods through agriculture, infrastructure and livestock — there is the rich green carpet of potato plants in Takhar, the red-tinged green leaves of saplings in our timber plots in Badakhshan and technicolor green seedlings in the new rice paddies in Baghlan.

Our agriculture projects are not the only opportunities for supporting a greener Afghanistan. Now, we are using ‘greening’ techniques on our infrastructure projects as well. Northern Afghanistan is home to snowy mountains and rushing rivers, and as a result flood protection and erosion control are a major concern. The project builds retaining walls, wash culverts and canals to channel and control the water, but recently we have started looking far upstream to try to address the deforestation and soil erosion that make these floods so devastating.

The Yakatal "super passage" wash culvert in Taloqan, Takhar province, serves as a testing ground for this approach. This massive culvert is 120 meters (almost 400 feet) across and protects a local irrigation canal from being washed out by floods by channeling water up and over the covered canal. The culvert basically serves as a highway that contains the water as it runs downhill. This year, the new culvert contained the spring’s heavy flooding, but the sheer volume of water convinced Takhar Program Manager Kerry Sly of the need to work with the local shura (council) to control flooding at the source.

Yaka Zarang village resident Mohammad Ahmad explains the nature of the problem with relying on super passages alone: “Construction of super passages has its benefits, like quick protection of an area which is under threat of flood. After years, the passage will be destroyed by heavy floods anyway. All heavy floods are caused by consecutive rain fall in naked land which has nothing in its soil, and flood washes out everything from the surface of the land, like top soil and fertile land, and eventually farmers or people can not use that land for anything. Also, the river becomes full of mud and dirt which is washed away from the hills of upper areas.”

The Yakatal village elders remember a time when the hills above the village were covered with trees and shrubs and there was better land for grazing. They were eager to work with Mercy Corps to mitigate the current problems with soil erosion and deforestation to protect their downstream land. The shura agreed that the village would provide labor for starting nurseries, replanting trees and constructing a reservoir, as well as a promise to ensure that no more trees would be felled for fuel.

Mohammad Ahmad explains, “If we cover the area with forest and plants, we can easily reduce the floods' effects. Trees, plants and bushes absorb the water into soil, and roots keep the ground strong not to be swept away by fast rain. If we made terraces around the hills it is another way of reducing the flood flow, in the terraces we can plant pistachio, Russian willow and acacia, and these are all soil erosion controllers.”

With the help of the community, Mercy Corps targeted a 200 hectare (almost 500 acre) area that will be replanted with local varieties appropriate to the current dry conditions — and best suited for preventing erosion and improving soil moisture — such as pistachio, lilac, aspen, juniper, acacia, Russian willow, almond and walnut.

Trees thrive in Afghanistan, if given half a chance. By rebuilding a watershed, the community will restore the horticultural tradition and protect their agricultural land from future floods.

Blog Post:  Posted June 4, 2010, 10:37 am by Phil Ottum

From our photo library

Country: Afghanistan

I look at hundreds of images each week. Many of them are beautiful and noteworthy, but a few stick in my mind. Often, the ones I remember don’t have an obvious use in our publications or on our website, but they are visually dynamic nonetheless. This image by Miguel Samper is a good example. Miguel has traveled for us to Colombia, Sudan, Pakistan, and Haiti. His work's been a staple in our photo library since 2007.

This photograph is from Afghanistan in 2008. The woman’s hurried gait is exaggerated by the camera’s motion and I can’t help but wonder what’s on her mind and where she’s going with such purpose and concentration.

Coping with the Economic Crisis:

Blog Post:  Posted April 15, 2010, 12:22 am by Elizabeth Hallinan

Almonds for Afghanistan: A farmer tries his hand at a high-value crop

Country: Afghanistan

Topics: Rural, Livelihoods, Economic Development, Agriculture

I picked my way gingerly though the rows of young, green wheat as our host, farmer Ahmed Shah*, the Mercy Corps project manager and a few agriculture experts strode ahead across the field. They gathered around our first spot: a hole about two feet deep and one foot across, into which was placed a single branchless stalk with a mass of roots grafted to the bottom. We took turns holding it straight as shovelfuls of dirt were tossed in and cameras flashed.

An almond tree was born!

Ahmed is already well on his way to converting his wheat fields to almond orchards with the help of Mercy Corps' IDEA-NEW project. Wheat is a staple crop that sells for only about 28 cents per kilogram. Today we planted Satarbayi almonds, which are famous in Afghanistan for their high quality and fetch $10 per kilogram at the market.

Making the switch from wheat to almonds is not simple and does not happen quickly, but the bump in income is substantial. It will be two to three years before the new saplings produce almonds, so in the meantime Ahmed will leave his fields in wheat — which has shallow roots — while the deep-rooted almond trees take their time to produce fruit.

For a farmer, trying out a new type of crop can feel like a big gamble, even if the new crop is much higher value. If he plants wheat, Ahmed is familiar with the process and its challenges and risks, though the payout is low. To encourage Ahmed to undertake the risk of switching to a higher value crop, Mercy Corps provided him with 111 free almond saplings — as well as the fertilizer and tools needed to keep them healthy — which greatly reduced the start-up cost of changing over.

In the coming years, Ahmed will shoulder an increasing percentage of the cost of the orchard. In return for receiving free supplies, he has agreed to serve as a lead farmer and to use his farm as a demonstration plot where other farmers can come to see how he has transitioned out of commodity crops, and receive other agricultural technology trainings, such as orchard layout and tree pruning.

IDEA-NEW’s project success is based on the important relationships between lead farmers and those who come to learn at the demonstration plots, as well as on farmers and the suppliers of key inputs, such as fertilizer and seed. In this way, Mercy Corps initial gift of these 111 saplings can be leveraged to improve the capacity of many farmers in the area and strengthen the local market by building demand for high quality agricultural inputs.

Inshallah, in about two and a half years, Ahmed will be making a September harvest of high-value almonds. The almonds can be processed on the farm, where the women of the household will remove the green shells to prepare them for sale. The shells can also be used as feed for livestock, so there is no waste produced. The almonds will be left to dry in Ahmed’s sunny, walled garden and before being sold around Afghanistan and India.

*I’ve changed his name here to maintain his privacy and security.

Blog Post:  Posted March 22, 2010, 11:39 pm by Sayeed Farhad Zalmi

Irrigation canal saves 600 Afghan households

Country: Afghanistan

Topics: Water/Sanitation, Rural, Livelihoods, Food/Nutrition, Citizen Involvement, Agriculture

Ortabuz is a small village in the east of Afghanistan’s Takhar Province. At least 600 families are living in this small and green village. The people of Ortabuz are mostly farmers and each family have one or two jerib — about one-half to one full acre — of land for planting of crops. This is their only source of income.

The total agriculture land of Ortabuz is about 400 hectares, and they were irrigating their land in the traditional way. For more than 20 years, farmers were using empty big drums to get water to the croplands but, unfortunately, this system was damaged and leaking. The community used various kinds of glue materials to try and repair the drums, but it was not effective and — as a result — all 600 families in the area were deprived of water for both irrigation and drinking.

Mercy Corps was the only organization in the area to initiate and start the construction of a canal to solve this problem. The canal is about 130 meters long, and was built with a 20 percent resource contribution from the community. So far, the project has made big changes in the lives of local families in the district — and even the provincial government authorities participated in the inauguration of the project.

The result of this project is that people who during the past years could not properly irrigate even their first seasonal crops can now irrigate the first and second seasonal crops. Today, they're cultivating corn, beans and rice because they have enough water.

Blog Post:  Posted March 11, 2010, 10:57 am by Sayeed Farhad Zalmi

Celebrating International Women's Day in Afghanistan

Country: Afghanistan

Topics: Women's Empowerment

Mercy Corps Afghanistan celebrated International Women's Day in Kabul with bunches of flowers and gifts for female staff. Many of Mercy Corps' female staff here are working in high positions: country director, program manager, deputy program manager, head of departments and coordinators.

The party began around 2 p.m. and all staff from Mercy Corps' main offices gathered for this important event. At the opening speech, Mercy Corps' deputy country director — Dr. Sardar — congratulated Mercy Corps' female staff on International Women's Day.

Dr. Sardar emphasized the significant role of women in global development. He counted Mercy Corps' female staff as key players of our program achievements. “If you see the biggest people in the world, he/she is born by a woman and raised by a woman,’’ he said. At the end of his speech, Dr. Sardar called Christian Mulligan — Mercy Corps Afghanistan's country director — and presented her a bunch of flowers and a scarf.

One by one, each female staff member received gifts.

Fahima Rahimpur — Mercy Corps Afghanistan's Deputy Manager of Monitoring, Evaluation and Information Management — expressed her thoughts: "As a woman working in a male-dominated society, you can maintain your personal momentum by staying true to who you are, knowing your strengths and having the confidence to show them off. Take advantage of your uniqueness. If you are the only woman, consider it a positive, not a negative. Every time you attend a meeting or lead a presentation you have a tremendous opportunity to showcase your skills and talents.

"Mercy Corps Afghanistan is one of the few organizations here where women are busy working in many different positions," she continued. "Although most of the workers are men, the friendly, safe, professional and supportive environment given and provided to the ladies is beyond imagination. For me as a women working in such an organization, I really feel privileged and honored."

"Celebration and recognition of International Women's Day gives you the feeling of being valuable and credible to male co-workers and the whole organization. It paves the way for more growth and significant contribution towards achievements of goals. This is a great opportunity to thank all male colleagues for their support.’’

This day is celebrated in a time when the new government of Afghanistan has put some extra attention on appointing women in high positions. The first female provincial governor, the appointment of three female cabinet ministers and several deputy ministers are some positive evidence that women were making progress in male-dominated conservative Afghan society.

Although such progress has been made, discrimination against and abuse of women continues. Domestic violence and forced marriages are all too common, and many women in the country suffer from poor access to legal resources and exclusion from public life.

Afghanistan has a ways to go in its recognition and treatment of women — but here at Mercy Corps Afghanistan, we appreciate and celebrate their work every day.

Blog Post:  Posted February 23, 2010, 1:49 am by Sayeed Farhad Zalmi

Going to Lashkar Gah

Country: Afghanistan

Topics: Conflict & War

It is six o' clock of the morning of January 5. It is still dark and cold. The vehicle waiting outside of my house is honking its horn. The horn means I have to be ready to go to airport and fly to Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan.

I'm ready and holding my bag on my shoulder. My wife is saying good-bye to me and holding the Holy Qur'an over my head. In Islamic tradition, putting the Qur'an over a person who will be traveling means safety and a safe return.

I have been told not to take jeans to Helmand because the people who live in there are suspicious of western clothing. Helmand — particularly the fighting and violence there — is in the headlines every day and on the news every night on headlines. That news is scary. Whoever I talked to in my office about my trip to Helmand reacted as if I'm going to a gladiator fight.

Finally, after a serious security check at the Kabul airport, I board the plane and am on my way. As we're flying, I feel a heavy hand on my left shoulder, the hand of a short and strong man. I see his smile me as if he knows me. I pressure my mind to recognize this man, and then realize that he is Wasi. I can’t believe it! He is my classmate from the 8th and 9th grade. Wasi and I studied together at a school supported by a Japanese non-governmental organization (NGO) in Pakistan. He is working with the United Nations as a Finance Officer now.

The pilot is announcing our landing. Previously when I've traveled to Helmand, our plane landed on a non-asphalted runway. This time, the runway is asphalted — the airport is under construction with funding from USAID — but there is still no terminal building or other place to check in and wait. So we sit in the airplane and wait for a vehicle to come pick us up. which had com for our pick up right after getting out of plane.

And now we are heading to the local Mercy Corps office, which is about 10 kilometers from the airport. I'm feeling scared as we're driving. The city looks like the headquarters of the Taliban. Almost everyone here has a long beard, turbans and shilvar kamis. I feel as if everybody is looking at me like a stranger. However, I'm confident because I know the local language and, according to tradition in Afghanistan, language is one of the most important things in somebody's identity.

Finally, we arrive at the Mercy Corps office in Lashkar Gah. We don’t have any plans for today, so I will rest.

The ring of my mobile phone wakes me from sleep. My friend Wasi is on the line. He is waiting for me on the other side of my office door. He says "Let's go to explore the city." I'm scared, but I can’t say "no" because he might think I'm a cowardly person. And so I go with him.

Here in Lashkar Gah, it's very difficult to find a vehicle with a license plate — including the vehicle I'm riding in. Wasi tells me that almost 90 percent of vehicles here are not registered with government.

Lashkar Gah's small main bazaar and only a five-minute ride from the office. At first I was still feeling very scared because I'm still thinking that everyone here looks like Taliban. After all, Helmand used to be one of the most important headquarters of the Taliban in 2001, when they controlled 95 percent of Afghanistan.

We don't see a lot of people any place we go in the city. Wasi tells me that people are scared of gatherings, because they are afraid of suicide bombings. The people of Lashkar Gah have experienced this twice over the past two years. Just a few months ago, a suicide bomber targeted civilians in one of the city’s biggest mosques. The second time, another suicide bomber exploded his bomb among the people who were lined up registering themselves for Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage.

Eventually, after spending an uneventful seven days in Lashkar Gah, I returned to Kabul. As I was leaving, I realized that the city is not as dangerous as I feared it would be. And so now, the next time I get an assignment to go there, I won't be feeling so scared.

Blog Post:  Posted December 3, 2009, 4:11 pm by John Stephens

How about 30,000 teachers to Afghanistan?

Country: Afghanistan

Topics: Conflict & War

Yesterday I spoke to Oregon Public Broadcasting's Emily Harris about the humanitarian perspective on President Obama's decision to send more troops to Afghanistan.

My main point was that the military is only one piece of the puzzle to achieve stability in Afghanistan. Why not send 30,000 teachers to Afghanistan, or provide 30,000 microloans to women businesses there?

Listen to the full show, Think Out Loud, here. I'm interviewed about 36 minutes and 45 seconds into the program.

Blog Post:  Posted August 13, 2009, 3:20 pm by Nancy Lindborg

Today's Afghan businesswoman

Country: Afghanistan

Topics: Women's Empowerment, Economic Development

I first met Storai in early 2001 when she worked in our Kabul office part time. After the fall of the Taliban, she started attending medical school part time, but when offered the opportunity to work on women’s programs, she jumped at the chance. Before long she was leading the charge on new and important initiatives, and when we started a new microfinance institution to provide desperately needed access to credit to women entrepreneurs, she jumped into the fray.

Since then, Storai has grown into the confident and competent leader of Ariana, a microfinance institution that provides small loans to 9,800 clients, 65 percent of whom are women. On this visit, eight years later, I was able to visit several of those businesswomen, with Storai striding confidently ahead of me on the dusty streets of Kabul.

Our first stop was to visit Nasreen, an enterprising entrepreneur who embroidered pillows and baby clothes as well as offering bridal make-up services. She ushered us into her home, through a courtyard and small hallway into a room of purple splendor. A bed in the corner was plumped with her handiwork – purple satin pillows, stitched and flounced, a case of baby clothes stored below. A mirrored make-up table displayed all the ways she could make a bride beautiful.

Nasreen is a member of a loan group with a current loan of about $540 – her fifth from Ariana. With these funds she buys materials and markets her services. And her business has thrived. With the money she has made from her business, she bought the house we visited, now a home for her six children as well as her business center.

We then visited Asfa, a baker who sits cross-legged in a small elevated room tucked inside a private courtyard, in front of her tandoori oven. She feeds flattened lumps of dough into the open pit. With the outside temperature in the mid-nineties, she seems unfazed by the heat, her head wrapped in a bright red scarf. Long finished loaves of the flat bread are stacked around her, as well as the bowls of neatly covered dough brought to her from housewives in the neighborhood for her to cook.

Asfa is now on her third loan from Ariana, with a $400 loan she now uses to buy more flour and firewood. She makes a daily profit of about $8, nearly double from before. She uses the money to support her five children and two grandchildren, including sending four of them to school. She has dreams of buying the shop she now rents and expanding her production. And, notes Storai, "She has never been late on a payment."

Blog Post:  Posted August 11, 2009, 4:33 pm by Nancy Lindborg

Hot as an anvil in Afghanistan

Country: Afghanistan

Topics: Women's Empowerment, Economic Development

On previous visits to Afghanistan I have traveled to our programs in the southern provinces in Helmand and Kandahar, where Mercy Corps has operated for more than 20 years, as well as those in the north. But on this visit, I headed out to an area I have not visited before: Jalalabad, a two-hour drive winding through gorges and sharpened mountain terrain, until we emerge into the fertile and anvil-hot city of Jalalabad. If we continued another hour or so, I would be back into Pakistan and the Swat Valley I visited the previous week.

The Mercy Corps team there organized a visit to a nearby village, where we have worked with the community to boost agricultural productivity and improve the ability of families to support themselves. Many members of the community spent years or even decades across the border in Pakistan. They have been returning gradually over the last several years, including those who returned just recently as a result of the fighting in the Swat Valley across the border.

After driving through the heat and dust, about an hour from the city, we walked over a small ridge, into the village and a scene of timeless welcome. A row of spreading cottonwoods along a small river formed a cool and shady meeting area, called a dera. Underneath sat two facing rows of men, in turbans and robes, on robe beds, with carpets down the middle of the area. We were guided to the front, where we were greeted with speeches of welcome and thanks, and draped with scarves and paper flowers as we inaugurated a new project. The road we had helped the community build connected them to the main market road and enabled them to get their crops more easily there to sell.

While my male colleagues continued to talk with the village men, I slipped off with to meet with the women who had been involved with the community decision process on project priorities. We gathered in a room of a nearby house, sitting cross legged on the floor while more and more of the village women appeared at the door and then emerged from their burkas, transforming from shapeless blue forms into an array of women – from elderly and bent to green-eyed lively young women with babies on their hips.

We drank tea and talked about the difference the road made for them – most importantly, they could now get to the nearby health clinic more easily. Most of them had many children – on average, five or six. They gradually became more comfortable with my presence, crowding closer and closer. A young girl furiously fanned us with a long-handled fan, but barely stirred the close air.