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Parsa Newsletter February 2007 1

February 19, 2007Dear Friends of PARSA;I get frequent inquiries as to the nature of the deteriorating security here and how it affects me.

Without being dismissive of a very difficult and heartbreaking situation, I generally reply that theelectricians of Kabul are more likely to do us in than terrorists. My husband adds that if theelectricians do not electrocute us as they repair our house, the government bureaucrats will

bring new the government systems to a grinding halt and we will flee the country gibberingidiots. Over the course of four years, life has been a lot more difficult for us security wise thannow whereas the now the ongoing struggle to build an infrastructure is now exhausting and

wearing everyone down.Roads built last year have

gaping potholes, we havetraffic lights but traffic policehave to throw themselves infront of cars to stop them.There was a uniquedemonstration last week

where apparently 1,000s of

motorists honked their hornsin a cadence that soundedlike barq, barq, barq(electricity) protesting thetwo hours of electricity wereceive every other day.

I returned from holiday withmy family in the US refreshed and resolved to incorporate the learning I received from working

with the parliamentarians with my work with PARSA. This means that I am determined to do myutmost to change governmental systems that are not serving the vulnerable people that we work

with. I was presented with my first opportunity on my second day when Yasin, our countrydirector came to me and announced that the orphans have fleas. In addition to that the situationhad so deteriorated in the orphanage because of winter that the facility is a serious health hazard.I asked Yasin and Mahbouba to assess the situation and they came back with simple solutions-about a $4,500 fix. We found a donor for these things the next day. Unfortunately, the staff atthe orphanage only receives $40 a month and stealing is rampant. The children get a fraction ofthe assistance that comes their way and our donor had a good 4 days of trying to get the problems

PARSADiscovering the Afghan Spirit

Kabul has had record breaking cold this winter, wreaking havoc on all of usbut terribly hard for poor and our orphans at Alluhoddin. This is a beautifulpicture out of my window. My water tank was frozen solid.

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Reminders:

PARSA Website is at

http://www.afghanistan-parsa.oyou go to the donation section

will see that we can receive donathrough Pay Pal, as some of you

requested.

Also, note our new address in

U.S. is:PARSA

3246 39th Avenue SW

Seattle, WA 98116We also have a community onl

web journal at

http://www.parsakabul.blogspotCurrently featuring our Youn

Friends of PARSA exchang

fixed-with interference from the staff and they gave up. We have spent the last three weeks tryingto get officials to move to make changes.

Our staff is in the orphanage everyday doing the best they can to alleviate the kids misery. Theyhave been taking boys to the himamor bathhouse-thirty kids at a time for the first bath in three

months. With one supervisor for 250 children, these issues are impossible to manage. When Iheard yesterday that the girls do not have any feminine hygiene products and are using Kleenex, Inearly broke and went and bought a crate myself. However, the work of the internationalcommunity now is to support the leadership in this country to rebuild it and take responsibilityfor their people. Mahbouba Seraj, PARSA board member, has joined with her cousin, MiriamGailani to get us a meeting with the Minister of Martyred and Disabled to put the problem infront of him. If we receive no response from him we will go to the Parliamentary Human RightsCommission. The good news is that there is now a structure of democratic governance bodies.The international community could handle these problems in two days-but the solution will neverlast until the Afghans responsible do the work and I am clear that going through the structures

will eventually create change. I will keep you posted on this.

We thank you for your support in producing our new vulnerable childrens program. We willbe developing-at the Ministries request- a training program this year for the government workersas well. The Minister has also now given us permission to work with the girls. It is frustrating

work and knowing you are behind us is heartening. Here is a journal entry from a volunteer whois an Afghan American and a social worker, describing her experience of visiting the orphanage.

A Visit to Alluhoddin Orphanage:By Ariane Mahmud-Ghazi

Tuesday- February 6, 2007 We went to visit the main orphanage in Kabul today with MariamGailani, Mahbouba Seraj, Marnie Gustavson of PARSA, Mariams 17

year old daughter and Hassan Djans twenty something son Haris.The orphanage houses some 400 children with a separate girls and

boys wing. It was as bleak and dismal as any concentration camp, andwith about the same managerial policies.

A dozen young boys in singsong voices and ready smiles came to greet us, extending their hands for a shake. They huddled aroundAres who had his camera out, and eagerly complied with his requests

to line up this and that way. He engaged them through the lens as heasked them their names, how old they were, what theyd like to do

when they grew up. And they relished the attention.

A woman in charge of the boys side showed us around. We visitedthe kitchen, set outdoors in a makeshift courtyard, where a couple ofhuge pots brewed some gruel over an open fire. Mahbouba wryly

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reported that the level of human waste in the bathrooms she visited haddecreased from thigh high to about knee high, a marked sign ofimprovement. As for the shower stalls, the door was frozen over fromthe inside as snow had melted from the roof and puddled across thelanding. The staff scurried around to boil some water to melt the ice in

order to open the door.

In the dormitories, the children sleep in bunk beds lined against thewindow for no reason I can understand. A thin barrel wood stove heatsthe room that is lit by a single gasoline lamp given to the boys at night.

The electrical box has yet to be reconnected and there is not electricity. At night, the boys arelocked in their dorm rooms as the staff goes home and a single night guardian oversees the entirecharge of over 200 boys. There is apparently rampant fighting and abuse as the boys settle theirscores themselves, usually with physical force.

The overall most pervasive sense here is of biding time. There is a complete lack ofactivity, stimulation or learning of any kind, tough you can tell these children craveit and are open to ingesting anything they can out of anyone outside of their world,if only to confirm that there are other possibilities out there, that this bleakness isnot the norm.

One Hazara looking 10-year-old boy who called himself and everything else around him Tulsiwas said to be crazy by the other boys. He was brought in a month ago and could not utter anyword other than Tulsi but he seemed to understand when spoken to. In his clothes, the staffhad found a couple of passport photos of his father and of himself as a baby. Tulsis face

brightened when he was shown the picture of his father and he started making grumbling noises.

Nothing else is known of the boys family or circumstances.

Marnie called her husband Norm to see whether he could conduct apsychological evaluation on the spot, as there was some concern that this

boy might either be a danger to others or be endangered himself. With allthe attention, and the lure of Ares camera lens, he began to open up andsmiled. The other boys ostracize him because he still wets himself and

Norm asked the staff if they had an intervention plan for treating hisencopresis. They looked at him blandly. Not the first order of priority, I gather.

While Tulsi was showered with attention, I huddled with some of the other boys by the wood

stove. I spoke to a 12 year old boy with a face of proud open sadness and he told me he had noone left and was brought to the orphanage 8 years ago when his family was killed by the Taliban.Hed made some good friends, though; he smiled as he politely introduced them to me.

A wracking cough spurred insistently from one of the boys in the group. I brought it to theothers attention. The kid was burning with fever. There is no medical care available in theorphanage I find out, no infirmary, and no provisions for weekly or even monthly visits from any

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PARSA Video first release: Featuring our work at the Alluhoddin orphanage andthe Widows Garden

By Margaret Dillard can be found online at

http://one.revver.com/watch/164678/flv/affiliate/35551

medical staff at all. It is unbelievable and a total outrage. Everywhere are signs of ringworm andother diseases on the childrens skin. Arrangements were made for the kid to be taken to thehospital, but who is to say if therell be any follow through.

Four-year-old Suleiman looks up at all the giants in our gathering with big eyes and a ready ears.

Hes wandered from the dorms for the younger boys. Hes found in Mahbouba a grandmotherlyfigure and instinctively moves in for warmth. She holds his small grubby outstretched hand. Thestaff tells us hes been there for 2 years and was brought in when his father killed his mother andthen committed suicide. An uncle, who shortly thereafter died of a heart attack, took him in.

On the girls side, everything is neater though the mold infested carpet reeks and the same stateof building disarray is apparent everywhere. But there is a different atmosphere. The girls laughand tease one another as they sit and chat by the wood stove. They are eager to engage with us.They want to be either teachers or doctors when they grow up. They want to learn in school.

Eight and twelve year old sisters Rokhi and Morsal now tell us that they are there because theirmother Nadia is in jail at the infamous Pul-i-Charkhi. She was imprisoned because she wasaccused of killing her husband. When asked if thered been much violence in the house the girlssaid no. Their mother had been wrongly accused. The real murderer had been found andimprisoned but her mother still languished in jail because of bureaucratic backlog. Mahboubatook down all the pertinent information and we will arrange to go visit the mother in prison andfollow through.

PARSA Volunteers

Gennaro Buonocore: Gennaro is on PARSABoard of Directors. He has philosophy that has himcommit a significant amount of his time to volunteer

work in Afghanistan with us as well as through the Italian

Red Cross where he volunteered in Iraq and Lebanonthis year. He is the founder of Moving PicturesMagazine http://www.movingpicturesmagazine.comand is contributing space to PARSA this month in hismagazine. We look forward to his return in September

when he will start a professional volunteer program for us. His spirit is irrepressible, and hisprofessional work with us as an organizational development consultant deeply appreciated.

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Gennaros project for PARSA in the next couple of months is to bring three PARSA directors toPhoenix to for a fundraiser for PARSA-as part of their training and part of our initiative to turnPARSA into an Afghan-run international NGO in the next two years. Yasin Farid, To Gennarosleft is the current Afghan Country Director. If you would like to be a part of this initiative pleasee-mail him [email protected]

Betty Tisdale:Betty, the founder of HALO (Help and LovingOrphans), will be joining us in April to document the

work we have done with orphans at Alluhoddin througha grant she has awarded us. All of her foundation workis on a volunteer basis and comes deeply from theheart. We are looking for people who would be in aposition to donate mileage to her trip here and if youcould do that please e-mail me [email protected].

Ann Jones: Ann volunteered for PARSA for over a year andbecame very special to our staff during that time. She visited us again last year and interviewed the new Afghan women parliamentarians. This book of hersis a must read-based on her experience of living in

Afghanistan during her trips.

Ross Hartung, (my mother on the left) sitting withBetty during my meeting with her this January.

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Haris Gailani: Haris is anAfghan American and is here in Kabulvisiting his father, Hassan Gailani. Hehas been volunteering for ourvulnerable children program. Hesimply loves kidsand I watched him

visit the orphanage for the first time.He is an avid photographer, and he

was taking the childrens pictures withtears running down his face-he neverstopped talking to them or playing

with them-and he was moved deeply by them. We are so grateful for hisheartfelt effort on their behalf. He isdocumenting their stories and helping

us set up a sponsorship program forthem.

Young Friends of PARSAThis month PARSA starts a program for our youngsupporters and donors. Anoosha (right) and her sister,Uranus, have offered to facilitate a pen pal program withthe orphans at Alluhoddin. They will be visiting theorphanage once a week-to help the children write lettersand then they will be e-mailing the translations.

Anoosha can be reached [email protected]. Sheis posting a weekly newsletter about her life her in Kabulathttp://www.parsakabul.blogspot.com.

The Afghan Womens Business Academy: We have reorganized our womenseconomic programs, and the gif t shop into a comprehensive curriculumunder Naheed Sharifys direct ion. Afghan Women Business AcademyPARSA at Marastoon

PARSA has provided economic programs for vulnerable womenfor over ten years. In 2007, thanks to a generous award from theNew Hudson Foundation, we have founded the AfghanWomen Business Academy to coordinate our trainingprograms, expand our curriculums, and network with otherNGOs to develop demonstration programs that can be replicatedin the provinces.

Haris worked with PARSA staff on the s chosocial trainin in Bamian.

An Afghan artisans tablecloth on our table athome in Seattle.

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Training Afghan women who would notordinarily have access to professionaltraining, the Academy providesintegrated programs that are designed toaddress comprehensively the complex

issues facing Afghan women. In bothurban and rural settings, employment isstill an intimidating experience forwomen. In professional officesconservative cultural strictures still prevailand sexual harassment is common.Women trail behind men in businessskills, including management and

supervision because of their exclusion from education during the reign of the Taliban.All over the country the lack of skilled workers is slowing developmental progress.Many Afghan women see economic emancipation and the ability to increase their wages

as critical to the quality of their lives and their ability to care for their children andfamilies.

Our integrated programs are designed for women at different levels of education, fromilliterate women in a rural village to women who can work professionally in an urbansetting. Curriculum includes healthcare education, physiotherapy, psychosocial services,accelerated learning programs (literacy) and business development.

Program training methods have been developed by PARSA trainers to combine on the job learning, apprenticeship opportunities, mentoring and follow up employmentsupport to insure that our students have a practical understanding of concepts taught.

Programs Offered 2007

Secretarial, Administrative and Management Skills - Anticipated earnings$500 to $2000 a month.Program Opening June 31st

Afghan Women Artisans and Entrepreneurs - Anticipated earnings $150-$500a month.

The Widows Garden - Anticipatedearnings $40 to $150

The Cooking School - Anticipatedearnings $200 to $350 a monthScholarships available. Please considercontributing to our scholarship program.

New Hudson Foundation founder, Carolyn Firestone meets withAfghan Women Parliamentarian about womens issues in

PARSA designer, Aisha registers artisans for PARSA programfor Afghan women entrepreneurs.

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PARSAs Well Being ClinicPsychosocial training forteachers in Bamian City Yasin Farid, our director ofphysiotherapy services, has been

working with his staff to expand theirexcellent caretaking services to includepsychosocial programs. This month

Yasin, Atiquallah, Zarguna, andSohela, psychosocial trainers traveledto Bamian to deliver a ten-day training

to elementary school teachers. Dr. Norm Gustavson, AFSC Country Representative and HarisGailani joined them. Dr. Patricia Omidian, another member of our board of directors, originallydeveloped the training. This training was a big step forward for our staff to move intoprofessional training and integrated program services that not only address the physicalproblems that Afghans are facing but the psychological issues as well. This is a real milestonefor PARSA staff.

Teachers in Bamian durin s chosocialtrainin .

PARSA staff with Dr. Gustavson and Haris Gailani at Bamian.

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2007 02 Newsletter

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