Carol McKinley visits with Hassina and pens this in depth article in the “Role Models” section of Denver Woman.

Read the full article here – and reprinted below.

This October, Denverite Hassina Omar honored her late parents by carrying on their dream: helping children wounded from three decades of war in Afghanistan. Once there, she realized there was more to do. And she made it her dream too.

She is confident and tall in her heels. Her hair is so black and shiny it’s almost blue. Her green eyes light up, and it’s impossible not to return her smile.

Hassina Omar looks like a princess from far away who’s been plopped into an unlikely place: Radio Station KOA’s newsroom. Laughing, she says, “Look at this button. The cover’s coming off.” She smooths down her blazer with long, cool fingers.

Fashion talk is the Western way, but just three months ago the makeup was gone, and she covered her sweat pants with a black robe so as not to draw attention to herself. Omar was visiting a hospital in Kabul, delivering boxes of tiny crutches and wheelchairs. Waiting for them were children injured by land mines left from 30 years of war.

She is carrying on her mother’s life’s work. Handicapped Children of Afghanistan was started by Khadija Omar to care for kids whose disabilities are often ignored by their government. “The children are the ones who are most innocent,” says Hassina. “Many of these kids are released from the hospital with nowhere to go, their parents blown up by some crazy fanatic. These are the most graceful children I have ever met.”
Handicap International reports 800,000 people in Afghanistan have been injured by scattered mines and explosives, which are forgotten until they’re stepped on. Half of these casualties are individuals under 19 years of age.

This is not the Afghanistan Hassina Omar was born into. Forty-one years ago, it was a neutral country run by a king. Omar was the baby of five children, outspoken and fiery. Her parents were educated in France and sent her to international schools, where she learned English. When she was 12 years old, the Russians invaded, and the world as she knew it was over. Her father, Abdullah Omar, was the minister of public health, a respected physician known for building family-planning clinics in the most rural areas of Afghanistan.

In December of 1979, Dr. Omar was in meetings at the capitol in Kabul when the Russians blasted the city. Cabinet members who weren’t killed were taken as political prisoners. Dr. Omar’s family had only pieces of his clothing as proof he was alive. When they collected his dirty laundry from the jail guards for cleaning, if they could smell his scent on them, they could sleep another night.

Omar’s mother, Khadija, did on the outside what her father could not do behind bars. She knew Afghanistan could never again be home, and so she managed to sneak three of her children out of the country. They left, one by one, fake passports in their pockets. Her youngest stayed behind with her. When Omar’s father was released two years later, the family reunited in Omaha, Neb., where Dr. Omar found work as a microbiologist.

Children in AfghanistanLife was good until he was called back to work in Yemen by the United Nations. A tragic car crash ended his life, but there was something strange about the accident. His vehicle had been hit by three military cars. Some wonder if he was assassinated for speaking out. The Russians were still in Afghanistan, and Dr. Omar had written Mikhail Gorbachev in protest. Questions surrounding his death still haunt his family.

Khadija Omar never remarried, happy to live her life honoring the man she met at the wedding of her sister and his brother. Hassina and her mother eventually moved from Omaha to Denver and lived here together for the next 20 years. They felt they belonged in the Rocky Mountains, which reminded them of the rugged peaks of Afghanistan.

Omar is proud of her mother’s strength. It was she who used the underground to get the family to safety during the fall of Kabul. Years later, when she knew her children were settled, she sat down with her daughter and told her, “I’ve done something.” Feeling powerless over the destruction of Afghanistan, Khadija had sold some of her jewelry, much of it given to her by Abdullah, and some passed down from her family. With the money, she arranged for wells to be built so poor Afghan children could have water to drink. In the dusty countryside, it’s often the child’s job to fetch water, which is sometimes over an hour’s walk away.

With new energy, Khadija published a book of her late husband’s notes from prison and sold it. From these funds sprang another project: Handicapped Children of Afghanistan. In 2007, after two philanthropic trips overseas, Khadija Omar died at the age of 76, the youngest Omar at her side.

When Hassina told her bosses at KOA Radio that she wanted to honor her mother by hauling medical supplies to a war zone, they were obviously concerned. In the summer of 2008, the war was shifting from Iraq to Afghanistan. One supervisor told her not to go. It was getting more dangerous by the day. The Taliban was getting stronger. Religious courts and judges were replacing governmental law. More and more Afghans in the rural areas lived in fear. Truckers transporting goods over remote roads were routinely dragged from their vehicles and murdered for cooperating with the “infidels.” Medical staff was being threatened and targeted in anti-government attacks. “But I’m headed for Kabul,” she explained to her supervisors. “It’s civilized.” The Taliban had not yet infiltrated the country’s capital.

Rosemary Bennett, KOA’s general sales manager, wasn’t worried about wayward bullets. She was worried her outspoken friend with the looks of an Afghan but the attitude of a Yankee would get herself in trouble. Afghanistan’s view toward Westerners had changed since Omar had fled with her family three decades ago. Bennett was afraid Omar would speak her mind about the corruption she saw and says, “I told her to keep her mouth shut. She was in their territory.”

Before Omar left for her embattled homeland, she received a warning in the form of an e-mail from the U.S. Embassy: “It’s not safe. It is a war zone. We can’t be responsible.” A talk show host wanted to accompany her to promote Handicapped Children. But the station didn’t want to assume the risk. She would go alone, but there was no stopping her. “These people used to have a normal life. Not everyone is an extremist,” she says.

When Omar arrived in Kabul, she had $42,000, mostly donated by Coloradans; the wheelchairs; and the crutches. Her plan: visits to the hospital, a disabled group and a school for deaf, mute and blind children. She was struck by the youngsters with dark skin and big eyes just like hers. Their families were starving, so she bartered with the street vendors in Farsi for huge sacks of rice, pinching their price down by a third.
But before she could distribute the goods, she became seriously ill from eating contaminated lettuce. She was stuck in bed with a fever, shaking and angry. She had only five days left, and she could not lift her head. She had not come this far to be stopped by a salad! One night as she struggled with a spiking temperature and night sweats, she woke to see her father, pacing the floor back and forth with his prayer beads clasped in his hands behind him. She felt her mother, dressed in white, holding her. “It seemed my parents were there and that everything was going to be fine,she recalls.

Wounded Child in Afghanistan The next day, Omar got out of bed. She called the schools and asked them to notify the children’s families she would bring the rice. Hundreds of people showed up. The average Afghan family makes $222 a year. A bag of rice would keep a family fed for at least two months. The wheelchairs and crutches would mean kids with no legs would not have to crawl in the dirt. As the items were handed over, the visitor in the black veil and sunglasses received smiles and thanks and was invited for tea. She was relieved. Her work was finished.

Omar returned to the States grateful and showing a new attitude noticed by the boss. Bennett says, “Hassina pulled humility from her mother’s passing. She embraced her culture for herself.”

The normally composed Omar admits she had a hard timekeeping it together in the hospital. It hit me these children are innocent victims of an unnecessary war. And as the fighting gets worse in Afghanistan, their needs are changing. “You can give so many wheelchairs, but now they don’t have anything to eat, she explains.

UNICEF reports indicate Afghan children suffer more than those in any other country. A third of the babies do not live past five years. The latest information from the Associated Press indicates the Taliban’s power is spreading north to within 30 miles of Kabul. Anti-government militants operate in 30 percent of the country, and that number is growing. In an attempt to control the swelling insurgence, 20,000 to 30,000 U.S. troops will be sent to Afghanistan by this summer.

Omar is planning her next trip for fall. To the last day I breathe, I will continue my mother’s charity. She was my best friend,” she says. About the growing risk, Bennett comments, I can’t stop her from going, but the violence is random now and so pointless.”

Omar again: “Is it more dangerous?‚ Sure. But I could pass away here in a car wreck.” Echoes of her father’s end.

Is she a role model? Omar focuses her green eyes somewhere above the reporter’s head and replies, “I consider my parents the role models. Because of them I made it here today. They taught me right from wrong. And to speak my mind.

She’s in the right place.

The radio station where she spends every day selling ads is humming with political talk. Conservative and liberal banter is what keeps it alive. She’s back in America, where you’re not killed for criticizing your government or beaten by extremists for going to school; common in some parts of rural Afghanistan controlled by the Taliban. But she has seen good and bad in every society, including the one she’s chosen. She’s a dual-culture darling, a role model who delivers the best of both worlds.

DENVER – A dollar doesn’t go as far as it used to, but one American dollar can still help change a life in other parts of the world. It’s all a matter of perspective.

Hassina Omar lives in Denver. A trip to her native country of Afghanistan has changed the way she views her community, herself and the challenges we all face.

“I was 12 years old when the Russians invaded and my family fled. We only had the clothes on our backs. I have been grateful every day since for another chance,” said Omar.

Her father, Abdullah Omar, was the Minister of Health in Afghanistan before the invasion. He was later assassinated.

Hassina’s mother Khadija raised Hassina and her siblings in Colorado. Khadija never forgot all the other children in Afghanistan who have faced do much hardship since.

Khadija started the group Handicapped Children of Afghanistan to help raise money for those children.

Since her mother’s death, Hassina has continued her legacy.

“It is sad. Ninety percent of Afghanistan’s people are starving and 10 percent are making it,” said Omar. “Every day I just count my blessings. It just makes you want to go back and help.”

In October, she made her first trip back to Afghanistan in nearly 30 years to deliver donations from Coloradans. She bought and distributed 1,040 bags of rice. Even rice, at $40 a bag, is a luxury to many in a country where the average yearly income for a family is $300.

“The families are just fighting to survive,” said Omar.

Omar came back to Colorado with a new perspective of the current challenges we all face.

“We are in an economic crisis here today and it is difficult, but if you realize how much more we have here you see it differently,” she said. “We have electricity, we have running water and a roof over our heads. We are in a tough place right now but we are still lucky because we have food on our plates and we are not in a war zone.”

It’s all a matter of perspective.

Omar is now collecting donations for her next trip to Afghanistan next year.

You can make a donation at:
UMB Bank
c/o Handicapped Children of Afghanistan
707 Colorado Blvd.
Denver, CO 80206

(Copyright KUSA*TV. All rights reserved.)

from Clear Channel Local Spirit

Denver, CO – Hassina Omar, Clear Channel Radio Account Executive, recently returned from a trip to Afghanistan where she delivered over $42,000 in aid to the disabled children of Afghanistan. Omar is continuing the mission that her late mother, Khadija Omar started several years ago at age 74 by founding Handicapped Children of Afghanistan. The Omar family was determined to send wheelchairs and other needed supplies to innocent Afghan children who had been victims of land mines and other devices. Omar’s mother made two trips to the region to deliver supplies before her death at age 76.

Omar says, “I will continue my beloved parents mission of helping innocent children that have suffered during decades of war. My father had built hospitals in the most rural places in Afghanistan to help the less fortunate. We are truly blessed and I will remain humble and I will always be grateful for I am amongt the lucky and I have realized how unfortunate so many innocent people are. If I can make a small difference in their lives, I will continue to do so.”

Tax deductible donations may be sent to: Handicapped Children of Afghanistan, c/o UMB Bank, 707 Colorado Blvd., Denver, CO, 80206.

Clear Channel Employee Promotes Fundraiser for Disabled Children in Afghanistan

Denver, Colorado — Hassina Omar, a Clear Channel Communications employee in Denver, is working to raise money for disabled children in Afghanistan. All of the proceeds from a book that Hassina is promoting will be used to buy wheelchairs for needy Afghan children. Hassina and her group have raised $8,300 towards their goal of $10,000.

The cost of the book is $10.00 and you may contact Hassina Omar for further information or to purchase the book.

Contributed by: Joe Howard on 5/3/2006

The New Hope Presbyterian Church Men’s Group in Castle Rock is making sure medical, educational and other supplies get to those in need in Afghanistan.

Four shipments have completed the process and been delivered to the recipients in Afghanistan. Shipment 5 was delivered to Peterson AFB on April 5 and is in the Air Force transportation system on its way to Afghanistan.

The major portion of the fifth New Hope Men’s Fellowship shipment to Afghanistan was medical equipment. Denverite Hassina Omar, an associate of KOA radio, spearheaded a drive to raise money for the buying of wheelchairs to be sent to Afghanistan for the children who can’t get around, let alone to school, unless someone carries them. Many lost limbs stepping on buried land mines left by the warring parties. Now, there will be 187 who do it on their own. Sun Medical, Inc. in Longmont stepped up and provided them at cost with some extras freely given. Friends and persons throughout Colorado contributed money for the project.

The wheelchairs and other gifts poured in. This shipment (number 5) finally weighed in at 13,802 pounds, was packed in 436 boxes and valued at $144,319. It consisted of humanitarian items -187 wheelchairs for children with limbs lost, blankets, quilts, diet supplements to help halt rampant diarrhea and toys as well as equipment for schools including seeds for survival gardens, school books (preschool to university-level reading), fabric and sewing equipment for vocational training, papers and pencils, computers, printers, as well as clothes and shoes for all ages – boys, girls, men and women.

The excitement and pleasure experienced by NHMF upon receiving these great gifts soon turned to dismay when seeing how many and how much space was needed. NHMF had nowhere to store a shipment of this size. It had to find a place of shelter to store the material until the day they would be shipped to Peterson AFB. Finding this much warehouse space at an affordable price appeared to be futile.

A government-required content inspection was performed by a Denton official, Bill Ford. Once we received his approval, it was only a few weeks before Denton gave the Air Force authorization to receive and transport the shipment to Afghanistan. The Aerial Port organization at Peterson AFB calls for the shipment to be delivered there once an Air Force flight has been identified to more the material to from Peterson AFB on the first leg of its journey to Afghanistan.

Jon Larson of NHMF is in charge of a transport group for the Men’s Fellowship {NHMF}. Instead of lining up trucks and trailers from members as in the past like this picture shows, he did something great. He contacted the U.S. Army Reserves to see if they would help move shipment five.

Upon arrival of a shipment at Bagram AFB, Afghanistan, shipments are downloaded and then transported to A4T headquarters in Kabul. Often, the amount of goods to be transported has turned out to be more than A4T was able to transport as they have no trucks. The cost of hiring trucks and drivers is also prohibitive. However, U.S. Air Force personnel at Bagram have stepped up and provided transportation and security at no cost. How great that is and so much appreciated.

The U.S. Congress has authorized the Denton Program to transport privately donated humanitarian aid from individuals in the United States to selected countries oversees. The Denton Program is administered by the United States Agency for International Development.

The New Hope Presbyterian Church Men’s Group mission has taken form as a volunteer shipping agency for goods donated out of the Denver -Boulder area as well some from other parts of the U.S. Many groups and individuals want to send help, but have found this difficult to accomplish for reasons such as the cost of private shipping, the length of time it takes and the uncertainty of delivery. Consequently, upon learning of the Men’s Group’s service, they seek it out. Upon approval, their items are shipped to Castle Rock where they are inventoried, warehoused and then taken to Peterson AFB in Colorado Springs.

In order to participate in the USAID/Denton program there has to be an agency or a qualified individual in the recipient country, in this case Afghanistan, to receive and distribute the goods being shipped. Afghans For Tomorrow (A4T) a qualified organization doing relief, and rebuilding education in Afghanistan needed supplies donated in the United States to support their programs. Their membership mainly consists of native Afghanis dispersed throughout the world, principally because of wars being fought in their home country. A4T was formed by them as a way to rebuild their nation. Professor Wahid Omar, a professor at Colorado University In Boulder, is A4T’s Education Director. He travels between Denver and Kabul on a regular basis to oversee the program and assure that supplies and materials go to the intended organizations and individuals. A4T has a very effective and growing educational program in Afghanistan. A4T is a licensed program under the Afghan government with focus on educating girls ages up to age 20 in grades 1 through 7. Some boys with handicaps are included. (The state and religious schools teach the boys.) Upon completion, the students are eligible to matriculate to regular government schools.

Chairs and desks would be nice but until they arrive, if ever, the students are eager to get on with their schooling. Because of war and the Taliban, most girls were kept out of school for a period 20 years. Upon coming to school few could read or write, even at the most elementary level, but it soon became evident they are quick learners. The school’s have a two-part curriculum, one focuses on traditional subjects: math, reading, writing, etc., and the other on learning vocational skills. The latter is done to give the girls marketable skills such as embroidery and carpet weaving. Even a little bit of income by our standards, is found to be a great help to families, many of which are returned refugees and destitute often with one parent, the other having been lost in war.

A4T not only provides books and teachers but it also may include building the school itself as was done for a community called Sheik Yassin in the Province of Wardak. Now finished, it was built with help from the community and friends of A4T including a Denverite, Dr. George Nez. They were built from inexpensive materials and have proven to be strong and durable in all kinds of weather. Such a roof may be a great asset to third world countries worldwide where weather- and insect-proof roofs are rare. Some of the materials used were sent to Afghanistan through the Denton Program by New Hope Men’s Fellowship.

In addition to building schools it may also becomes necessary to provide a source of fresh water. In the rural villages, especially, obtaining clean water is a problem. Wells are often located near outhouses. Consequently, the water becomes polluted and causes various diseases including intestinal/diarrhea. This is especially serious amongst the children. “Sick kids don’t learn well” states a truism that has implications for students and for the success of the school’s program. Therefore A4T was happy to receive a NHMF shipment containing a gift of 50 water cones from a German company, named DISCOBED, which produces pure water from polluted water by means of evaporation. This is an answer to the problem until fresh water can be made available by other means-such as drilling deeper wells (if and when the drills can brought there) and/or aqueducts can be built bringing fresh water from the mountains. A4T and Engineers Without Borders are working on the problem.

Where does the aid come from?

A variety of organizations and people contribute aid including individuals, church groups, businesses, school classes and clubs. Girl Scout Troop # 11, located in Castle Pines North under the guidance of parent Wendy Storey. brought collected clothes, shoes and school supplies to the warehouse to be stored until shipment to Peterson AFB. For shipment 4 the Rotary Club of Denver Southeast provided 7,000 student backpacks filled with individual school supplies. Well able to handle small shipments of goods, NHMF found itself in a predicament when requests to ship large loads started coming in. The storage facility was simply too small for what was about to happen. Lori Rafferty and Jeffrey McGonegal (CFO) of AspenBio Pharma, Inc. in Castle Rock, donated warehouse storage space. We are truly grateful for their generosity.

Joe Howard is the NHMF’s Afghan Project director.

DENVER – Thousands of children have been seriously hurt in the violence in Afghanistan. Many children have lost their arms and legs in land mine explosions. A family in Denver is trying to help.

Khadija Omar, 74, and her daughter, Hassina, are raising money to buy wheelchairs for these children.

In June they delivered 70 of them to children in need. They are selling a book about the late Dr. Abdullah Omar, their husband and father. He was the minister of Public Health in Afghanistan. When the Russians invaded in the late 1970s he was taken political prisoner. The book is his memoir from his time in prison. It is $10.00 and all the proceeds go to the efforts to buy wheelchairs. If you are interested in buying a book or making donations you can send a check to:

Handicapped Children of Afghanistan

UMB Bank
707 Colorado Blvd.
Denver, CO 80206

by ARTHUR CHRENKOFF  . Monday, July 26, 2004

Afghans living in the West are likewise contributing to the reconstruction of their homeland.  Khadija Omar, 74, and her daughter, Hassina, of Denver, are meanwhile raising money to buy wheelchairs for thousands of Afghan children who have lost their limbs to land mines. In June they delivered 70 wheelchairs. .

Full Article Follows:

We are becoming hopeful day by day. We cannot develop our country, in which the fighting existed for 23 years, within two years. We had lots of problems in the past but they are being solved day by day.” So says Ghalib Shah Azizi, the head of Afghanistan’s Northern Chamber of Commerce.

If there is one place where good news is harder to come by than Iraq, it’s Afghanistan. For that we should partly blame our poor understanding of Afghan realities and our consequently unrealistic expectations. An isolated, poor, largely rural country with harsh landscapes and limited natural resources, Afghanistan has been for the past quarter century cursed with constant violence and oppression. Good news from Afghanistan will not in any foreseeable future mean mushrooming shopping malls and health clinics in every village. For the people who have suffered so much for so long, relative peace and absence of theocracy are a good start.

But, as is the case with reporting from Iraq, we shouldn’t let the media off the hook so easily, either. For all the fashionable talk about Iraq distracting the Bush Administration from the war on terror, it’s largely been the media that have ignored Afghanistan except for the occasional story about another skirmish with the Taliban remnants or the explosion in opium cultivation.

CBS’s veteran journalist Tom Fenton recently had this to say about the work of his media colleagues:
You know the old saying: No news is good news. But in the news business, it is just the opposite: Good news is no news–which is why you have been hearing so little from Afghanistan recently.
Iraq has been grabbing the headlines. Even the most confirmed optimist would find it hard to see a ray of light there today. But there is a growing body of evidence that things are beginning to improve in Afghanistan. To see why, you need to travel around Afghanistan a bit. That’s something the media find hard to do in Iraq now–many news crews rarely venture out of their hotels in Baghdad.

Not to mention in Kabul. If they did, they would arguably find more stories like these:
• Democracy. The Afghans eagerly await their chance to participate in free and democratic elections. These are people like the Qaimi family: “Olya Qaimi reached into her purse and proudly pulled out her ticket to Afghanistan’s future: a laminated card saying she is registered to vote in the nation’s first post-Taliban election. ‘The sun is rising in Afghanistan and we have a chance for a very good future,’ said Qaimi’s husband, Wasi, who has also registered to vote. ‘This time we will settle our struggle with politics in place of tanks and guns.’ ” The Qaimis and millions of others will get their chance in October, when after some inevitable delays they vote for president, and early next year, in the parliamentary elections. Even Afghans still living in Pakistan and Iran will be able to participate in the poll.

Women, in particular, are keen to seize the opportunities that until very recently were denied to them:
In spite of repeated warnings from the Taliban that women should neither register nor stand for office, 2.1 million women have now registered to vote, according to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, the body overseeing the process. This means that 38% of the current electorate are women, overturning predictions that few would register.
The Afghans are growing increasingly optimistic about the future of their country and approving of its current political direction. According to a poll conducted by Chaney Research, AC Nielsen India Org-Marg and the Afghan Media Resource Center for the Asia Foundation, President Hamid Karzai remains popular in Afghanistan, enjoying favorable opinion of 62% of those polled. The interim government’s performance gets a tick of approval from 57% of Afghans. In other results from the same poll, 64% of Afghans believe that their country is moving in the right direction (versus only 11% who think Afghanistan is moving in the wrong direction). More significantly, two-thirds of those polled support the United States, and only 11% still favor the Taliban. Eighty-one percent plan to vote in the coming elections, although a majority express concerns whether the poll will be completely fair.
Another recent poll, conducted by the Human Rights Research and Advocacy Consortium, paints a similar picture. Highlights:
Ninety-two percent of those polled now feel safe walking around their town or village; 83% feel more secure now than they felt three years ago with Taliban still in power; and 78% think that Afghanistan will be still more peaceful a year from now.
Ninety-four percent of respondents said it is now easier for their children to go to school then it was three years ago; 83% also think that health care has become more accessible.
“The level of awareness about the constitution-drafting process and the national elections was high–70% and 69% respectively.” Eighty-seven percent of those polled intend to vote in national elections.
Very importantly, 72% thought that “women should be involved in community decision making. When asked why, many responded either that it was their right under Islamic rule, or simply because they were humans who made up half of the population.”
In many ways, the public sentiment in Afghanistan remains significantly more positive and optimistic than in Iraq, which is surely a good sign for Afghanistan.
In the north of the country, too, optimism prevails about the future and the direction of the country. Ghalib Shah Azizi, whom I quoted at the start of the article, has this to say about the Afghan president: “I believe Hamed Karzai is an intelligent and proper person to be selected as a president for Afghanistan. He will be able to rule the government and ensure peace and stability in the country.”

Religious authorities too, throw their support behind the efforts to build the new Afghanistan. The Afghan Ulema Council, composed of the nation’s eminent religious scholars, has called on the Afghan people to give up their weapons and end “the rule of the gun,” which has spread across the country over a quarter of a century of conflict. The scholars also called on people to support the government, and on religious leaders in towns and villages to encourage Afghans to participate in the disarmament program.

• Society. Afghan refugees continue to vote with their feet: “The pace of return to Afghanistan remains strong, with thousands of refugees going back daily. So far this year, we’ve seen some 450,000 refugees repatriate.” Of those, more than 242,000 came from Iran, surpassing the previous source of returning refugees, Pakistan, with some 210,000 Afghans coming back from there since January. “In all, some 3.5 million Afghans have gone home since the UNHCR-organized return movements started in 2002, including more than two million from Pakistan, 900,000 from Iran and more than 440,000 displaced persons, while tens of thousands of other exiles have gone back on their own.” This is surely the greatest humanitarian good-news story of the last few decades.

For too long an international shame, the status of women in Afghanistan continues to improve: “Women’s role has changed, but burqas still prevail yet the status of women has improved since Taliban times. Women can walk around, unaccompanied by males, and they are allowed to work. They are free to roam in public without fear of being arrested or beaten for wearing high heels or seeming to walk in a provocative manner.” Women, for so long denied educational opportunities, are slowly winning their struggle for a better future:
Before workers could lay the first stone for a new school in this rural village, a deeper foundation took shape in a showdown with mullahs who insisted that no girls would set foot in the classrooms. “The easiest way to stop a school is to talk about girls,” said Greg Mortenson, a Minnesota native who has spent the past decade creating schools for girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan. “Culturally, women have been chattel here.”
Mortenson’s team won. The school is rising from a mountainside plot. Girls have been invited to attend when it opens this fall.

The power struggle over this eight-room school is being replayed village by village as official Afghanistan strives to liberate women who were prisoners in their own homes before the ouster of the Taliban in 2001. Although many remain sequestered by their families, the transitional government has set a top priority on getting them into classrooms, the workplace and the polling booths.

And the government seems to be succeeding: “Now, a good share of the women have shed the burqa the Taliban forced on them and instead wear scarves draped loosely around their faces. Many have gone back to work in the capital, Kabul. More than 2 million have registered to vote, and a few hold high-level government positions.”
The State Department’s recently released Report to Congress on U.S. Support for Afghan Women, Children, and Refugees shows that “reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan have inspired Afghan women to assume roles they never dreamed possible, in government, in politics, in the market place, in the police, in agriculture, in politics and in the media.” Mentioned in the report are the 187 new and ongoing humanitarian projects to assist Afghan women and children, including “some 24 job creation projects are teaching women how to make and market honey, textiles, rugs, clothing, pasta, cement blocks and countless other products.” Of 5.8 million people who have returned to schools this year, 35% are women. There is also a reminder of the new constitution, approved in January this year, which gives equal rights to Afghan men and women.

In this changing political and cultural climate, more women are becoming active in the civic life of Afghanistan. Read this profile of Malalai Joya, 25, who runs an orphanage and health clinic, and despite frequent threats to her life, continues her crusade against “warlords and criminals” who engage in rape and looting and are involved in drug trafficking across the country. Read also this story of Dr. Massouda Jalal, 41-year old lecturer in pediatric medicine at Kabul University who intends to run against Hamid Karzai for the presidency. This, from another profile: “Dr Jalal has addressed several election meetings in Kabul and also in other towns. ‘I usually get gatherings of about 500 to 1,000 people,’ she says. She has spoken at meetings in schools, universities, mosques and at other places where gatherings have often been organized by local women.”

And for the first time, female athletes will represent Afghanistan at the Olympic Games in Athens. Robina Muqimyar will run in the 100 meters, and Friba Rezihi will compete in judo.

After the puritanical Taliban rule, Afghanis are enjoying an entertainment explosion:
Najeeb said he’s doing a booming business selling DVDs in the centre of Kabul. “Every day I sell between 20 and 30 DVDs,” he said. “It’s a good business.”
With pirated copies of the latest releases readily available for as little as 50 afghanis, or about one US dollar, and inexpensive Chinese-made DVD players flooding the market at 40 dollars each, many see no reason to pay 19 afghanis, or about 35 cents, for a ticket to a cinema.

In addition, many shish-kebab restaurants and ice cream shops now play music videos and foreign films on DVD, giving new meaning to the idea of dinner and a movie. And unlike the films shown at both government and privately owned theatres, these films are uncensored and can be seen in the evenings.

Much is happening in the radio-centric Afghani society: “Radio Arman, the first independent station, was launched in 2003. Some conservatives were outraged that ‘young girls can be heard laughing on the air,’ according to the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders.” In addition there are now 14 government radio stations across Afghanistan. Thirty-seven percent of the population listens to the radio, and the U.S. Army last year distributed further 200,000 free radio sets. In a country that is still largely illiterate and lacking much basic infrastructure, radio remains the most useful and popular medium of education and raising political awareness.
With that in mind, and with a $2.5 million grant from the Italian government, “UNESCO has undertaken the project to completely upgrade and rehabilitate distance education services in Afghanistan.” As part of the work, the headquarters of the Educational Radio and Television Center of Afghanistan’s Ministry of Education have been fully renovated and is again operational after being completely destroyed during the war. Also, a new radio and TV program, supported by the UNESCO, will aim to reach out to those in remote areas, the sick, the infirm and the homebound, to ensure that educational opportunities are available to everyone in Afghanistan.

• Reconstruction. In a huge vote of confidence and a sign of optimism, the Afghan International Chamber of Commerce is formed in Kabul: “Three hundred people were expected; 2,500 showed up to vote. Obvious was their energy, their enthusiasm, their pride and their strength. They were creating one of those institutions that becomes a pillar of a free society, an economic power independent of the state.”

Trade between Afghanistan and Pakistan stood at just $20 million two years ago, but today it’s $700 million. Pakistani finance minister estimates that trade between the two countries will reach $1 billion later this year. Among signs of increased economic cooperation between Pakistan and Afghanistan: “the resumption of air flights, functioning of Pakistani banks in Afghanistan, contribution of Pakistani laborers and contractors in reconstruction of Afghanistan, construction of highways between the two countries.”

Western companies are slowly coming in too, like the Utah-based Internet business Overstock, which aims to bring the work of Afghan craftsmen, many of them handicapped in war, to the world market.

In banking news, “Afghanistan International Bank (AIB) was officially opened at a ceremony attended by shareholders, management, and about 150 guests from the international and local business and diplomatic communities in Kabul.”

In energy news, a Sofregaz-led consortium along with Energy Markets Ltd, financed by the Asian Development Bank, has just completed a Natural Gas Master Plan for Afghanistan. The plan, based in part by research conducted by the Soviet geologists during the occupation in the 1980s, aims to assess Afghanistan’s hydrocarbon reserves. Also, India has now “decided to construct a transmission line from Pul-e-Khumri to Kabul in Afghanistan for import of power from Uzbekistan.” Says the Indian energy minister: “The project will enhance India’s image as a major partner of Afghanistan and will introduce its capability in a new area of activity with potential future commercial spin offs.”

And as the country rebuilds, more opportunities open up for women: the Self-Employed Women’s Association, a nongovernmental organization that helps women gain economic independence and become self-reliant, is sending managment consultants, an insurance team, a research team and a rural development team to assist Afghan women in setting up microbusinesses. Some of the businesses to be introduced include craft making such as “miniature paintings, jewellery, carpet weaving, shoe-making and embroidery” as well as “food processing units making jams, pickles and cookies.” In a country where so many women have been widowed over the years of conflict, particular efforts are being made to help those with little other support:
Muslima cradles a scared chicken in her arms, tending to it with all the careful treatment due a precious object. She gently hands it to her teacher, Farima, who is lecturing a roomful of about 25 women on the best way to care for the bird. Farima’s students, all widows, are eagerly attentive.
Although long past school age, these women–most of whom have children of their own–have never been to school themselves. This dark, mud-walled room in Muslima’s home is their first classroom. They sit on the floor leaning against the walls, their faces lined in concentration. This poultry-raising class has the potential to guide them from unemployment to self-sufficiency.

To the Western eyes these seem like very small things, but they make a huge difference on the ground in Afghanistan.
And read this story about Ghulam Sediq Wardak, a 62-year-old semiliterate and self-taught Afghan genius with 341 inventions to his credit. His latest project, a car powered solely by solar energy. A few more people like Sediq, and Afghanistan’s future might be a lot brighter.

• Humanitarian aid. Several of Afghanistan’s regional neighbors contribute to the reconstruction effort. Turkey is sending Provincial Reconstruction Teams to the Takhar area; the teams consist of 200 people, including 80 military personnel, and are expected to stay on location for three to five years. Turkey has also recently renovated two hospitals seriously damaged during past conflicts, re-equipped and reopened them under the name of Turkish-Afghan Friendship Hospitals. Three hundred to 400 patients are being treated there every day. A third hospital is currently undergoing the same treatment, and mobile health clinics are starting to reach less accessible areas. Meanwhile, Indian Army’s Military Engineering Services are set to commence work in Afghanistan on construction of roads and housing within the next six months.

The Coalition forces, in addition to providing security, also work on other important projects. These are soldiers like Sgt. Gary Feldewerd and other Army reservists from Minnesota’s 367th Engineer Battalion who are involved in a titanic struggle to rid Afghanistan of the estimated 10 million land mines and other unexploded ordnance strewn across the country.

While governments continue to provide aid and assist in reconstruction, many NGOs and individuals also contribute on a grass-roots level. You might remember Djamshid Popal, a 9-year-old boy with a heart defect, whose story so touched a Canadian resident Saddique Khan that he personally financed bringing the child over for a life-saving operation. Unfortunately, Djamshid’s condition has proved to be more serious than previously thought; fortunately, the hospital itself is charging only half the usual fee, and a mystery benefactor has now stepped in to cover these costs. Read also this story of the efforts by a joint American-Jordanian medical specialist team to save the life of a little Afghan girl in a remote village.

John Dark, a student from Western High School in Parma, Mich., is trying to raise $30,000 by October to build a playground for Afghan kids at the Abdullah bin Omar School in the Paghman district, east of Kabul. “We were thinking about the basic needs of kids. . . . They’ve seen a war-torn country all their lives. We decided one of the basic needs is to learn how to be a kid,” says John. Read the whole story to see how you can help.

Meanwhile, Operation Shoe Fly continues with their great efforts to provide Afghan kids with much-needed shoes. And Care USA runs numerous aid projects on the ground in Afghanistan. Please visit both Web sites if you want to assist in their valuable projects. Give2Asia, a nonprofit organization founded by the Asia Foundation to promote philanthropy to Asia, has also been active in Afghanistan spending $500,000 to fund education opportunities for Afghan women (visit them here).

Afghans living in the West are likewise contributing to the reconstruction of their homeland. In the section of Fremont, Calif., known as “Little Kabul,” Humaira Ghilzai, president of the two-year-old Afghan Friends Network, now spends 20 hours a week on her project to establish a sister-city relationship between Hayward, “home to the Bay Area’s largest Afghan mosque,” and Ghazni, “a city of 35,000 residents, 70 miles southwest of Kabul”:
This month, she gave her frequent-flier miles to the governor of the province of Ghazni, Asadullah Khaled, so that he could fly to Hayward and tour a medical clinic, Tyrrell Elementary School and Cal State Hayward.
Children in Ghazni and Hayward have become pen pals, and a fund-raiser here netted enough money to buy 150 tables and chairs for a school in Ghazni. Hayward kids learned from the governor that few families in Ghazni have cars and that schools are bare of computers; sometimes a classroom is just children sitting under a tree.

Khadija Omar, 74, and her daughter, Hassina, of Denver, are meanwhile raising money to buy wheelchairs for thousands of Afghan children who have lost their limbs to land mines. In June they delivered 70 wheelchairs. Click on the link above to learn how you can contribute to their project.
• Security. For the coalition troops things seem a lot calmer than in Iraq. “People are more apprehensive about us in Iraq. . . . Here, they stare at us like we’re a circus act, but they accept us,” says Michael Englert, a Navy bomb-disposal expert who travels with the Marines to help detect roadside explosives and mines.

Meanwhile, the new U.S.-trained Afghan army continues to grow steadily, and it now numbers 13,000 men. In addition, to further military training objectives, “teams of officers from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and officers from the Office of Military Cooperation–Afghanistan are working closely with their Afghan counterparts in the country’s defense ministry to establish the National Military Academy of Afghanistan and model it after West Point.”

The crucial cooperation between Afghanistan, Pakistan and the coalition forces continues as military and diplomatic representatives meet to discuss the troubled border region between the two countries. Says Brig. Gen. Charles Jacoby, deputy commanding general, Combined Joint Task Force 76:
We will continue to work with the Afghanistan and Pakistan security forces in any way that serves our common objectives of defeating terrorism, denying sanctuary and strengthening cooperative security. . . . The coalition will continue its aggressive operations and reconstruction efforts on the Afghanistan side of the border as the Pakistan military continues its operations within its own borders.
The governments of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran are also signing a Memorandum of Understanding targeted at controlling the illegal drug trade across the region’s borders. And Britain is providing Afghanistan with £100 million to help combat drug cultivation and trafficking.
The U.N.-backed Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration program continues across the country. In the western Herat province, for example, another 750 ex-mudjahedin turned in 550 pieces of light and heavy arms to the government. In Herat itself, 2,000 fighters have laid down their weapons recently; Safiullah was one of them:
Safiullah dreams of being a farmer, but up until now the 22-year-old Afghan militiaman has only ever known a life of fighting. “I picked up my brother’s gun after he was killed by the Taliban. I had to finish the war he had begun,” he said, cradling an ancient AK-47. “I’m tired of carrying weapons. I want to go into civilian life, but I also want the government to help me.”
Now, at least, there is some hope that the cycle of violence will finally be broken for Safiullah and tens of thousands like him. Other ex-fighters are finding new work–dangerous work, but of immense importance to their country: “More than 700 such ex-combatants throughout the country have so far joined the United Nations Mine Action Centre for Afghanistan (UNMACA) project.”

Let’s never forget that none of this would have been possible without the U.S. and allies who 2 1/2 years ago helped to bring peace and freedom to the long-suffering people of Afghanistan. Let’s hope that, with the world’s help, the Afghans will now make the most of it.
Mr. Chrenkoff is an Australian blogger. The previous installment of “Good news From Afghanistan” as well as his “Good News From Iraq” series can be found at chrenkoff.blogspot.com.