|
Educating Girls Takes Precedent in Afghanistan
by Chip Duncan
When protests broke out in Afghanistan recently
over the questionable reporting of Quran abuse at the US base
at Guantanamo, I could imagine more than just the faces of
angry young men burning American flags. I could see their
families - women and children suffering in the impoverished
villages these same men go home to each night.
I'm just like most people. I see the images
and read the words, but it's often little more than information.
The details are lost because people and events are so rarely
humanized. We learn from walking in another's shoes, but the
shoes of an Afghan or Iraqi civilian so rarely seem to fit
the average American.
That changed for me in late April when I joined
with actor Sir Ben Kingsley on a goodwill mission to Afghanistan.
As global ambassadors for the international relief agency
Save the Children, our job was to witness, to experience and
to report.
As we flew north in a small prop plane from
the Afghan capital of Kabul to the city of Maimana, I admit
that my thoughts had more to do with Osama bin Laden than
the children we were there to visit. I couldn't get over how
vast and rugged the Hindu Kush mountains were. He could be
anywhere, I thought, absolutely anywhere.
Though villages hugged each valley and waterway,
there were few roads, and most were barely passable. Many
of the villages are snowed in during winter, making transportation
on anything but foot nearly impossible. In the deserts further
north, food and water are scarce and most who travel do it
on the backs of horses or camels.
After our brief flight, local workers from
Save the Children greeted us on the gravel runway. We spent
an hour at a security briefing, then began our journey. During
the next week, we covered nearly a thousand kilometers in
a caravan of Toyota 4x4s. The roads varied from single lane
asphalt to sand two tracks and, for miles at a time, riverbeds.
Some were bone dry. Others nearly swallowed our vehicles.
I've traveled and photographed throughout
the developing world, but little compares with Afghanistan.
The charming, gracious and hopeful people we met were a sharp
contrast to their war-ravaged countryside.
Imagine three decades of warfare - an entire
generation of fighting that included Soviet occupation and
the long civil war between the Mujahadeen, the Taliban, and
various warlords whose loyalties change quickly, often based
on who's paying and who's not.
During our short visit, we were exposed to
the trials of war, and to the humanity and perseverance it
can inspire. At a dinner in Mazar-i-Sharif, I sat next to
an Afghan worker for Save the Children. While the group ate
and chatted, he shared his story with me, mostly in a pained
whisper.
He had lost three brothers during the civil
war. With the city in virtual lockdown due to days of street
fighting between the Mujahadeen and the Taliban, he'd run
out of food for his children. He knew if he went to the market
alone, he'd be killed. So he did what may seem unthinkable,
he took his 3-year-old daughter with him in his arms. Together,
he thought, they'd be safe. There were some morals, he said,
even in war. No one wanted to shoot a young girl. He was able
to save his daughter's life because she saved his.
Since November, 2001 the war has changed dramatically.
Following the invasion in pursuit of bin Laden, al Qaeda and
leaders of the Taliban government, the US has scaled back
considerably. Today, approximately 20,000 US soldiers lead
the coalition forces, mostly in fighting to the south and
east of Kabul along the Pakistani border.
Despite the distances we covered and the time
we spent in Kabul, we never saw a single American serviceman.
Considering we were traveling with a non-profit relief agency
and without weapons or armed security, it was probably for
the best.
But the remnants of fighting are everywhere
- from bombed out buildings to the thousands of scattered
tanks and troop carriers lining the roads. There's a resiliency
that's apparent on the faces of the adults, and the children
are just that, children. We saw them playing in the burned
out shells of helicopters and tanks, running after bandaged
soccer balls, and bouncing along potholed roads on rickety
bicycles welded together with an array of used parts.
The danger, however, is everywhere. The 2005
State of the World's Mothers Report recently issued by Save
the Children lists Afghanistan as the most dangerous country
in the world for a child. Chasing a soccer ball can, literally,
kill a child.
A generation of war left behind an estimated
five to seven million land mines - among the most of any nation
in the world. There are mines from the Soviets, mines from
the Mujahadeen, mines from the Taliban, and mines from coalition
forces. The fields and villages are also full of unexploded
ordinance, much of it from coalition forces.
The challenge of land mines may be even more
insidious than the numbers indicate. Afghanistan suffers from
a combination of spring storms and flooding. With each rapid
snowmelt, a phenomenon known as "mine migration"
happens as mines are literally washed randomly from place
to place. International efforts to remove land mines are underway,
but mine migration heightens the challenge.
During our visit, security briefings focused
on cultural protocol, safe houses, and overnight reports of
fighting. Every briefing reinforced the idea that walking
off the road - any road - could result in injury or death
from land mines. Whether walking home from school, herding
livestock, or working in the fields, children are at constant
risk.
Still, landmines represent only a fraction
of the risk to children. Poor health care, malnutrition, a
shortage of clean water, lack of immunizations and access
to education further the challenge. For every 1000 Afghan
children born, 165 die within the first year. By comparison,
fewer than 7 out of 1000 children born in the United States
die within the first year. The maternal mortality rate is
also among the world's worst - 1600 women die out of every
100,000 live births.
Making it through the first year of life doesn't
necessarily improve the odds of survival for a child. Save
the Children estimates that 1 out of 4 Afghan children dies
before reaching age 5, usually from a preventable disease.
Globally, nearly 30,000 children under age 5 die each day,
often from preventable or treatable causes such as malnutrition
and diarrhea due to unsafe water. In Afghanistan, however,
deaths from HIV-AIDS and malaria, two diseases that plague
much of sub-Saharan Africa and southeast Asia, are less likely
killers. In other words, many of the causes of death of an
Afghan child are more easily preventable.
Staggering though the statistics can be, there
is hope - for Afghanistan and for much of the developing world.
And that hope lies in the education of girls.
There are few if any governmental regimes
that have treated women worse than the Taliban did from 1996
through 2001. Women were not just dominated by men, they were
frequently tortured and killed for minor infractions. Wearing
nail polish could result in having toes cut off. Showing up
in public without wearing the burka could result in having
a nose sliced flat against the face. A woman accused of adultery
was punished by death, usually by stoning in a public place
(a practice that continues in parts of rural Afghanistan even
after the fall of the Taliban).
Some of the practices affecting women continue
today, including multiple and arranged marriages, often involving
girls as young as 13.
Slowly, however, after a lifestyle molded
by the constant insecurity of war and poverty, communities
are beginning to embrace change. Our small delegation was
witness to what many believe represents Afghanistan's greatest
hope for the future.
On a Saturday morning in a village roughly
50 kilometers north of Kabul, we witnessed the re-opening
of a village school closed by the Taliban. Hundreds of children
were entering classes, and for the girls, it was their first
day of school … ever. A large delegation of Afghan men
was there for the opening ceremony. The only adult women in
attendance were the workers from Save the Children, women
who had risked their lives providing aid during the reign
of the Taliban.
A local politician spoke, hammering his fist
and raising his voice at all the key moments. A school administrator
spoke, smiling his gentle smile. And then, at a podium nearly
twice her size, 12-year-old Roshan, whose name means "light,"
read a speech on behalf of all the young female students.
She was going to school. And though she didn't know it, she
was changing Afghanistan.
In the village of Belcheragh in the Faryab
province, we watched Save the Children staff educating adults
and children in basic health care and personal hygiene. We
attended a school built with Save the Children's resources
that included scores of girls attending classes for the first
time. And in a village north of Mazar-i-Sharif, we photographed
the first class of young women being trained as community
midwives, the first step in an effort to reduce the high maternal
death rate.
The seemingly insurmountable challenges in
Afghanistan do have solutions. Educating women and especially
girls paves the way. From South Korea to Costa Rica to Kenya,
it's been proven that the more education girls receive, the
more likely it is that they'll grow to be mothers who are
healthy and empowered. Educated girls are more likely to postpone
marriage and pregnancy until they're able to handle both with
resources and maturity. Educated girls opt to have fewer children
and, when they do have children, they're more likely to be
resourceful in providing food and education for their own
kids.
Not long after I left Afghanistan, an international
aid worker for CARE was kidnapped from her car in Kabul and
is being held for ransom. An internet café near the
Save the Children compound was bombed, leaving two dead. During
the past three weeks, the Kabul field office of Save the Children
reports that 14 Afghan workers for various charitable groups
have been killed in fighting.
The risk to international aid workers is extraordinary.
They work in remote areas without security or weapons. The
faces of the dying are everywhere. In Afghanistan, Sudan,
Mali, Rwanda, Bolivia and a score of developing nations, Save
the Children, CARE,
Doctors
Without Borders and hundreds of non-governmental organizations
work every day to provide food, health care, clean water and
immunizations for children and adults. But it is not a thankless
task. Change is happening. With action and commitment to the
empowerment of girls and women everywhere, the world of the
future will be rich in rewards.
#####
Click
here for more information on Save The Children
Click here to view Afghanistan gallery
The following materials are copyrighted
by The Duncan Group. Any unauthorized use or printing of these
documents is a violation of applicable laws. This material
may not be downloaded, printed or used in any way without
the written authorization and approval of The Duncan Group,
Inc. of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. For more information please
contact Bob@DuncanEntertainment.com.
|
