Karima
Greetings,
I’m happy to report that 2010 is getting off to a busy start. Lots of fun updates to report, so pull up a chair and get comfortable for a few minutes!
First, I am very excited because the US/Afghan Junior Investor Program curriculum development is underway, and trust me…it is going to be very, very cool! Collecting video footage for this program was our original mission in Afghanistan, and since our return, the Cannon Falls social studies teachers and CCC team have been hard at work editing film, as well as developing worksheets and classroom activities. We are on track to begin the classroom pilot by early February, but in the meantime, here is a recent radio interview where I discuss the program in a little more detail:
KYMN Morning Show January 2010;
…and here is a fun 5-minute video montage Kelly made of the Afghan trip:
One of the most exciting parts of the curriculum is the fact that we are incorporating our little friend Karima into the mix. Remember Karima from Kabul Report: Day Eleven? The 14-year old firecracker who wants to become a TV reporter but isn’t able to go to school because her family is so dirt poor she has to stay home with her siblings so that her mom can work in a raisin factory to earn $5/day just to feed them?
That Karima?
Well, ever since the day I met her I have been racking my brain trying to come up with some creative way to get her back in school. Finally, it dawned on me that the reason we went to Kabul in the first place was to make a video to teach American kids about Afghan culture…so why don’t we just hire Karima to make video reports for our curriculum? Duh! My cold must have been worse than I thought. I must have been really sick to not have figured out something this obvious sooner.
The plan is to supplement Kelly’s amazing footage with Karima’s reports where she travels around Kabul experiencing culture and interviewing people to create a really kid-friendly curriculum. Even better, for ten video reports we can pay Karima enough money for her mom to retire from the raisin factory and send Karima back to school where she belongs.
Of course, this idea didn’t come to me until a month after Kelly and I got back to the US…so somehow I needed to find another brilliant videographer in Kabul who could work with us long distance. But I wasn’t worried. I know Najib, and Najib knows everyone. It only took a little networking…and a friend of a friend of a friend later, I was introduced to Elissa Bogos.
Score.
Elissa is an incredibly talented filmmaker from Philly who just happens to be freelancing in Kabul. Like Najib, she’s a real mover and shaker, so when she heard my idea she sprang into action right away. So far she and Karima have already shot two practice reports that are so adorable you can barely stand it. Check this one out:
http://www.vimeo.com/8719079 password: warzish
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Okay, now let’s talk about the HCMF project:
After a two-week extension from the original plan, on January 15 we finally had to wind things down, but get this: our
IDP camp
little HCMF project raised enough money to take 386 children to the hospital for medical treatment (including paying for an umbilical hernia operation and a bladder stone operation for two of the kids) AND purchase 150 sets of warm clothes, shoes and malnutrition kits. Najib managed to find a free ambulance-van that they could use for a few days to transport about 25 kids at a time…and even baby Rahim started walking again. I am in awe of what miracles went down in only six weeks.
Coincidentally, in the final days of HCMF, one of the camp elders, Haji Tor Jan, suddenly fell very ill and needed an emergency operation. Even though our fund was just for children, Najib and I decided that the Charahee Qambar Camp people desperately need the elders to watch out for them so we made a special exception and got him under the knife right away. By this time, all the other camp elders were just so blown away by everything that had been done for them that they decided to get together and write a letter expressing their gratitude. The scanned letter is attached, but the translation is as follows:
Letter from elders
We, the Charahe Qambar IDP camp people, wish to say our Salams, prayers and good wishes to all of you Americans.Thanks very much to Miss Dina and her colleagues who helped and treated our children, and who operated on our elder, Haji Tor Jan. Thank you very much for the materials (nutrition kits, clothes and shoes) you helped buy for our children. We greatly appreciate this. We are very obliged and war-affected people, and we need your help a lot. We hope you can continue to help us somehow.
Thank you very much again. With the hope of your help,
Mira jan, Haji Tor jan, Esmatullah, Maso Khan and Mohammad khan
(fyi- the thumbprints at the bottom are by the elders who don’t read or write)
I think this might be the coolest letter I have ever received, and I am truly humbled by it (sniff), mostly because the day I first met these people they had no hope whatsoever. They had lost everything. But today they have a new perspective on life, and I am so incredibly proud of everyone in both countries who jumped in to help with whatever resources they had to rally for the cause. I truly believe this whole experience was a miracle designed to show us that even though we are all overwhelmed by eight years of war, there are actually things that everyday civilians (both in the US and Afghanistan) can do to help create peace.
So what are some more of these things? Let’s talk about the US/Afghan Senior Investor Program.
As we already know, in order for these kids to stay healthy we need to get their parents back to work so they can take
care of their own families. Starting February 1st, A4T will be setting up the first vocational training project: briquette production. Briquettes, as I mentioned, are a unique fuel source for Afghans made from scrap paper, water, leaves and sawdust. They cost virtually nothing in materials, they are environmentally friendly, inexpensive to buy, and best of all….due to the cold weather, the demand is always greater than the supply. Could any business model be more beautiful?
Now here’s the really fun part: I am recruiting six American business people to sponsor and mentor the first six Afghan briquette-makers in a groundbreaking, interactive project; one that will build bridges like the world has never seen before! (I call it the US/Afghan Senior Investor Program because it models the verison we are doing with the kids in Cannon Falls and Khost) Participating Americans and Afghans will communicate bi-weekly on the training and business launch process, share personal stories of encouragement and support, stories of success and failure (remember your biggest failure that ended up teaching you the most?), personal philosophies, etc. so they can address the challenges of this unique business-building experience together.
Thanks to my new BFF, Elissa Bogos, who will be going to the camp regularly and creating video reports, these select American sponsor/participants can actually see the whole project develop in real time, as well as communicate with their Afghan counterparts. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to personally connect with the people they are helping, see exactly where their money is going and the impact that it is making, and learn a lot about Afghanistan in the process. (It would also make a powerful experience for participants to share with their children or grandchildren.)
Likewise, it is a once in a lifetime opportunity for the Afghans to learn about the their new American friends, and discover the fact that we are just as human as they are…a revelation that has the potential to make giant leaps and bounds towards bringing peace to a war-affected society.
Elissa will track the progress and interactions of these American and Afghan teams for several months, at which time she will compile a documentary of this amazing experience. I already had an hour long interview with a reporter from a national magazine who is interested in covering the story. (I will tell you who it is if we secure the story!)
We already got the green light from the Afghan government, so as soon as all the sponsors are on board, the training center will begin in as little as two weeks.
So that’s the mid-January report…but stay tuned for the next action-packed adventure!
Dina
P.S. Okay I PROMISE this is the last news report on this, but FOX did a follow-up story this past week. It’s got a few fun updates…and you can see me as a blonde once again. It’s good to be back.
http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpp/news/afgahn-rescue-january-21-2010