War Kids Relief

On February 19, students in the Cannon Falls, Minnesota, 6th grade social studies classes began week one of WKR’s ten-week pilot program on Afghanistan. Session one presented a cultural overview of Afghanistan where kids learned interesting cultural facts, watched a video montage of modern life in Kabul, and had fun participating in a cross-cultural communication activity that taught them how to avoid making  judgements about other cultural groups.

The highlight of the session, however, was when the students watched the first video featuring Karima. Karima is a 14-year old girl living in Kabul who Dina met during her trip there in December. Karima expressed her dream of becoming a TV reporter when she grows up, so Dina hired her to make video lessons for the pilot project. Each week she will introduce the American kids to a new and interesting aspect of Afghan culture.

“Every kids eyes were glued to the screen as they heard Karima tell her story,” said Dina. “They really related to her as a peer, a friend…which was our goal. After it was over, they all commented on how easy their lives are as Americans, how strong and brave Karima is, and how often they take their education for granted.”

We’re off to a great start!

To watch Karima’s first video please go to:

http://www.vimeo.com/8646811

password: maktab

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:

KYMN Radio January 2010 

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
 
—
 
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

Dina Fesler recently met with Jeff Johnson of KYMN radio and gave her first interview on the Afghanistan trip, as well as updates on War Kids Relief’s Afghan projects.

To listen, click here: http://kymnradio.net/2010/01/04/morning-show-jeff-johnson-dina-fesler-jan-4-2010/

To watch a five-minute video montage of the trip, click here: KYMN Radio January 2010

Greetings,
 
Rahim, Sahebo, Fatima, Qadir, Marai, Ajabhul, Zib, Frishta, Sawid, Qandagha, Rohina, Suirullah, Shirhd, Piroz, Ayob, Nuzia, Pulwasha, Hayutullah, Khomari, Faizullah, Omarkhan, Nazia, Saifulla, Fatima and Ajabhul.

Baby Rahim getting stronger

These are the first 25 kids living in the Charahee Qambar IDP camp who have received urgently needed hospital treatment as a direct result of donations made to our little Helmand Children’s Medical Fund. And as I write this report, exactly 30 days since we began this month-long grass roots effort, 151 additional children have been taken to Kabul children’s hospitals for treatment. According to my calculations, that makes 176 kids …and the number continues to grow every day!
 
Isn’t that incredible!!?!?
 
And if that wasn’t cool enough, donations coming from all over the world have helped us purchase (so far):
-96 pairs of shoes
-96 sets of warm clothes
-150 malnutrition kits including a 3-week supply of milk, sugar, high protein biscuits, soap and a toothbrush that are given to each child upon discharge from the hospital. (These kits were my colleague Najib’s brilliant idea, and he even sourced all the items in a wholesale market for maximum value. Najib is the man.)

New warm coats, pants and shoes

But just as important as the tangible benefits that this effort has created, it is the intangible benefits that are opening up paths to some serious peace-building. Think about it, just one month ago the people living in this camp told me how US bombs tore apart their lives and forced them into this squalid camp. They couldn’t imagine that anyone on this side of the world even knew that they existed, let alone cared about helping them.  But now they know we DO care, and they are aware that Americans in every corner of the US, as well as in Singapore, Finland, Switzerland, and Hong Kong (thanks CNN!!!) have reached out in support of their families.
 
This is major-big deal when you consider that Afghanistan is an extremely clan-oriented society, which means that for every child saved there are approximately 50 relatives who are directly touched by this show of support. (Unfortunately, the same formula can be applied to every civilian casualty or displaced Afghan…which not only works against our military efforts, but actually helps strengthen the Taliban who exploit these peoples’ hardships.)  Whether these relatives are living in the camp or back in Helmand, the word is out on what we are doing! According to my math (yikes), that’s nearly 9,000 Afghans who have seen the generous spirit of Americans…and if the ripple-effect keeps rippling, there is no telling how far this effort can go towards promoting peace. 

Hospital waiting room

As for the HCMF, Najib and Wasim continue their daily trips from the camp to the hospital, and they estimate that there are approximately 50 more kids that need hospital treatment. They believe they will be able to screen and treat the rest of the sick children at the camp with the drugs available through the on-site health tent. And if donations keep up, we should be able to provide warm clothing for every child who needs them as well. That means that by mid-January, we will have helped every sick child in the camp. Wow! Not bad for a five-week effort, I say! However, before we break out the champagne and start celebrating, we need to make sure that this effort amounts to something long term. Winter has just begun and the mud camp is now covered in snow and ice. Even with warm clothes, we need to prevent these newly-healthy kids from backsliding into sickness again.
 
So where do we go from here, you ask?
 
Well, for the past month Najib and I have been networking maniacs (I thought I was good, but I have definitely met my match with this guy), leveraging every resource we could come up with to put together a pretty amazing game plan. In fact, this is like the tri-fecta of game plans, so you might want to sit down while you read this next part:
 
Okay, first, we have formed a partnership with an organization called Afghans 4 Tomorrow/A4T (www.afghans4tomorrow.com), a highly respected, US-based nonprofit that focuses on the reconstruction and development of Afghanistan. (A4T established one of the girl’s schools that we visited on our trip, they run the A4T guesthouse we stayed at, and both Najib and Santwana Dasgupta, PECA’s executive director and our partner in the Junior Investor program, are on the A4T board.)
 
Starting in January, A4T is going to set up shop in the IDP camp to not only continue our health care work, but to provide education for the children and create business opportunities for their parents, as well. Here’s how:
 
Health- A4T is joining forces with SHARDO, the camp health tent provider I told you about (Kabul Report: Day Seven) to strengthen their existing effort, as well as continue to provide the supplemental support we have been giving them for the past month: assessing the children, providing hospitalization and transportation for serious cases, and malnutrition kits. There’s strength in numbers, they say.
 
Education- Remember Aschiana from Kabul Report: Day Eleven? The organization that provides schooling to Kabul’s many street children?  A4T is joining forces with them, as well, to develop a camp school that will be able to educate the thousands of children there who are currently out of school.
 
Business- A4T will be setting up a vocational training operation in the camp that will help IDP parents learn how to start low-tech businesses like bicycle repair and briquette making (an inexpensive brick-like heat source for wood stoves made from paper scraps, water and wood shavings) to better provide for their families during their displacement. Meanwhile, here in Minnesota I am rounding up civic-minded entrepreneurs that want to help finance the first 50 upstart businesses, as well as provide mentorship. It will be like the micro-credit concept, but the return on investment will be in the form of monthly progress reports coming from each Afghan businessperson…and the realization that entrepreneurs on both sides are using their skills to create amazing change in the world! (Just like our Junior Investor program…but for adults!)
 
As I mentioned before, taking advantage of poverty is one of the greatest ways the Taliban is able to gain new recruits, so this strategy is highly effective on the peace-building front. But the main reason that we are able to do this isn’t because just we want to, or because it seems like a good idea. It is because every day for a month we demonstrated to the camp elders that we truly care about them. We built the solid relationships that are necessary to do any sort of business in Afghanistan…and anyone who has ever read Three Cups of Tea knows the importance of building relationships first. “The first cup of tea you share with us, you are a stranger. The second cup, you are a friend. The third cup, you become family—and for our families we are willing to do anything, even die.” According to Najib’s last report on how happy they camp elders are about HCMF, we just had our proverbial “third cup of tea.”
 
So that’s my big news! Starting in 2010, all these players (CCC, A4T, Aschiana, SHARDO and American entrepreneurs) are coming together to create a very exciting, holistic approach to supporting Afghanistan’s future.
 
Synergy rocks.
 
I will provide regular updates on how all these projects are taking shape as we go along…but the one thing still on everyone’s mind is how is baby Rahim doing??? Well, Najib told me that yesterday Rahim finally left the malnutrition center at the hospital and returned to his family, where he had a very happy reunion…especially with his mom who got to hold him for the first time in a month. So cool.
 
So that’s my report for today, but here’s to a new year filled with continued magic and miracles for Rahim’s family, for all the families in the Charahee Qambar camp, and for your family, too!
 
Happy New Year!
 
Dina
 
P.S. In order to provide warm clothing and shoes for every camp child, we are going to keep the HCMF fund open until January 15. If you would like to donate please go to www.warkidsrelief.org/donate