Afghanistan, the forgotten project

Under the Taliban regime, Afghanistan was an extremely repressive regime, especially to the women of the country.  They could not work in numerous occupations, if at all and were forced to wear the burqa.  The new government under President Hamid Karzai has made sure that women play a role in shaping the country’s future.  Women have been named to cabinet posts and there are a guaranteed 68 seats in the legislature for women, an impossibility under the Taliban.  Karzai named Suhaila Seddiqi the minister of health when he first took office as the interim president in 2001.  Habiba Sarobi became the country’s first female provincial governor after declining an ambassadorial position.

Not only are women experiencing more freedom, but so is the rest of Afghan society.  Technology and Western products are free to flourish openly.  Items that were banned under the Taliban, such as video games, music and television are openly displayed.  As the Afghan people are experiencing their civil rights for the first time, global assistance is ensuring that they will keep them for a long time.

The steady stream of aid is continuing to pour into Afghanistan.  The United Statesannounced that it will be sending $3.2 billion in 2006 to the country with nearly $2.5 billion of it dedicated to Afghanistan’s infant army and police force.  The rest will be used in reconstruction, democratic promotion and humanitarian relief.^[iv]  Aid is being carried out through the work of American and allied troops as well as the plethora of NGOs that have set up programs in the country.  Despite the dangerous situation in the country and the report of numerous aid workers being killed or threatened, most aid agencies are pressing on and showing remarkable courage by doing so.  An UN spokesman Aleem Siddique announced that staff will increase for UNICEF and UN Habitat in the midst of increased violence in the country.^[v]  There is one large source of aid that is more readily defended.

One of the chief providers of immediate aid to the Afghans is the U.S. military.  Providing basic needs, such as food, medical care and shelter is one of the missions of the Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRT), set up by theU.S.and implemented by NATO to rebuild the country.  In a nation like Afghanistan, where the terrain and climate is often not conducive to growing crops and where villages are often isolated in secluded valleys, it is important to the reconstruction effort that these communities are reached.

Handing out food and other supplies in these types of condition are rough, even without the threat of attack.  Roads are in poor condition and intersect treacherous passes.  In July, a PRT mission to Dara in the Panjshir Province delivered much needed foodstuff which was distributed to families in a 30-kilometer radius by locals.  The PRT used 5-ton trucks that were “as wide as the road in some places.”^[vi]  Other U.S. convoys use planes instead to deliver the cargo, such as a mission in March by the 10^th Mountain Division’s 1^st Platoon to the village of Guyan where a C-130 dropped off crates of humanitarian supplies while representatives from the U.S. met with local leaders to discuss planned improvements in the area.^[vii]

The U.S. military are not the only Americans contributing to the reconstruction of Afghanistan.  Ordinary citizens are sending over donations of school supplies and other products badly needed by the impoverished Afghan people.  In July, Afghanistan’s army and police accepted a gift of 2,050 school supplies from families in New Yorkand Louisiana.^[viii]  At Bagram Airfield, medic Jacob Birkholz realized that they must be something better than giving out candy to the children he visits and came up with the idea of old shoes.  His mother organized a drive and fundraiser back in the U.S. and started to send shipments of shoes to him.  Then, he distributed the shoes to needy families at a local hospital.^[ix]  The charity of the American people not only aids the relief efforts of the military and NGOs, but also improves the American reputation overseas.  Along with these much needed supplies, the Afghan people are also receiving the medical attention they require and have been lacking in the past.