Sughara was standing on the steps of her small mud house, which was framed by green fields and towering mountain peaks in Ghor province in Afghanistan.
As we approached, I noticed that she was busily spinning wool from one of her wrists. She stopped for a moment to give us a huge smile and to shake our hands, before inviting us into her home.
Sughara began to spin again as she shared her life story: “I’m married with eight children. I guess that I’m 30 years old, but I’m not sure.
“My husband used to be a farmer, but he was injured and is now paralysed so he’s unable to work. We’ve lived in Narmata village in Ghor Province for 15 years but the land you see outside belongs to other people.
“We have nothing because we used to live in Uruzgan Province but had to leave during the Soviet invasion, and are now landless…” Sughara paused for a while, visibly affected by the memory of her old home.
After a moment, she continued to speak: “I spin wool and graze other family’s animals for money but it doesn’t bring in very much. Sometimes not even enough to buy flour to feed my children. It takes me four days to spin one kilogram of wool, which earns me Afs 40 (approx $1). This winter we had nothing – not even rice. My children were close to dying. But two months ago CRS gave me some food vouchers…which have lasted until now.”
With CAFOD’s help, CRS has been able to provide more than 200 vulnerable families with vouchers which they exchanged for food and fuel in order to make it through the ‘hunger season’. Handouts alone are not the answer to chronic food insecurity, and CRS is also addressing the underlying causes of poverty, by helping people to receive education and to earn a living.
It was then that I finally understood the true meaning of war in Afghanistan – that it isn’t just about the present conflict, but decades upon decades of fighting and heart-ache.
Exact data is hard to come by, but according to government statistics, only 8 per cent of people in Ghor have access to safe drinking water, 86 per cent of families are further than an hour away from their nearest health facility or have no access at all, and more than half of the population lives below the national poverty line.
Meeting basic needs is not easy at the best of times. In order to cope, many struggling families had to borrow money or go into debt with local storekeepers, leave their homes in search of jobs, resort to selling precious livestock, or worse still, their daughters.
Over half of all girls in Afghanistan are married before the age of 18, and in a culture where the groom’s family are expected to pay a reverse dowry of up to $1,500, girls as young as twelve may be sold into marriage to prevent a family from starving.
Our partner, Catholic Relief Service (CRS) found that 37 per cent of all households they surveyed regularly spent entire days without eating, 96 per cent of families were regularly buying food on credit and 53 per cent of households no longer had anything left to sell in order to buy food.
The needs and voices of millions of ordinary Afghan men, women and children are rarely heard in the drama of war reporting. Time and time again we were moved by the incredible hospitality that we received, and impressed by the courage and conviction of many of the Afghan staff that we met. Several had grown up as refugees in Pakistan but had returned to Afghanistan as adults because they wanted to contribute to its development.
What this trip re-enforced to me was the way in which poor, peaceful Provinces are being ignored. The majority of the international community’s funding for international development work in Afghanistan is being channelled into areas of insecurity, such as Helmand, where international troops are based, giving the impression that violence instead of peace is being rewarded.
Some Military Commanders have been given more money to spend on ‘development’ projects than entire Afghan Government departments.
My lasting impression was not that of destruction but potential, not of hostility but hospitality. Of ordinary people trying to survive in an extra-ordinary environment.
As Dr Aziz from a local charity told me with a smile: “It’s not just about one person, it’s about twenty nine million humans. We all live here with hopes and fears.”
Read more about our work in Afghanistan >>
Posted by LucyM
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is this charity work available at my parish?
Hi there,
you can support CAFOD’s work by donating and getting involved in our campaigns at http://www.cafod.org.uk/get-involved. To find out where CAFOD works in the UK, check out http://www.cafod.org.uk/uk. Thanks for your interest!