From the Worldwide Faith News archives www.wfn.org


[CWS] As questions about aid continue, working small has its benefits


From George Conklin <gconklin@igc.org>
Date Mon, 07 Jan 2008 11:54:22 -0500

As questions about aid continue, working small has its benefits

December 14, 2007

By Chris Herlinger, Church World Service

KABUL, Afghanistan - Asking whether humanitarian assistance by international agencies like Church World Service is making a difference cannot be separated from a larger question: what is the role of such groups in a country where there is a U.S. and NATO military presence?

The answers supplied by both Afghans themselves and by international aid workers cannot be boiled down simply.

On the one hand, Afghans -- with harsh memories of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan during the 1980s -- are understandably uncomfortable with the idea of foreign troops once again in their country.

At the same time, some Afghans -- at least those who loath the Taliban -- say a sizable portion of the country supports the presence of U.S. and NATO troops as a temporary necessity because such troops are offering, the argument goes, the only real security presence.

Yet the same Afghans also speak with alarm about U.S. troops breaking Afghan cultural decorum -- entering homes without a clear invitation to do so is a particular and oft-repeated taboo -- and there is also shaking of heads when the stories of civilian deaths by U.S. and NATO aerial bombings are repeated.

One humanitarian worker with wide experience in the region said he believes the U.S. and NATO military presence has introduced new pain and sufferings to one of the world's poorest countries, worsening what he calls the most complex man-made disaster today.

Afghanistan, he said, has become just one example where "the international community, without understanding the context and history, has once again gone wrong."

And yet, there is clear support for continued international assistance in helping rebuild Afghanistan -- and it is here that the work of CWS and other agencies is clearly welcome. This is particularly the case when meeting Afghans in their 40s and 50s like Naseer Ah Popal, who remember an era in the 1960s and 1970s when most of the Americans in Afghanistan were not soldiers but engineers and teachers.

Ah Popal, the director of the social protection division of the Afghan Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation & Development, a government body that has worked with CWS, said that today, by contrast, "Now there are Americans with guns and that doesn't always create a good image.

One reason the work of CWS and other humanitarian agencies is respected among Afghans is the foundational issue of solidarity -- something not long forgotten in a country which was largely ignored by the international community during the 1990s. (CWS's work continued in Afghanistan during that time.)

"I am thankful for those people who live far from us," Ah Popal said, "and have a good life and haven't forgotten the Afghan people."

Another issue is the way CWS works -- with local partners at the grassroots, doing small-scale work that tries to address the problem of Afghan insecurity in collaboration with local communities.

"The Church World Service approach is good -- it's like ours," said Esmatullah Haidary, the deputy managing director of the Afghan Development Association (ADA), one of CWS's partners. "It's local and cost-effective."

"We live like (every-day) Afghans," he said.

That a local partner carries out the work of relief is no small matter: A recent report by Oxfam Great Britain criticized what it said was often ineffective or inefficient expenditures in the more than $15 billion of international aid that has been sent to Afghanistan since 2001.

Zahra

Zahra, a quiet but articulate 12-year-old whose hope is that peace will someday come to Afghanistan so she can pursue her dream of becoming a teacher. She attends the children's rehabilitation center - a joint project of CWS and its partner, the Cooperation Center for Afghanistan (CCA). Photo: Chris Herlinger/CWS

The report was particularly critical of aid it said had been absorbed by profits of companies and subcontractors, by non-Afghan resources and by high expatriate salaries and living costs.

By contrast, working in small and focused ways has its benefits.

A children's rehabilitation center -- a joint project of CWS and its partner, the Cooperation Center for Afghanistan (CCA) -- has become a place of both refuge and instruction for the 200 war- and violence-traumatized Kabul children like Zahra who annually enroll in the program. (A similar program also exists in the east-central province of Bamyan.).

Zahra, a quiet but determined 12-year-old, wants to contribute to a more peaceful and settled Afghanistan by becoming a teacher. She hopes that someday she will live and work in a country where, as Ah Popal said, "Afghans will be able to stand on our own legs, with our own resources, to help our own people."

Until that time comes, agencies like CWS will have a needed role -- helping not only the security of Afghans, but perhaps -- just perhaps -- the security of other countries, as well.

As Sayes Abdullah Ahmadi, a CCA manager put it: "If there's not support for Afghanistan, there will continue to be problems for international security."

"Afghanistan is part of the global village," he said, reflecting on the events of Sept. 11, 2001. "And we know now that the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan affects the rest of that village."

Read more on Afghanistan and see photos from Chris's trip.

Media Contact:

Lesley Crosson, CWS/New York, 212-870-2676; lcrosson@churchworldservice.org Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526; jdragin@gis.net


Browse month . . . Browse month (sort by Source) . . . Advanced Search & Browse . . . WFN Home