Harrow Conference: Wednesday 21 April 2010

Following on from the Community Empowerment Work carried out by the Afghan Training Foundation, an initial Volunteer Recruitment Event was held on Wednesday 21 April 2010 from 6pm to 9pm at Harrow Baptist Church, College Road, London, HA1 1BA, in partnership with the Afghan Association of London. 

Aims

• To introduce Afghan people living in London to the ATF’s new “Building Bridges” programme and its work in Afghanistan and the UK;
• To enable Afghans to share their views about the current situation in Afghanistan and future possibilities and directions;
• To recruit volunteers from across the spectrum of the Afghan community to involve as Afghan Advocates to educate and inform the wider British public about Afghanistan and Afghan culture and give the Afghan community a voice.

Introductions/Address

The evening took the format of discussions on Afghanistan through which they could see the merits of taking action as volunteers and trying to make the changes that they wanted to see in Afghanistan and in the lives of Afghans in the UK.

Wahida Zalmai of the Afghan Association London welcomed everyone to the event in English.  Chris Beales, Chief Executive of the Afghan Training Foundation, then introduced the Afghan Training Foundation team and its work.  He showed a Power Point presentation of the work being done in the carpet factory in Karte Se, Kabul, and this was elaborated upon in Dari by Samad Samadi, a member of the Board of Afghan Action, who recently returned from 3 months in Kabul managing the work there. 

Key Issues Arising

Participants then worked in groups to discuss the question ‘What would you say to the new British Government regarding their approach in supporting Afghanistan?’.  The groups came up with the following points:

• Support the Afghan Army and Police
• Ensure foreign aid is given directly to the people
• Educate people about the war and clarify military engagement with Afghan people
• Stop the war and negotiate
• Allow the British forces to finish their job in Afghanistan
• Put development before security
• Educate people with regards to literacy and numeracy
• Create a social welfare system
• Develop industry/agriculture/jobs
• Take note of Afghan peoples’ skills
• Respect Afghan culture
• Why should the British do things for us?
• Facilitate dialogue between all sides
• Create overseas markets for Afghan products (agricultural/carpets)
• Invest in infrastructure
• “Battle” extremist ideologies e.g. Taliban
• Remember that Afghans know what is best for their country

During the plenary feedback, the points that arose during group work were grouped into four categories.  People were then asked to choose which topic they wanted to discuss and to do so with those that chose the same topic.  There was a fairly even distribution of people amongst the different groups.

Group One: Social Infrastructure (social welfare)

This group discussed the urgent need to establish a solid social infrastructure in Afghanistan in order to create a stable environment in the country and give the Afghan people the tools to move forward.

The group identified four key areas:

• Creation of a welfare state
• Creation of a trust fund for the elderly, disabled and families of the ‘martyred’
• Investment in building the infrastructure, such as roads etc.
• Health Services: build more clinics.

Group Two: Economy/Growth and Development

This group thought that the only way for Afghanistan to move away from its present state of unrest was for there to be adequate investment in order to stimulate trade and the jobs market. Considering that more than 85% of the country is dependent upon agriculture, a concerted effort should be made to promote this.  The group believed that reinvigorating agriculture in Afghanistan would serve as a realistic way to eliminate poppy production, which is rife in the country at present.

The areas which they thought would be of greatest benefit would be as follows:

• Creating farming co-operatives
• Modernising agriculture
• Improving and/or creating farming infrastructure (for example building proper roads)

 

Group 3: War and Peace

This group was discussing perhaps one of the most emotive topics of the evening.  It was interesting to note that there was some argument over whether the war should continue without negotiation with the Taliban, with others wanting the war to stop and negotiations to commence.  There did not, unsurprisingly, appear to be a resolution to this issue.  They also noted that there was quite a lot of wasteful spending in this area, for example the Americans paid $200,000,000 for a company to write a paper on what their military strategy should be with no positive outcome.  There were also several other interesting points that the group thought that the British should act upon: 

• Choosing national rather than ethnic figures/groups to lead the nation
• Decentralising aid,  moving concentration from provincial capitals to rural areas
• Encouraging the return of ex-army and police officials to Afghanistan to support the army and police force
• Investing in Afghan security forces rather than foreign ones, for example with the cost being $1,000 per month for an Afghan soldier and at least $10,000/$20,000 per month for a foreign one.

Group 4: Education

This group agreed that it was vital to push the education agenda to the forefront in Afghanistan.  They saw education as key in leading to a resolution of all the conflicts and establishment of an independent, successful nation state.

In particular, they wanted the following to be taken into consideration:

• Promote education e.g. by building more schools so people don’t go to war for no reason
• Create a special education budget specifically for teachers, to create an army of teachers/educators

Conclusion

This event was praised by participants as being an excellent opportunity for them to express their opinions on what they thought was best for Afghanistan.  They said that they enjoyed the event so much that they wished it were longer!  They said that they found it particularly useful to be given a voice, as they felt that they were often overlooked, which was difficult to understand as they knew firsthand what was good for Afghanistan. 

Participants were so enthused by the event that they nominated one member of each of their groups to compile a document on the topic they had chosen to forward to the Afghan Training Foundation, to then be given to the new British Government.  Their engagement with the Afghan Training Foundation was such that many present felt that they wanted to become Afghan Advocates in order to capitalise on their knowledge and experience and share it with the UK community at large.  It was particularly important that a number of women and young Afghans expressed their interest, as well as the older generation of UK Afghans.  This means that the event was successful in piquing the interest of fresh faces and giving people hope that their voices will be heard.

Zarlashta Behzadi
Afghan Training Foundation, Outreach and Administration Officer
May 2010