The Place of Humanitarianism in the Context of War in Afghanistan

This event was arranged by Emergency UK on 13th May 2011.

Yama Wida, the Afghan Action’s Outreach Officer, spoke at the event ‘The Place of Humanitarianism in the Context of War in Afghanistan’ organized by Emergency UK in INCA-CGIL UK, 124 Canonbury Road, N1 2UT, London on May 13, 2011. He briefly introduced Afghan Action and its various projects and activities in the UK as well as in Afghanistan.

Speaking about the link, Over Here and Over There, he referred to the Afghan Action work over here in the UK and over there in Afghanistan. He said that Afghan Action had a small carpet weaving training school in Kabul, where girls and boys are trained with an invaluable practical skill, focusing mostly on the sustainability of their project. He said, “we also provide them with free literacy and numeracy classes, and on-site health care and food”. Yama also spoke about the diversification of the Afghan Action’s programmes into clothing, which will involve 50 people (trainers, trainees, other staff) and will run for the next two years, roughly mid-2011 being the start date. He also spoke about the ongoing connecting classrooms that the Afghan Action is running between schools in Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif and London and Harpenden, with a few other schools. In the connecting classrooms, Afghan Action is using virtualization facilities and ideas.

Yama mentioned: “In the UK, we raise funds to support our trainees by selling their hand-made carpets and organizing fundraising initiatives. We also run workshops, seminars, and classes for Afghans and non-Afghans to exchange their views on Afghanistan and related issues”. The Department for International Development (DFID) has granted Afghan Action the funding for a nationwide awareness raising programme, called Building Bridges. This project is aimed at raising people’s awareness of Afghan culture and changing the perceptions of poverty, insecurity and development opportunities in Afghanistan through the work of advocates who organize events and initiatives on Afghanistan.

Yama Wida talked about the Advocates: Afghan Action employs Advocates and Volunteers who are trained to run most of the events that are aimed at: Increasing awareness about poverty and human rights violations faced by Afghans. This helps give first-hand information about the real life of Afghans in Afghanistan, emphasizing the positive aspects of Afghanistan and its people in order to change the negative images and perceptions within the UK. On the other hand, these events help Afghans better understand the local British traditions and realities and create dialogue.

The Outreach Officer mentioned the reasons for Afghan Action’s involvement in Afghanistan in the following paragraphs:

Decades of conflict and years of drought had destroyed much of Afghanistan prior to September 2001. Almost all social services and government infrastructures had been destroyed; food shortages were widespread and millions of talented Afghans had migrated to other countries”. He referred to the nation’s geo-political location, ethnic tensions and nationalism, poverty, foreign intervention and most importantly lack of education as the root causes of the war.

After the collapse of the Taliban regime in 2001, despite a decade of efforts by international community, Afghanistan still remains one of the world’s poorest according to international index of economy although Afghans themselves do not believe it and dismiss them as materialistic values. There have been a resurgence of violence, insurgency, political instability, the economy has collapsed and there is little to no health care system in many parts of the country. People need peace, security, education, health care, food, and most importantly they want to be self-sufficient.

But it is possible to meet these needs, because Afghanistan has human resources, the support of international community, and also based on new discoveries and reports, Afghanistan has extensive deposits of natural resources, amounting to approximately $3 trillion. It is worth-mentioning that it would not be possible to utilise any of these resources without our continued efforts in helping the Afghan people.

Due to the fact that Afghanistan is often negatively portrayed, people can be less likely to support charities working to help the Afghan people. But Afghan Action wants to break these negative barriers and help change lives in Afghanistan through sustainable empowerment and employment programme.

At the end of his talk, Yama briefly described the future of Afghan Action: “We want to do more of what we are doing, and do it better! We want to reach more people and communities and strongly believe and action for our slogan - Let’s change tomorrow by working together today. But we cannot do any of this on our own, so please take a look at our website,  www.afghanaction.com, for details about how you can get involved! Thank you, Tashakur and Manana!