It’s been a tough winter. March 2009

March 01, 2009

It’s been a tough winter.

In Afghanistan, life is harder now than it has been since the fall of the Taliban 8 years ago. A General Election looms but security is a major issue and the world economic downturn has hit the country very hard.

AFGHAN ACTION IN KABUL – THE CARPET FACTORY AND TRAINING SCHOOL
Afghan Action is not immune to the problems. Back in August 2008, we were employing over 170 people and just completing an order for 300m2 for Habitat. Since then, we have had to make stringent cuts and our challenge now is to rebuild the work.

This we intend to do, with a focus, at least for the next year, mainly on providing training for young men and women in weaving carpets, literacy and numeracy. We will also introduce a new programme to help our “graduate” trainees to form their own businesses and assist with marketing and sales – but our main emphasis will be on training.

To this end, we have set ourselves a target of raising £35,000 by early April - and we will then be in a good position to expand once again our work in Kabul, recruiting up to 30 trainees and providing them with education, healthcare and food as well as training in weaving carpets.
 
The breakdown is (roughly) as follows:
 
£10,000 from sales of carpets - we are over half way there and have several customers interested in buying, plus several sales opportunities coming along;
£10,800 from 30 sponsorships of trainees - we have 6 new sponsorships to date, a further 20 promised and are now pushing hard to hit our target – this is where we really need your help (for now and the future)!
£15,000 from donations etc - generous donations plus the income from ticket sales for the lecture by the British Ambassador to Afghanistan – recently appointed as Britain’s Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan - means we have expect to hit the target by the end of March.
 
If we repeat this process in October for the second 6 month period, we will be able to train and educate up to 60 young people over the coming 12 months.
 
Alongside this, we will employ people sparingly and, as stated above, work to help people set up their own businesses - ensuring first that there is a market for carpets to be made. This we will do through making special orders for people (who pay 50% up front) and - a new development - making a bespoke range of carpets for the weddings market, working with a fairtrade company who specialise in this. We have put a proposal to a charitable trust for supporting 10 young women (“graduate” trainees) into business and this may become a model for us to develop further, providing a year of subsidised support for fledgling enterprises, with training, advice, access to microfinance and the benefits of bulk purchasing (eg of wool and dyes). 
 
INNOVATIVE IT PROGRAMME
One of our most innovative programmes at present is with a City of London IT company, Tribune Business Systems, working at the cutting edge of “virtualisation”. Our aim is to introduce this technology into Afghan technical schools as well as British schools (David Blunkett is on the Board of this company). We also have strong links with Afghanistan’s leading IT company, NEDA Holding. This could have a dramatic effect in Afghanistan, giving affordable IT access to people without having first to import expensive hardware and grow a generation of IT technicians. The work builds on an IT-focused feasibility study we conducted last year in Afghanistan with Big Lottery funding.
 
WORK IN THE UK
Our UK based work is growing and we now have strong links with Afghan groups (from all tribal and religious backgrounds) in London. This work is funded by the City Parochial Foundation and funding from Awards for All. We have applied to DFID for funding to develop, across the UK, greater awareness among faith groups, businesses and the media about Afghanistan, using Afghan “advocates”. We are also actively developing schools twinning and have just submitted an application to the British Council for funding to twin three schools in Harpenden, Hertfordshire with schools in Afghanistan. Any day now we will hear whether another DFID bid, for schools work in North Yorkshire, has been successful - again about awareness raising and also curriculum development.

WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN?
The stakes are high and getting higher. With a third of the world’s nations involved in Afghanistan (30 of them engaged militarily), there can be little doubt that what happens there will have continuing and far reaching implications for us all. And there seems to be no end in sight of the present continuing chaos and corruption, though the Obama Administration is now proposing new structures and policies to improve the situation.

Our own view is simple: unless Afghanistan has fairly paid jobs, a growing small and medium sized business sector and access to international markets, how can it succeed?

Working in Afghanistan is, we have found, incredibly difficult – but immensely rewarding. We are continually told that there is funding available for the very few people, like us, who dare to try, in Afghanistan, to develop jobs, small businesses and international markets - but it continues to elude us. What drives us on is the belief that, ultimately, the spirit of this young country – half the population is under 15 – with its ancient history and proud traditions and cultures will rise above the tribalism and perversion of religion for sectarian and evil ends.

But, for the moment, Afghanistan needs our help.

Since late 2005, when we started, we have held 90 events, sales and gatherings in the UK and shared with thousands of interested people our vision and story. We have friends around the country who promote our work, for which we are profoundly grateful. We have exciting links growing with some outstanding people in the British Afghan diaspora communities. We are discovering companies, schools, faith groups, politicians and so many others who want to make things change and are willing to do something to help. We have outstanding volunteers who give freely of their time and considerable expertise.

That’s why we can’t give up. And that’s why we won’t fail.