The New Nation - Internet Edition

I am back from Afghanistan. On behalf of those widows and children, let me thank those generous and humanitarian Ismailies who really cared about those of their brothers and sisters who have been in the highest rate of hungriness and poverty in Afghanistan .

I did receive all the sponsors' contributions and gave them to those that nobody has reached them yet or maybe they were simply ignored!

Of course our sincere thanks to both of you, Naseem and Firoz, without you this would not be happening and possible.

There are so many NGOs almost in every street; UNs, government and Imamati Institutions but I think maybe their help is not enough or they do not reach the right people or they are not what they are supposed to do.

Despite of all the fear and stress I had to get the money from the bank, thank Mawla, he made it safe for me in fact he made my stay safe. So, what I did was, I went to the bank and wore my 'burka', I got the money and while leaving the bank I put my burka in a bag and I covered myself with a shawl so that nobody can recognize me. It was it wise, right?

Anyways, let me write you how people live in that part of the world, there are so much sorrow and grieve hidden behind those innocent faces and hopelessness has covered their entire lives..

Here I am writing you some of their stories from thousands.

There is a street crossing in Kabul where there are lady beggars in each 1 meter all young women. One day I was crossing that road, that one of those ladies pulled my clot hes and begged for 1 Afghani, sometimes those beggars are dangerous but she was begging so innocently and I gave her some money. I saw her little son lying on the street !

It shocked me. I asked how come you are begging and not working? She replied that she doesn't have young appearance so people did not give job they believe that she is old and cannot work. I asked her for her home add, she gave it to me and went the other day. She has 4young children I guess, and nothing I could find in her home to sit! No single carpet or anything, all over was pieces of plastics. They sleep and sit on those. And of course it should be very hard to find food there. (photo attached)

From there I took the risk and thought of going to further distances t Well, I met so many families and after each visit emotionally I got sick and felt very disappointed… you know, they start hating the work of our Institutions and for sure NGOs and others because they believe that those organizations are meant to help them and that is why they are funded but they have not done anything for them.

So, I was going to them and pretended that we are relatives.

While visiting them I met one of the mothers, she was telling me how she lost her 2 children, husband and how struggled in life to save her children now she is suffering from cancer and her youngest daughter got a disease in her wrist, that she cannot move it anymore. She doesn't have enough money to take her to a specialist, she took her to government hospitals (free) and doctors do not care about the patients and since she has gone to doctor her situation is even worse. The mother works for a Pashton Afghan family as cleaner and she earns $25 per month, she also gets some old clothes for her children and sometimes leftover dishes. It was lunch time almost and you know what they had for lunch? Just lettuce with dry bread! And then the mother divided them between her children and every child was trying to get one bit more so nothing was left for the poor mother! (photo attached)

I went to an other house where an old couple lives, and both of them take sack every morning and collect the garbage from streets and by this way they survive. It was dark I reached to their home as I could not get hold of them during the day. They had burnt a light which did not have any effect as there was too little gas in it, moon lig ht was better than that. They were telling me they hardly can find something to eat once a day.

They were refuges and their young daughter disappeared in Karachi , Pakistan in 1999. (photo attached)

There was another widow who I met and she was married only for 6 months when she lost her husband, she has a 3 months baby girl now. I asked her about her husband, she said, she did not know he had cancer and when they got married she got to know. They did not have money to take him to Pakistan so, he died. She leaves her baby home alone during the day and goes to her neighbours' houses and cleans their houses and they give her bread and sugar instead. This is how she survives and does breast feeding to her baby. (photo attached)

I unfortunately experienced that almost all of those kids, girls and boys are out of school, some because of unsafe situation, and most because of money, and poverty.

When I was helping them with some clothes, pens, notebooks and especially food, the smiles on their faces did not disappeared for about an hour and tears of happiness were on their cheeks. All these are unforgettable for me.

Well, there are some of those stories as sample of ignorance, poverty and inhumanity in Afghan society.

Once again, I am very confident in assuring you that your contributions have been given to the very, very needy and poor widows and children and for sure your contributions have made a positive change in each of those people's lives and maybe those kids who struggle with poverty, had some more food to eat for some time.

last but not least, I pray that all those kids' and mothers' prayers for your happiness and long life are accepted.

(From the Internet)