Month: January 2013

“Visual impairment is neither a shame nor an honour: it is simply a limitation.”  These words were spoken by Mahdi, the deputy director of Rehabilitation Services for the Blind in Afghanistan, whom we met in Kabul.  As a visually impaired person myself, I had contacted Hakim before our journey, to ask if it would be possible to meet some visually impaired people and find out what kind of services existed for them in Afghanistan.  One of he APV set up the meeting and on our first Saturday in Kabul we set off in taxis to visit the project.  Mahdi and his co worker, Yacubi, are also themselves visually impaired.

During our visit we learnt that the project provides skills for children who are visually impaired.  Unfortunately the workers are able to help only a percentage of those who are registered with them, due to scarce funding.  Advocacy is also one of the aims of the project and we were told that International White Cane Day, 15 Octobr, gives an opportunity for raising awareness of issues surrounding visually impaired people.  The problems are many and, given the enormous difficulties of life for all Afghans, life for the huge number of people with disabilities is even more challenging.  Blindness and partial sight, as with other disabilities, are caused by a number of factors; hereditary, accidents, preventable diseases and, of course, war.  We also visited other projects specifically concrned with disability.

At the end of our visit we met a class of children learning braille.  They read to us and sang for us and Hakim made a short video about our visit, which contained a moving message from Mahdi at the end.  In his message he stresses our common humanity and speaks of the need for all peoples to live in peace, love and kindness in order to make a better world.  You’ll find the video on YouTube, along with several others about the APV.  Type

ourjourneytosmile

in the search box on YouTube.

As a visually impaired person myself, I had to consider, before deciding to be part of the delegation, whether or not my disability would be a hindrance to the group.  I needed help during our journey from Heathrow to Kabul and back, and this was willingly offered by my travelling companions.  Once in Kabul, various members of the APV took care of me and I was helped and guided during our trips to visit various projects.  In the house, too, I was really aware that the boys were looking out for me and ensuring that I found my way safely to where I needed to be.  One fruit of my disability has been the three articles I have written for this journal.  Deprived of my accustomed aids to reading and writing, I was unable to make notes but had to store everything in my head to be retrieved as soon as I was united to my computer.  We returned just ovr two weeks ago and it has been imperative that I set things down while they are still fresh.

One memory will never leave me.  The woman who teaches sewing to the group of women making duvets, asked Hakim what faith I had and if I believed in prayer.  She asked for some Muslim prayer beads but as non could be found she produced pen and paper.  Standing near me she began to pray softly, marking down the prayers she said on her paper.  This went on in the living room for several minutes and as her prayr progressed I became fully aware of the beauty and sacredness of the moment.  Here we were, two women of different nations, cultures, languages and faith, united in prayer to the one God in whom we both believed  Our delegation had been advised to keep off any reference to faith matters in case rumours sprang up about the possibility that we might be there to evangelise.  In offering to pray with me, my new Muslim friend dissolved the boundaries between us.  Tashakur!  Thank you!

In writing this piece I am well aware that I have had no experience of being directly affected by war and that these reflections are simply the observations of an outsider in more ways than one.  It is important to say here too that these are my own reflections and in no way represent the views of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, under whose banner we went to Afghanistan.  This will be true of anything I write in this journal; I am writing as myself and not as an official representative of VCNV.  It is important to say this as I have a great respect for Voices’ ethos and practice.   For more about VCNV and the great work they have and are doing, visit

http://www.vcnv.org

Elsewhere in this journal mention has been made of preparatory reading which was recommended to us.  “Ghosts of Afghanistan”by Jonathan Steele and “Descent Into Chaos” by Ahmed Rashid have been helpful texts in presenting the recent history of war and conflict in Afghanistan and the wider region.  In our short visit to one part of one city, Kabul, most of the people we met had been affected by the wars of the past thirty five years, chronicled in these two books.  Jounalists’ facts took on human features and voices and left us speechless.

In the mid seventies civil war was already brewing between mujahedin groups which represented the different ethnic groups in Afghanistan.  These groups are: Pashtun (42%) Tajik (27%) Hazara (9%)  Uzbek (8%) and others (14%).  The Soviet invasion which began in December 1979 united the mujahedin war lords and their troops against a common enemy.  In 1989, with the withdrawal of Soviet troops, the civil war intensified.  in 1996 the Taliban entered Kabul and their reign of terror continued until their  defeat in 2001.  This defeat, as we all know, was brought about by the US/NATO attacks on Afghanistan, ordered in October 2001 by George W. Bush in an attempt, we were told, to capture Osama bin Laden.  The US/NATO war in Afghanistan increased in ferocity, causing even more suffering and death to a population already terrorised and cowed by conflict on all sides.  The war continues, bringing death and injury to innocent Afghans as well as to foreign soldieers whose grieving families do not understand why they are fighting in Afghanistan.

Kabul bears the scars of constant war and, despite the belief here at home that coalition forces are building a new Afghanistan, there is little sign in this wounded, struggling city, gasping for breath in the thick pollution hanging over it.  I was full of admiration for the people of Kabul, attempting to make a bearable life in difficult conditions.  The streets and pavements are full of potholes and there are open drains on the side of the road which require footbridges to cross.  We visited the Museum of Kabul and it was rouching to see how the staff is struggling to keep it open and to preserve the ancient culture of this dignified yet damaged land.

The people we met during our stay also have a dignity which shines through all the suffering.  The young members of the APV where we stayed, had nearly all lost a family member or friend as a result of the conflicts of the past thirty five years.  Despite this, they continue to believe that a nonviolent future for Afghanistan is the only way forward.

On our first full day in Kabul we visited a camp of Kuchi refugees.  The Kuchi are a nomadic people and are Pashtun.  The group we met had returned from a refugee camp in Pakistan because they had been promised land on which to settle.  Neither the government nor the UNHCR had made good this promise and they had found space in Kabul, far from the north where they usually live.  Maya Evans, from our delegation, also visited another refugeee camp in Kabul where, once again, people displaced and made homeless by war tried to survive.

Our second day was very much a women’s day, during which we heard more about the effects of war on ordinary Afghan families.  In the morning we spent time with the women of Pandora’s Hope, the fledgling sewing cooperative which is based at the APV community.   They expressed their fears for the safty of their children and, in a refrain we heard repeated many times, they told of their anxiety about the future in 2014, when the international troops are scheduled to leave.  During the many conversations we had, people returned to this and told us that weapons are pouring into Afghanistan so that people can arm themselves against the ethnic battles which are predicted.  Another fear is the return of the Taliban who are by no means a thing of the past.  We had no answers to allay these fears, just an overwhelming sense that the international governments which sent forces into Afghanistan in 2001 have done nothing to ensure the peace and safety of the people when they leave.  Time is running out but we need to speak out for Afghanistan now more than ever.

In the afternoon of the same day, we went to the home of a woman who had lost two children in a suicide bombing in Kabul.  Since 2003 suicide bombings have become an added threat to the already vulnersble lives of ordinary Afghans. As this woman told her story we heard how her young sons were returning home from schoool one afternoon to be caught up in the bombing.  The mother told if her grief and anger and sense of powerlessness and her fears for her remaining children, whom she was afraid to send to school in case the same thing happened to them.  This was one mother’s story.  How often is it repeated?  Suicide bombers target foreign forces but it is the innocent bystanders and their families who suffer the most.  Many who at first welcomed the US/NATO arrival in 2001 fear now that the presence of international troops increases insurgent activity and that the spiral of violence spins ever faster, befuddling logic and reason and destroying innocent lives.

Our conversations with Afghan people from various sectors of society raised more questions than answers but there were also definite signs of hope amid the pain.  We met journalists, human rights campaigners, advocates for disabled people, women’s rights workers, educationalists,  representatives of young Afghans, all of whom were working tirelessly to confront injustices and inequality in Afghan society.  The people we talked to, either in their own premises or at the APV, were working with ordinary people as well as approaching government bodies, to campaign for a fairer society.  We heard often about government corruption and the failure of the international community to make good its promise to help rebuild the war torn country.  Despite the fact that Afghanistan has been brutalised by internal strife and foreign invasion, the overall belief that a peaceful future depends upon nonviolent cooperation and care for the most vulnerable, shone through.  No one said it would be easy or quick to arrive, but the Afghan people we met are prepared to be in it for the long haul.  Here at home, we have to discover how we can best stand with them in the struggle.

We, the Voices for Creative Nonviolence UK delegation , have now returned from Afghanistan.  We spent two weeks in Kabul as guests of the Afghan Peace Volunteers.  This is a remarkable and unique community of young men who first came together in Bamiyan under the guidance of a local doctor, Hakim.  Inspired by the nonviolent spirit of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, the group first came together in 2008 to create a peace park in their locality.  Bamiyan is a mainly Hazara area of Afghanistan and the local people have suffered at the hands of the Taliban.  In March, 2001 the Taliban destroyed two ancient giant statues of the Buddah in Bamiyan.  For a more detailed background to the APV, visit their website,

http://www.ourjourneytosmile.com

The community relocated to Kabul and has worked closely with Voices for Creative Nonviolence over the past few years.  The dream of the community is to form a multi ethnic group, committed to nonviolence and work among the poor of their neighbourhood.

To say that the APV has a vision of being a multi ethnic community does not give the full picture of the task they have set themselves.  Ethnic divisions in Afghanistan go deep into a painful and violent history.  The community is mainly Hazara but there is a Pashtun and aTajik among the group.  It is a privilege to be part of their sincere desire to heal old wounds and build a society for the future of Afghanistan, free from ethnic chains.  Their task is not an easy one and they don’t seem to be under the illusion that it is.  The community and the country has a long struggle ahead to build a peaceful Afghanistan.  Spending time with these young men gives one the feeling that it is possible and that a commitment to nonviolence holds the key.

On our arrival in Kabul after a long but uneventful journey, we were met by community members and taken to their home.  We shared their living space for two weeks and were given typical Afghan hospitality. The four of us and later two friends from the US, Kathy Kelly and Martha Hennessy, slept on cushions in the main living area where, during the day we had meals, English lessons, discussions and meetings.  Kathy is the founder and coordinater of Voices and Marth                                                                               a is part of the New York Catholic Worker community.  She is also the granddaughter of Dorothy Day who co founded the Catholic Worker movement.

Through its connection with Voices the APV have played host to several delegations of international visitors over the past year or so.  Delegates share fully in the life of the community and during our stay we were present at many community meetings during which a wide range of subjects was discussed, from practicalities of daily communal living to deep philosophical reflections on the nature of nonviolence and its implications in a country reeling and bowed down by thirty years of war and conflict.

The APV as a community are involved in the life of their neighbourhood.  The house has a constant stream of visitors, young and old and all receive a warm welcome.  Each morning there is an English class, atttended by some of the APV and other local young people, both boys and girls.  Hakim conducts the class and often emphasises that the reason for lerning a language is to communicate.  During the lessons, which some of us attended, there was often a sharing of ideas and feelings about the future of Afghanistan and the aspirations of the students.  It was very moving to be present as these thoughtful young people expressed their hopes and fears and also posed searching questions to us about our role in the future of their country.

In the afternooons the APV themselves, along with other volunteer teachers, hold classes for local children, teaching Dari and maths.

The community is also home to a sewing project for women.  At present this project focuses on making duvets for poor local families as the bitter cold of winter approaches.  Financial help from Voices means that women can earn money by sewing the duvets, either at home or on the APV premises.  The sharing out of the materials to be made up into the completed products is carried out by the young men of the community.  The duvets are then distributed by the APV.  There is a video clip on the website showing the most recent distribution on 21 December.   Other duvets were also given to a nearby refugee camp during our stay.

As ewll as living community life and working on these projects, some of the community members attend school or university.  The overall atmosphere of the community is of generous hospitality,                  cheerful enthusiasm, hard work in difficult conditions and, above all, a belief that they are living out a model of the society they wish to see for a future Afghanistan.  This model has at its heart a true desire for people of all ethnicities to live together and to work together for a better life for the poorest and most vulverable.  These young men really do think globally and act locally.