Amidst the devastation comes hope for little girls.
afghans for Afghans brings joy and warmth to the unforgotten children of war.
Pamela Miller Ness is sitting in a comfortable easy chair at a cafe in Greenwich Village. It’s cold outside, but she’s warm and dry, chatting happily with other knitters as she works on a little hat. She’s been knitting and crocheting for over 50 years and has created with her own hands countless sweaters, scarves, hats and socks for her many friends and family. Today she’s knitting with all her heart something very special for someone she’ll never see, someone she’ll never meet, someone she’ll never even know. The hat she's knitting is for a little girl who lives a world apart, in the worst imaginable conditions, and whose tortured life will be just a little bit better…because Pamela wants her to know, “You are not forgotten.”
An old truck rumbles along a twisting dirt road, snow-capped mountains in the distance and nothing but desolation ahead. The landscape is barren; the trees may have been felled for desperately needed firewood to keep a family warm. Or the timber was used to build them a shelter from the cold. Or, as is often the case, the trees were chopped down to ensure no enemy combatants could hide behind them, ready to fire at whomever got in their way.
The driver is relieved that his precious cargo is intact. He knew it would be a risky venture, driving along this treacherous and treacherously slow road from Kabul, and he’d hoped to avoid the suspicious eyes of the Taliban. To avoid confrontation, he'd camouflaged his shipment in enormous orange sacks usually used for vegetables. He hoped these sacks wouldn't be of interest to his inquisitors. But, they’d noticed them packed high in the back of the vehicle and had inquired about their contents.
“Used clothes and medical supplies,” he told them, praying they’d let him pass by unchallenged.
In an unexpected act of kindness, they'd allowed him to continue. And so he rumbles along the dusty road on his way to a small village. He is taking gifts to the children of Ismael Mayar Primary School. He is risking all because he wants them to know, “You are not forgotten.”
Orange bags are used to camouflage the precious cargo to be
distributed to a school and health clinic.
This drama has been repeated many times on many different roads in Afghanistan thanks to the generosity of two American charitable groups: afghans for Afghans and Afghans4Tomorrow. With volunteers from throughout the United States and Canada, plus the support of Afghan men and women who want their children to have better lives, these two groups collaborated in this 2008 mission to the town of Shekh Yassin in the dangerous province of Wardak.
The afghans for Afghans project was founded in 2001 by Ann Rubin in partnership with the San Francisco office of the American Friends Service Committee. Inspired by knitting efforts performed by Red Cross volunteers during WWI and WWII, she decided she had to do something to help the people in this war torn country.
Ann created afghans for Afghans and began to ask knitters for their help. Eight years later, her organization receives on a daily basis beautiful pieces of handiwork from throughout the United States and Canada. Volunteers open the packages, sort the donations, and continue to spread the word that knitted wool garments are sincerely appreciated – and desperately needed -- by the men, women and children who ultimately acquire them. The efforts of the afghans for Afghans volunteers have brought close to 85,000 warm items to people who would otherwise have been without sweaters, hats, socks, blankets or mittens during the long and bitterly cold Afghanistan winters.
“This is not charity,” Ann says. “It is a gift: a gift of friendship and respect so they’ll know we’re thinking about them. They are not forgotten.”
Like most people who do extraordinary work, she claims that the credit goes to others – not to her. She praises the talented knitters who generously donate handmade garments to her organization so they can be provided to needy people in a country that’s been devastated by war. Knitters like Pamela Miller Ness who has organized a knitting and crochet group that meets each month in New York City. Knitters like Sue Clark who has been crocheting for the organization since 2002. And knitters like Linda Graves who has committed herself to creating and contributing 100 sweaters each year. (See article, Each Stitch is Made With Love.)These ladies work tirelessly to ensure that the organization they support receives a steady stream of garments to send to the people of Afghanistan.
“The logistics are difficult,” Ann tells us. “It can take six to nine months to get goods where they’re intended to go. A lot of administrative work is required and we need relief groups to negotiate this on our behalf.”
To help get this shipment of knitted goods to its grateful recipients, Ann connected with members of Afghans4Tomorrow (A4T), and their board member, Marsha MacColl. Marsha has her own amazing story to tell. The ten-year old organization she represents realized that in Afghanistan girls are woefully lacking in education, and that only education will be their salvation from poverty and diseases they'll risk in their lifetime. These young girls are born to large, poor families and each one will likely give birth to six or more children of her own -- in squalid, unhygienic conditions. She will live and die illiterate and poor because there are groups within her country who prevent her from receiving an education.
A4T volunteer Shaima Shabaz sorts the garments before
they are distributed
Despite almost insurmountable difficulties, Afghans4Tomorrow has managed to open several schools and workshops to help educate children and to teach them vocational skills so they can earn a living. Among them is Ismael Mayar, a 10-room school originally built with the help of Engineers without Borders, A4T volunteers and local villagers in Wardak province.
It was intended to provide an education for the first year for girls aged 6 to 14 to help them catch up. The builders took great care in designing the building: special lightweight conical roofs were installed to help ensure students wouldn’t be injured if the area suffered one of its common earthquakes, and a wall was built surrounding the entire facility to ensure the youngsters were secure.
Within a week of its opening, over 120 girls from surrounding villages had registered at the school.
Then a few months later, the attacks began. On two occasions the facility was entered by men intent on annihilating it. Chairs were burned, walls destroyed, windows shattered. The future of the school was in peril because traditionalists did not believe the girls should receive education; they wanted to teach only boys. Ismael Mayar was a threat to the status quo; the school had to be eradicated.
Acquiescing to the sensitivity of the community, Afghans4Tomorrow re-opened the classroom for 200 boys, and the girls who dream of being doctors, teachers and desperate needed midwives, are now being educated in homes until it’s safe for them to return.
Today, guards are on duty 24-hours to ensure that the attacks aren’t repeated, and that the children and the buildings are safe. Each day, brave teachers who remain watchful because they, too, have been threatened, teach two shifts of students year round because the facility can’t accommodate all those who want to learn. The selfless sacrifice of the educators under the most difficult of conditions is a testament to the strength and courage of the people who suffer in Afghanistan.
After a treacherous 1½ hour journey from Kabul, the driver of the truck eases into the village and to the school house to change the lives of the children.
On this special day the boys and girls have temporarily set aside their studies of literature, geography, math, science, Holy Quran, and drawing -- the subjects they believe will help them someday lead better lives. They are gathered in the schoolyard, in the cold, to hear a presentation by their Principal. Something exciting is about to happen, they realize. There are strangers in the schoolyard with packages that appear to be very important.
The Principal takes to his makeshift stage and tells them about people they don't even know, people who want to give them gifts. The audience is astounded. Who in the world would ever think of us? they wonder. They aren't sure they understand why strangers would be so kind to them, but what they hear makes them very happy...it makes them feel very special. These people, their Principal promises them, care about you and they want you to be safe and warm. They want you to study, to learn, and to grow up to have wonderful lives.
A teacher presents a young boy with his afghans4Afghans gift
One by one, each of the boys gleefully receives a plastic bag containing a colorful sweater and a hat to keep him warm this winter. As he receives his gift, his face lights up in excitement. Perhaps for the first time in his life, he's received something new, something that is his and his alone. To a child who has no mittens, and who may have never even worn socks when trudging in his sandals or shoes through the snow, this is something to be cherished.
To receive their garments, the girls are escorted indoors. There, young ladies who are not accustomed to smiling, open their gifts, grinning happily and giggling as they display their newly acquired treasures. How strange it seems to them to be receiving such a precious item from an unknown knitter in an unknown place, so very far away. But how wonderful it feels to have someone – anyone – care enough to give them something so beautiful and warm!
This is the message that Ann Rubin, Marsha MacColl and generous volunteers throughout the world have worked so hard to give to these tragically needy children.
You are not forgotten.
Heartfelt thanks to knitters Pamela Miller Ness, Sue Clark and Linda Graves for their help in writing this articles -- and, more importantly, for their selfless contributions to a very good cause. If you would like to contribute to either of these wonderful organizations, please visit their websites. afghans for Afghans has very specific requirements for knitted garments that regularly change as the needs in Afghanistan shift. Their need for financial support is constant. Afghans4Tomorrow sponsors many important projects that you may want to support.
Young girls display their gifts and a thank you to those who made
them possible
The children perform at an assembly. The packages from
afghans for Afghans are displayed on the make-shift stage.
School girls displaying their gifts from afghans4Afghans
Read a touching letter from knitter Linda Graves, a regular contributor to afghans for Afghans.
No photograph may be copied or reproduced without the express permission of Afghans4Tomorrow. Photographs for this article are published with the permission of Marsha MacColl of Afghans4Tomorrow.
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