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Good News, Eid Mubarak, & updates from Afghanistan July 2021 |
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We wish you all a happy, peaceful, and joyful Eid.
عید مبارک - اختر مو مبارک شه
Dear Friend,
As you know the security has radically deteriorated in the last few months in Afghanistan. People are worried about the withdrawal of international forces and the political instability makes the future uncertain. Millions of children are more than ever abandoned from a happy, joyful, and constructive childhood. Our work in Afghanistan is now becoming even more challenging and at the same time much more essential in bringing hope and keep being an inspiration for children and a reminder of peace, joy, and laughter.
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Could we still make Circus?
As an increasing number of internationals are leaving Afghanistan we are often asked if we leave Afghanistan too. The response is NO. We will NOT leave the children especially at such a crucial time and are modifying our activities and management systems to guarantee the continuation of our work. Some of these modifications, adjustments, and adaptations are what we have been doing on smaller scales, and now we are developing our new strategy to cope with any potential radical developments.
In Kabul, things are still relatively as usual but our Herat center had to become a bit more precautious and modified some of their activities. They have a more conservative choice of music in the performances now and also focusing more on the educational messages of the shows and workshops. For other provinces, we are working on a new system of management to support the youth initiatives and teams to reach more children and youth in a much more decentralized way. So yes we keep having circus in Afghanistan and even with our new strategy more than before but with some adjustments depending on the situation.
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New Strategy
As part of transforming our structure to become more resilient and sustaining our future, we are decentralizing our activities (Social Circus, Environmental & Social) by supporting more independent younger teams to take over the activities. In brief; instead of one big central Social Circus in Afghanistan, we are gradually going to have many smaller active Social Circuses in different parts of the country. With this new strategy, we would be able to reduce some of the running costs such as monthly salaries and rents while focusing more on supporting these independent teams by, equipping, capacity-building, connecting, promoting, and also organizing National (& International) events such as festivals and championships which requires better management.
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Parwana Circus
Our very good friend and long-time colleague Khallilulah Habibi Hamid, has just started a new independent circus. Hamid began working for MMCC in 2002 and since then he has brought so much fun and joy to thousands of children and has developed different skills. After 19 years of working for MMCC, we are facilitating and assisting him together with our best youth artists in Kabul to create his own Parwana Circus as an independent youth circus. Parwana circus is the first independent Afghan circus and the first member of our new MMCC network in Afghanistan. We wish him the best in keep bringing a lot of joy and laughter to the children of Afghanistan.
Parwana Circus is currently based in our MMCC center and you can visit their webpage here: www.parwanacircus.org
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Bilal Circus
The second independent Afghan Circus in our new network is Bilal Circus founded by Bilal Azizi, one of our very active trainers for many years. Bilal Circus is based in Nangarhar and you will soon hear more about them and also about other new independent Afghan Circuses supported by our network.
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Oxygen – another MMCC Child is born
Besides the independent Social Circus entities, we are very happy to soon welcome another MMCC ‘child’ as a member of the new MMCC Network.
The Oxygen Environment & Climate Action program, with all its various activities including the Fridays for Future Afghanistan movement, are among the most successful MMCC initiatives in Afghanistan in recent years. Following a successful ‘Learn-Act-Impact’ Oxygen project, supported by UNDP's Small Grant Program, SGP, our Oxygen youth are now in the final stage of registration of their own organization.
The Oxygen team is comprised of volunteer youth who carry out environmental activities and awareness-raising campaigns, workshops, and programs about air pollution, global warming, and environmental protection among more.
The Oxygen team is the pioneer and the most advanced group of youth activists in Afghanistan in terms of educating themselves on environmental issues and practically taking appropriate actions. As in all MMCC-inspired activities, a unique feature of Oxygen is the energy that comes when MANY youth, from all walks of life and educational backgrounds, act together for the good of society and in this case the entire world.
With the support of MMCC, the Oxygen team is now in the process of becoming formalized as an independent Afghan youth organization (an environmental protection NGO). During the past several months, the youth have been educating themselves on all the legal and administrational aspects of NGO works and formed the perfect structure, that is now in process of getting officially registered.
The new organization will be a member of MMCCs network, by which we aim to continue to both, directly and indirectly, support the youth in their efforts. We congratulate them on their progress so far and wish them all the best in their new endeavors.
To follow Oxygen on Facebook click here:
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Thanks to the Netherlands
We received a 40-foot gigantic box of presents in May in Kabul, a container full of circus equipment from the Netherlands. Thanks to Capriool Circus and MMCCNetherlands who donated and organized this amazing present for children of Afghanistan. The equipment is already partially distributed and the rest is in the process.
This year we have also a project supported by the Dutch Embassy in Kabul to provide and manage Performances and Workshops for 14000 Underprivileged girls and boys in Afghanistan. We are so grateful to the Netherlands.
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Join us to keep the fun in Afghanistan &
Invest in Life
The pandemic, deterioration of security, withdrawal of international forces, and the radical decrease in the international interest in Afghanistan, all together have reduced our funds drastically. We are now more than ever relying on our fans and friends to support our work. Here are 4 ways you can support us:
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2- Joining, and Promoting our social media: |
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3- Sharing this Newsletter in your networks:
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Thanks for your support
Berit, David, & all our Afghan friends & colleagues
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