Greetings!
Afghanistan is in a rebuilding process. The horrors and atrocities which occurred when the Taliban first took control of Kabul in 1996 have not been repeated. There have been isolated incidents, including bombings, during which lives were lost. But, girls are returning to school and the Taliban Minister of Education announced that girls will be educated to the same extent as boys, Women are not prohibited from going out without the presence of a male member of their family. They must be dressed in accordance with " islamic sharia standards". Burqas are not required.
People are returning to the streets, something they have been afraid to do. Life certainly hasn't returned to normal and there will be a new normal. The greatest challenge today for Afghan families is the economy. Demand is much greater than supply and thousands are being priced out. Afghanistan was already ranked the 7th poorest country in the world at the beginning of this year and today it is worse. We can and are helping.
As I wrote previously, Nabi found a way for us to get money to Afghanistan into the hands of someone we can trust, Wahidullah. He's Nabi's cousin and has been helping us for years. By the end of this month, all 56 sponsored children will have received the monthly support they had been receiving. That support will continue going forward. Most receive $50 per month. We'll wait until Spring, when the schools reopen, to determine whether to sponsor more street children. By the end of the month our twenty-one employees will have received all the money they are owed. That's a total of seventy-seven families who will receive money they didn't expect.
Wahidulla asked the owners of the property where our eight libraries are located, whether they can reopen. One hour ago I learned six of the eight will open in December. The libraries were utilized by an average of 600 children per day and sixty percent were girls. I'm anticipating that separate times will be established for the girls and boys to use the libraries.
Girls and boys will no longer attend the same classes in school. That was generally true before the Taliban took over, except in the colleges.
You've heard the saying, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”. That's why we have devoted most of our resources to education. There are times, however, when giving a man (family) a fish is more critical than a lesson. That time is now, in Afghanistan. We have decided to do both. We asked Wahidulah to recommend families for direct support, the poorest among the poor. He's recommended six. Three are shown and described below.
Supported families will receive $100 per month for a year, a total of $1200. That's enough to feed most families for three to four weeks, depending upon the size of a family. I'm urging supporters to contribute at least the same as is contributed to sponsor a child, six hundred dollars. I've decided to no longer add 10% to the amount contributed. The extra 10% was applied to the cost of the sponsorship program. That was an arbitrary amount and took to long to explain. In the future I'll just point out that these are zero sum programs. One hundred percent will go to the families.
The family support program will operate just like the sponsorship program for street children. Sponsors will be provided with photos of a family and their profile. Sponsors decide whether to support that family or wait for another. There is no obligation to provide support a year later. The families are made aware that the support commitment is for one year.
