Posted By: Rebecca W., working with CIVIC’s Erica in Afghanistan [Written 7/19/08] I arrived in Kandahar this morning. My first stop was Kandahar Air Field (KAF) where I met with a government official who accompanies military forces into remote parts of the southern provinces and organizes stabilization projects. His stories were nothing short of shocking.…
Posted By: Rebecca A., working with CIVIC’s Erica in Afghanistan I am in Jalalabad now, a city in the Eastern part of Afghanistan a few hours from the border with Pakistan. US forces are stationed here, and recently came under heavy criticism for an air attack on a wedding party that killed 23 civilians in…
Posted By: Rebecca W., working with CIVIC’s Erica in Afghanistan Read Part 1, by Erica, on Kabul… KANDAHAR – On a recent trip to Kandahar, I heard similar stories about the “guessing approach” that aid agencies are forced to adopt in their efforts to assist Battle-Displaced Persons (BDPs). Access to information is a problem that…
Posted By: Sarah Afghans are dying from bombs, missiles, explosive devices, police fire, beheadings, domestic violence… and the list goes on. The situation for them is becoming untenable. This, after many decades of war has ripped through their land. Over and over we’ve heard calls from President Karzai to stop the needless violence. In the…
Posted By: Erica Below is the first of two separate reports on the information vacuum that exists when assessing the need for humanitarian aid to battle-displaced persons. Both my report and the future report form Rebecca, our guest blogger, highlight the difficulty of properly assessing, delivering and evaluating aid to those harmed by conflict. KABUL…
Posted By: Rebecca A., working with CIVIC’s Erica in Afghanistan Read Part 1… Fortunately for Abdul’s family, the family was identified by the Afghan Civilian Assistance Program (ACAP). The program paid for the younger brother to have training in woodworking and assisted him in setting up his own woodworking shop that could support the family.…
Posted By: Erica We arrived in Herat today — the largest city in Western region of Afghanistan, not far from the Iranian border — where we met with the Regional Command West (RCWest), the regional headquarters for ISAF. RCWest has been trying to use money from the Post-Operations Humanitarian Relief Fund [read our recent press…
Posted By: Rebecca A., working with CIVIC’s Erica in Afghanistan Karim, sits in his salon fingering photographs of his son, Abdul. The love-worn pictures show a striking 18-year-old, his arms thrown around the shoulders of friends, both Afghan and U.S. military. On February 27, 2007, the day of U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney’s visit to…
Posted By: Marla B. During the 2006 war nearly all businesses in the north of Israel closed. Many Israelis fled their homes here, heading south staying with friends, family and even occasionally strangers willing to take them in. In Kiryat Shmona, a town close to the Lebanese boarder, this man stayed behind and tended to…