A turn of events for Dina Fesler in Afghanistan

Dina Fesler and her adventure mission are on the front page of the Strib today in an article titled In Afghanistan, a fortunate accident: Two Minnesotans making a video in Kabul got sidetracked on a mission of mercy by Kristin Tillotson.

Here’s her emailed Kabul Report: Day Nine, with 12 photos:

Greetings,

Good news…the HCMF momentum is growing, and we not only took two more children in for medical treatment, but both CBS and CNN news tagged along with us for the fun! I’ll admit it makes things a bit more hectic slogging through the muddy camp with an entourage, but I am just happy that they want to help us get the word out…not only on the relief effort, but the reality of the situation for people in these camps as well. I am hoping that by seeing this story that someone or some organization with more power than I have can get involved to make a more substantial difference for these people long term.

Unfortunately, we won’t be able to go back to the camp for awhile because the security situation has gotten too dangerous. One of the sad realities in Afhganistan is that these days kidnapping is big business for a lot of people. It’s not always Taliban related, and many opportunists will kidnap foreigners simply because we are worth money. Well, hopefully somebody would miss me enough to cough up a little cash.

Yesterday at the camp, the guides noticed that there were some creepy guys circling the area, and they even saw some of the camp elders telling them to leave us alone because we were good people that were here to help their children. Happily, my fears of danger were overshadowed by knowing that in only a few days we have built a real relationship with these people. That’s amazing. But even though the camp elders have our backs, we have become too predicatable so Wasim will be picking up and transporting the kids on his own. He’s the real talent on this part of the team anyway as Kelly and I alone would never in a million years be able to coordinate this. Wasim assesses the kids to determine the greatest need, convinces their parents to put their trust in us, ensures safe transporation to and from the hospital and handles all of the admission paperwork, bill paying, negotiations and more.

Afghanistan is a place that can be difficult to navigate in many ways. Both Wasim and Najib must call on lots of personal and professional favors, and understand the ways of the Afghan people and systems to get all this done. They are real superheores if you ask me. As for the rest of the team, Kelly is creating magic with the video and making sure that this powerful story gets told, his wife Stephanie (who also runs NEED magazine) is handling our PR back home…and I guess I am just trying to keep the energy and momentum growing in my own little way.

We are a small but mighty team! 😉

One of the children we took in is a 15-year old girl who has a similar situation to Sahebo (the girl we brought in the day before), including malnutrition and a serious problem with her bones that will require many specialists and extensive physical therapy. Apparently, both these girls had existing problems with their bones, but due to living in the cold, damp camp environment it exacerbated it to the point that they are now unable to walk. Although these medical bills will be higher for their inpatient stay, the hospital promised that it is be committed to their ongoing reahabilitation treatments as long as they need them at no cost. That’s wonderful news! We also brought in a 6-month old baby boy who has had complications from pneumonia and required more substantial medicines. Luckily, he didn’t need to be admitted so he could go home that same day. (It’s hard to believe that I just wrote how he is lucky to get to go home.)

After the kids were checked in safe and sound, and the news crews finally left, we went to visit Kabul’s famous Chicken Street to film the local culture. It’s a cool shopping area that sells lots of beautiful Afghani arts and crafts, lapis stones and jewelry (something Afghanistan is famous for), traditional clothing and lots of fabulous Afghan rugs. I just don’t recall see any chickens. Najib told me that a long time ago the area primarily sold chickens with many restaurants serving their famous chicken soup. Who would have guessed that Afghanistan is famous for chicken soup?

Either way, I was in shopping heaven and pretty much wanted to buy everything in sight, but managed to restrain myself. Business first.

Stay tuned for the next adventure…

Dina

P.S. If have missed any of the bogs, please check out http://www.needmagazine.com/blog to get caught up!

P.P.S. Donations to help the children can be made at http://www.warkidsrelief.org/donate (indicate HCMF in the PayPal memo)

Here’s Dina’s emailed Kabul Report: Day Eleven, with 14 photos:

Greetings,

Before I get to anything else, I want to give an update that so far we have gotten 26 children from the IDP camp to the hospital for desperately needed medical treatment. In addition to our first three patients suffering from malnourishment, there have been lot of cases of severe pneumonia, tonsilitis and respiratory tract infections. So far the donations have been encouraging so we are providing a 3-week supply of milk to every child upon discharge from the hospital so that they can continue to gain strength during their recovery. (It’s just a few bucks but will go a long way in their recovery.) Depending on how strong the donations come in we are also considering buying blankets for them as well. It’s just so hard to get better when you can’t get warm, and the weather is getting steadily colder.

(I’ve also personally discovered that you can’t get better from a cold if you don’t stop running around for five minutes…but that’s my own problem to deal with. I’ll recover when I get home…just in time to do my holiday shopping. That’s always relaxing!)

Anyway, yesterday was another busy day that gave us an incredible glimpse into the lives of Afghanistan’s youth…a glimpse that really shows what these kids are made of despite their difficult living situations.

The first part of the day we visited an organization called Aschiama which serves thousands of Kabul’s impoverished street children who are forced to work at young ages to help feed their families. The sad reality is, due to the effects of war, many children become the head of their family at a young age. Aschiama provides half day schooling, sports facilities, artisan training and art therapy to help these kids get an education, take pride in themselves and imagine the possibilities of a different life.

It all started ten years ago when Mohammad Yousef (the founder and current director) was having his shoes polished by a young boy on the streets. While talking with the boy he could instantly see how bright he was and how he really needed to get into school to be able to develop his potential. The boy explained that he couldn’t go to school because he had to work to provide for his family. Yousef thought that even though he couldn’t change the economic realities of the boy’s family, perhaps he could somehow provide enough support to help redirect the course of the boy’s future. So he started Aschiama. Ten years later, there are still thousands of kids out on the streets who must polish shoes, wash cars, or sell chewing gum to survive, but because of Aschiama, many of them have become trained skilled artisans and craftsmen, and have gotten an education that they otherwise wouldn’t have had.

From there, we spent the second part of the day visiting the home of a very special family with an epic story who, like many Afghan families, have struggled through decades of war. With their three girls and one boy, they were tortured by the Taliban, escaped to live in a Pakistani refugee camp, lost a son, used opium to subdue the pain and hunger, and even lived in an empty bombed out building because they couldn’t affort rent anywhere else. (Have I mentioned that Najib knows absolutely everyone?) They’ve had more than their share of hard times, but they are hardworking people and little by little they have been getting back on their feet. With the help of a social worker they kicked their opium addiction, moved back to Kabul, the father works as a cook in a military hospital, the mother works in a raisin factory for $5 per day, and they now have just enough money to rent a “home.” Their new home is basically two cement rooms with a ceiling caving in, no heat, electricity, water or plumbing (just think of a nasty garage with rugs on the floor and you’ll be getting close)…but to them it was heaven because it was the best home they have had in years and they were proud to invite us over for lunch to celebrate.

What is most incredible about this family, however, is their daughter Karema. Karema is a real firecracker, but at only 14-years old she runs the household while the parents work, including cooking, cleaning and taking care of the children all day. She’s already a middle-aged housewife and she’s barely a teenager. From the first moment I met her when she came outside to greet us with her infectious smile and firm handshake, I knew I was meeting someone very special. We interviewed her while she cooked us all lunch and learned that she isn’t able to go to school because she needs to run the home while her mother raises enough money for the family to eat (dad’s paycheck barely covers the rent), but that doesn’t stop her from trying to learn on her own. More importantly, it doesn’t stop her from dreaming big. I asked her what she wants to be when she grows up and she was dead serious when she said she wants to be a journalist. Or, more specifically, a TV news reporter. When I heard this there was no doubt in my mind that that is what she should be, so after lunch Kelly and I gave her a crack at the real thing. We got her mike’d up and had her give a full report on the goings-on of the day. The kid was incredible!

Karema is an example of a kid who is already imagining a new possiblity for her life, and I want to help redirect her future as soon as possible. You know my wheels are turning as to how I will get this girl back in school to make this happen…but mark my words, I will think of something. 😉

Stay tuned,

Dina

P.S. To help support the children in the camp, please go to http://www.warkidsrelief.org/donate I guarantee your money will be put to good use immediately!

Here’s Dina’s emailed Kabul Report: Day Fifteen, with 7 photos:

Greetings,

If I thought the past two weeks have been busy, they’ve been nothing compared to the past two days of running around getting the last of the video footage for our project before we leave. It’s been like a wild carnival ride as Habibi, our driver, whizzes us all over Kabul in his little Toyota while Najib lines up appointments on his cell phone as fast as I can think of one more thing to put on the list, which includes interviewing a bank and a radio station, attending a girls basketball game and a conference for disabled land mine victims, taking three more kids to the hospital and attending a wedding. I honestly don’t know how Najib manages to put up with me as I must be driving him to his outer limits, but somehow he always remains calm and collected. I guess praying five time a day really helps him stay centered. Maybe I should try that, too.

(No, I am not taking care of myself properly, and yes, I am still sick…but we’re leaving tomorrow, so we gotta pack it all in now.)

By yesterday, things were on schedule, but of all the things Najib managed to line up for us, the only thing he was having trouble arranging was getting an invitation to an Afghan wedding. As I have already mentioned, Najib is a master networker and seems to know half of Afghanistan so I could tell it was bugging him that this wasn’t coming together. Every day when I asked him if we scored a wedding invite he’d quietly say “not yet.” I could tell his ego was on the line. But while we were at the International Disabled Persons Day conference (Aghanistan works especially hard to take care of the many victims of the landmines laid during the wars–would you believe that of the ten million land mines buried in Afghansitan that over 3 million are still active?), Najib overheard one of the managers of the hall talking about the fact that there would be a wedding held there the next day.

His wheels were turning!

So in a last-chance-Hail-Mary-pass effort, today we all just showed up on the doorstep of this wedding where Najib somehow convinced the parents of the bride to let us crash. He explained that we are making a film to teach American students about Afghan culture and that they would be doing a great thing to help children of the world unite by doing this, etc, etc. I’m telling you…the guy has a gift.

It turned out, however, that getting us in the door wasn’t the hardest part. At Afghan weddings there are actually two separate parties where the men have their own party in one room and the women have their party in a separate room. So Kelly and Najib went to the guys party and I went solo into the gals party to schmooze my way through hundreds of women all dolled up in their glitziest gowns (like an explosion in a sequin factory), tons of jewlery and even more makeup. It was just amazing to actually be in the middle of this wild celebration with Afghan music blaring, women dancing and shimmy-ing and gyrating all over the dance floor, confetti flying and children chasing one another around the room just like at an American wedding.

Of course, I was getting plenty of strange looks from the guests with no way of explaining why in the world I was there, so my strategy was to smile as much as possible, say ‘tashakur’ or thank you (the only Dari word I know) to every woman I saw, and then just fawn all over their children as much as possible. That gets them every time.

I tried to keep a low profile by sitting at a table in the back but because of their incredible Afghan hospitatlity the mother of the bride had me come to the front table to hang with all of her friends. After a lot of dancing they served a huge meal of lamb and rice and naan, and finally, the bride and groom slowly entered the room and went up on the stage as bursts of confetti rained down from overhead. They were absolutely gorgeous as they looked out over all the dancers.

Because Najib thinks of absolutely everything, he ran to a nearby store, bought gifts and had them specially wrapped so I had something to take up on stage to present to the bride and groom….who were very surprised to discover a strange foreigner at their wedding, but they were also incredibly gracious. Afghan hospitality!

After they made their apprearance at the women’s party they head over to other side to make their appearance at the men’s party.

—

As I am now packing my things getting ready to fly back home, I can’t stop thinking about how much the Afghans amaze and impress me. Two weeks ago when we first landed here I imagined a depressed, war-torn country, bullets and rockets flying by every street corner, and I would have considered myself lucky to get out with my life. But instead, I discovered something completely different. Yes, it is a depressed, war-torn country, but it is one that is filled with the most passionate and loving people I have ever met. People who truly care about and look out for one another. Even though every day is a struggle for them as they carry on the fight to rebuild their country (again) they do it with class and dignity. Even though they haven’t managed to catch a break in over 30 years, they simply refuse to let the world get them down. They have shown me what endurance is, and no matter how many roadblocks get thrown in their way they will still find a way to keep on going. They deeply religious people, but not in a way that others need to fear. To me it is something I admire. They are not bitter and they don’t hold grudges against those who have wronged them in the past. They are survivors.

Afghanistan is still a dangerous place to be, but I guess it just is hard to worry about death when I am in a place that makes me feel so alive.

This will be my last post from Kabul as we are leaving in just a few hours, but I will continue to post updates on the children being served by the Helmand Children’s Medical Fund on the War Kids Relief website. Thanks for hanging in with me on this crazy adventure. It’s been busy and quite stressful at times, but the messages of love and support from back home have given me the energy to keep going. Thanks, also, to all of you who have opened your hearts (and wallets) to help the children in the IDP camp get the medical help that they need. You have not only made a difference in the lives of these children, but the families of these children realize where this money is coming from and they are overwhelmed by the outpouring of love that has been bestowed upon them by some American civilians. These people now know who the Americans really are, and instead of being afraid of us (and us of them), some seeds of peace have been planted…and I think that is a beautiful beginning.

All my love,
Dina

P.S. Back episodes of this blog are still posted at http://www.needmagazine.com/blog

P.P.S. Donations to the HCMF children’s fund are being accepted until December 31 at http://www.warkidsrelief.org/donate

You’re welcome, Dina. Glad to know you’re back, safe!

Here’s the embedded CNN video of Dina’s trip that she mentioned in her latest report. There’s a 15 sec advertisement at the beginning.

“Americans aiming to educate kids in the U.S. about Afghanistan ended up saving a dying baby. CNN’s Atia Abawi reports.”