Delivering Hope

When I was 15, I took speech and debate classes. One of the topics I researched was Afghanistan. A couple of years later, 9/11 happened. The world’s attention began shifting to Afghanistan. I realized, I’ve studied this country and now this current event is happening there.

At the time, I was thinking about what I wanted to do with my life. My parents taught me that a career is not just about trying to make money or doing a job. It’s about doing something positive. Humanitarian aid work just felt right. 

My first trip was in 2004. I knew people who were starting an international school in Kabul. So I came over to help with that during a summer break from college. 

I was terrified. I remember flying into Afghanistan for the first time. From the airplane window, I could see remnants of aircraft that had been blown up. And there were marked areas where they hadn’t cleared land mines. I thought: What am I getting myself into? But that nervousness quickly melted away when I encountered the kindness of the Afghan people. There was a spirit of hope, and it was very infectious. 

We are helping returning refugees—people who fled Afghanistan at some point. Many are now being forced to return. In the past year alone, Pakistan and Iran have expelled nearly a million Afghan people back into Afghanistan. Some of the people have been refugees in those countries for decades. When those Afghans come back, they often have very little. So we’re providing water and food to them, as well as supplies to meet basic needs.

In addition, there are millions of Afghans who stayed in the country but have had to leave their villages. Sometimes it’s because they can’t find a job. Other times they don’t have enough water. For instance, I have talked to people in Herat province whose water has dried up. They’re walking hours one way to access water for drinking, cooking, and bathing. The responsibility for collecting water a lot of times falls to kids. They can’t go to school. They can’t have a normal life as a kid because they have to help their family survive. 

We are trying to help rebuild Afghanistan’s economy and communities. So one of our focuses is working with farmers. In Kandahar province, there’s a village of about 400 households. It was on the front lines of fighting. The village’s water systems were destroyed. The people were displaced. Recently, we’ve been able to start replacing their irrigation systems. Some families are beginning to come back and do basic farming. But there’s a lot more to do, like helping farmers understand how to plant crops in a drought-resistant way.

Our projects support women who want to do farming and start small businesses. We provide them with start-up money and give them access to markets where they can sell local products. [Despite many restrictions, women are able to grow and sell food as a business, especially if they are the head of their household and have no other income to provide for their children.] Supporting women so they can earn their own incomes is critical to breaking the cycle of poverty and instability. 

We had a program to help women with vegetable production in a heavily drought-affected community. After the training, I visited the home of a woman who had participated. She had a small plot of land and was producing vegetables. Her husband was blind. He had sustained some injuries and was unable to work. He took my hands and said, “If my wife couldn’t grow food, my children would have to go out and beg.” To know that the assistance means something to the families who get it is extremely rewarding.

There are so many competing global priorities. We always say, “Don’t forget Afghanistan.” I don’t want the world to move on to the next crisis when there’s still a huge need here. 

Going into a community and hearing people’s stories. I’ve invested a lot of time in learning to speak Dari [an official language of Afghanistan, along with Pashto] so that I can connect with people. That’s the greatest part.

Having good communication skills—not just with the people we help but with my team—is a big part of it. Also, I think learning resilience has made it possible for me to be effective and do the work that I do.

Learn about your world. One of the best ways to do that is to spend time with people from different cultural backgrounds. If there’s a refugee or a kid in your school who has just arrived from another country and their English is not good, volunteer to talk with them or tutor them. Traveling is great, but there are different cultures right in your own backyard.