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• A New Playground
• Cartoon Drawing Workshop
• Visits from Exchange Students
• Deliveries from Friends

The old playground

A New Playground

Playground Builders is a non-profit group that builds playgrounds in the most desperate areas of the world such as Gaza and Iraq. In 2008 this group contacted us inquiring about building playgrounds in Afghanistan. We referred them to HEWAD, the excellent Afghan NGO that we have partnered with in running the House of Flowers, hoping that HEWAD would be able to assist them in Kabul and help make possible this wonderful project.

We were then very surprised to learn in one of the children’s letters that ‘someone’ had come and put grass in their play area in the backyard of the House!  We would like to thank Playground Builders for this thoughtful and caring gift.

 The new playground

Cartoon Drawing Workshop 

In an email from the teacher, Fatima, we learned of a French group, SOL, who visited the children to teach them how to draw cartoons. We had met this group while in Kabul, but did not realize they would offer their program to the children. The children were fascinated with the workshop and the new ideas it gave them for drawing and art, one of their favorite activities.

 

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Afghan High School Exchange Students Return from a Year in the US and Visit Their Young Compatriots at the House of Flowers

The Youth Exchange and Study program coordinates Afghan student exchange programs in the US. Through collaboration with their director, we hit upon the idea of asking the exchange students to take back supplies for the children of the House of Flowers upon their return to Afghanistan. More importantly, there was value in the children being visited by older Afghan students who had accomplished something as exciting as a year in the US. The children love to have visitors, but virtually all who come to the House of Flowers are adults. Here was an opportunity for the children to meet their older peers, and hopefully be inspired by them.

The older students coming back after a year away from Afghanistan, would also benefit greatly from meeting the children of the House of Flowers. Perhaps meeting younger ones who would look up to them, who needed their leadership and guidance, would help them find their way as they worked to reassimilate themselves into Afghan culture and began reflecting on their personal role in society.

Nabi, one of the exchange students who stayed with a family in Pennsylvania last year, organized his friends before leaving the US, collecting things like educational and interesting DVDs and small gifts. After returning to Kabul, the exchange students organized a trip to visit the House of Flowers.  Click here to read Nabi's letter and see his pictures of their visit to the HoF.

We are very grateful for the time, energy and generosity that these Afghan teenagers shared with the children of the House of Flowers. If you are interested in hosting an Afghan exchange student, please visit the Youth Exchange and Study website.

Visits and Deliveries From Friends

The Afghan Academy of Hope in California has been a long-time supporter of the House of Flowers. Staff from AAOH have come to Kabul several times to help the HoF and other children's and women's organizations. In May 2009, the president of AAOH visited again, bringing the children toys, clothes, books, taking them on a picnic and offering vital in-kind support to the House and staff. MEPO is grateful to AAOH its generous support over the years.

But most people can't come to Kabul. So we rely on friends working in Kabul to help with deliveries of shipments. Over the years, friends working at hospitals through Loma Linda/ADRA have connected us with US Army contacts who receive and deliver boxes of supplies to the House, such as clothing from AAOH and education supplies from the Peacemakers of Schoharie County, New York.

These visits are always joyful for everyone. Delivery day means excitement for the children in receiving the gifts  – and also joy that the children bring to the US military personnel, offering them a bright spot in their otherwise difficult lives there. A military doctor who went to the House just weeks before finishing his tour said that his afternoon at the House of Flowers was the happiest time he’d spent in Afghanistan.

 

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