AFGHANISTAN - February 2002

OVERVIEW…
This past winter, in Febuary of 2002, MEPO shifted its focus to north and northwestern Afghanistan, where many of the supplies that MEPO had collected could be distributed. These supplies included hundreds of compact, effective “space blankets”, vitamins, toothbrushes, children’s medicines and cookies for children.
In addition to these items, various medicines and vitamins were purchased in Afghanistan for the village people.

WHERE…
MEPO’s doctor was successful in accessing villages in Herat and Badghis provinces where the lack of accessibility due to muddy and icy road conditions, and often simply a lack of roads, had left the people unattended in every sense of the word.

HOW…
MEPO’s doctor made it to western Afghanistan, namely Herat, overland via Mashhad, Iran. The flight was from Kathmandu to Dhaka, Bangladesh. After a week in Dhaka, the journey continued via Dubai to Tehran.

Tehran was the city to put some plans together and await the arrival of space blankets donated by our donors in the US and Austria. Certainly customs clearance was not an easy process in Iran, especially dealing with such large quantities, nearly 800 blankets, but nonetheless it was taken care of. With much bureaucratic work, permission was obtained from various ministries and offices to take the vitamins, toothbrushes and space blankets to Afghanistan. Everything seemed to be ready to go.

The first part of the journey was a nice comfortable flight from Tehran to Mashhad. After completing the transportation logistics for the overland trip into Afghanistan, the journey began at 5:30 am from Mashaad to the border of Afghanistan.

Tayabat and Dougharoon, the two border cities on the Iranian side, were crossed with long delays due to heavy security checks in both directions of the border. After having crossed passport controls and customs, we started the overland journey again, from the city of Islamgaleh inside Afghanistan. By 7:30 pm that evening, the 14-hour journey to Herat ended.

This was when living in a different world began for the next thirty days, a life of children without fathers, women without husbands, families without food, villages without schools, clinics, running water or public baths, a life that is isolated from any modern standards and also very difficultfor outsiders to access due to lack of roads and proper transportation. A life where many people still eat grass since there is no food, a life that raises many questions about our own humanity and moral standards. This life may look rough, but for the Afghan people since they have no other world to compare it to, they push their way to stay alive. But for us outsiders or visitors, we have a different world to compare it with, and this is the point where one can evaluate their agonizing situation at the turn of the 21st century.

One should not think that with the sudden political shift, people’s long-standing health, educational, or socio-cultural problems, including the expansion of infrastructure, will be improved by any sensible level in less than a decade or two: The millions of people who depend on agriculture and food have not suddenly been given all the financial and technological means to cultivate and irrigate. For urgent patients in remote villages where there is no health post or clinic within 100-200 km, or even roads or a vehicle to reach a doctor, how could this condition be improved just by a sudden change in government? It takes the patient efforts of thousands of peace-loving people and philanthropists over many years to curb and remedy these serious problems.

WHAT…

Health:
• MEPO’s doctor, in a period of one month, checked close to 1000 patients and provided them with free medicines, vitamins and a toothbrush for every child. We tried to give worm medicine to as many children as possible.

• We provided transportation and some financial assistance for burn victims and victims of mine injuries to go to the city for treatment

• MEPO is planning to activate an obsolete clinic in western Afghanistan in the spring of 2002. This clinic will serve surrounding districts. The doctors and staff of this clinic will also be able to conduct mobile health clinics once MEPO buys a vehicle in Afghanistan.

* MEPO has up to this point opposed and avoided purchasing equipment such as a computer, fax or vehicle. But in this case, a vehicle for a clinic in Afghanistan is crucial for the goodness and service of the patients in remote areas. “Vehicle” means strictly the clinic’s vehicle, not an office vehicle.

Why the Need for a Clinic Vehicle?
For cases like Rahimeh, a sick one-year-old girl who appeared with her mother at the doorstep of a room where we were checking patients, in a village five hours drive from the city of Herat. After taking a full history of the girl, we realized she had been heavily intoxicated with Tylenol (acetaminophen) by her parents, who had given her 200-300 drops instead of the 10 drops required.

She was in a semi-coma state, in a stupor, her eyes rolled up in her head, with seemingly little chance to live. Of course, there was no vehicle in the village or vicinity, and her parents had no choice but to watch their daughter deteriorate on an hourly basis.

Having seen the condition of Rahimeh, we cut our day short to use our borrowed car to take Rahimeh and her mother and uncle to Herat for hospitalization.

The wintry, damaged, icy and muddy roads made it extra difficult, as we got stuck in the mud several times and each time had to get extra help. Meanwhile we continuously monitored Rahimeh as she lay in her mother’s arms in the back of the car, giving her water to make her urinate. Each time we stopped we checked her pulse; it was quite high and her condition was critical. Her eyes were unresponsive, and she was between life and death.
We were in mud up to our knees, but we had no reason to complain. We had to get her to the hospital as soon as we could. In the next two hours I noticed that Rahimeh’s mother’s burka was completely wet from the waist down from Rahimeh’s urinating, which was good news.

As we got to each village on the way, we stopped for more hot water for Rahimeh. Her pulse was lower, her eyes more lively, but her condition was still critical. After five long hours of extremely difficult driving, we made it to Herat, and she was immediately hospitalized. Two days later, she was doing much much better. By the fourth day she was discharged. Rahimeh survived, a fortunate one among the many thousands
of Afghan children who die on an hourly and daily basis in remote Afghanistan.

Critical…
In every village where we conducted a health camp, every few patients were critical, whether suffering from long-term tuberculosis, blood pressure crisis, severe diarrhea or malnourishment. Due to our lack of medical facilities and insufficient medications to treat tuberculosis or similar chronic diseases in a mobile health camp, we had to refer and help patients to come to the city of Herat for proper treatment.

Education
Apart from the medical mission, the educational agendas of MEPO were also implemented in this most recent trip to Afghanistan. In addition to the schools established in the spring of 2001, MEPO was successful in establishing an additional FOUR SCHOOLS in remote villages in Herat province. One Afghan man said, in response to the idea of starting a school in his village, “There has been no school in this village since the time of Adam and Eve.”

In establishing these schools we provided everything necessary, from blackboards to toys to teaching supplies and books, and made sure that the teachers would enforce the regular washing of hands with soap and teach basic hygiene in the curriculum.

Besides providing education for children, establishing these schools provided jobs for several literate people, including a widowed woman who was the only literate woman in a vast area where we searched for a teacher.

Vocational
As we all know, many men have either been killed or imprisoned or have fled Afghanistan to seek safety for themselves and their family members. This situation has left behind a large gap and disintegration in the family support network. Many unattended widowed women and orphaned children are the consequences of this collapse of the society at large.

MEPO searched very carefully to locate and support a few families who could support themselves if given the resources. Therefore about FIFTY FAMILIES, mostly widowed women with numerous children who were sporadically supported by their neighbors, were given initial assets (cash) and carpet-weaving materials or sewing machines in order to earn an independent living. Some extremely poor families with no skills or resources, living in sub-standard conditions, were given some cash to be able to carry on for some time.

MEPO plans to expand this branch of its activities, namely helping and reaching out to families who could benefit most from extra assistance.
Space Blankets, Toothbrushes and Vitamins

Thanks to the great efforts of our colleagues and friends in Europe and the US, we were able to collect about 800 space blankets and over 1000 toothbrushes and thousands of vitamins. MEPO distributed these absolutely necessary items to those who were living in cold and harsh conditions, to those with vitamin deficiencies, and to children to promote preventive oral and dental hygiene.