Adopt-A-School in NWFP, Pakistan

Empower Kalu Shah School with a Matching Grant from The Rotary Foundation!

Pictured below are the children attending Kalu Shah School, in Takhbai, the school we are working on adopting. The students at the top, with their smart uniforms and inspired faces, are in the school we adopted after the earthquake in Muzzaffarabad, Kashmir, Pakistan. This is the look of children seeing computers in their school for the first time. With the improvements from our next Matching Grant, we will see this look on the faces of students at Kalu Shah. This is the look of hunger for knowledge and hope for the future!

This Matching Grant is a partnersip with the Rotary Club of
Unitown, Peshawar (Pakistan)
DISTRICT 3270

(pictured here with Ipswich International Chair, Rachel Williams)

Rotary Club of Ipswich (USA)
DISTRCT 7930

Funds required : $3300
Funds raised : $1400
Balance left to raise : $1900
Rotary Grant : $8250 *
Project Total : $11,550 (At 3.5 times original amount $1.00 becomes $3.50)

This Matching Grant will supply desks & chairs, blackboards, teacher training, computers, books, and water well sanitation (first in this village).

If you would like to help with this Rotary International Humanitarian Project please send email to rachfit@mindspring.com or you could send a check to Ipswich Rotary Club marked "Adopt-a-School" mail to PO Box 543, Ipswich, MA 01938

American Historians agree with RAWA

US troops are one of the major problems in Afghanistan today. US military actions are major recruiting tools for the Taliban.
The present situation is not better than it was under the Taliban. The majority of the government is made up of criminals. There is no security and thus women do not have rights unless they are a small minority of the wealthy living in Kabul. For more info see : http://www.rawa.org/index.php

See interview of Pierre Sprey & Marilyn Young :

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/01302009/watch.html

Sarah Chayes : Kandahar resident

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/12192008/watch.html

Descent Into Chaos by Ahmed Rashid

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/6/10/descent_into_chaos_ahmed_rashid_onThis This a must read!
Start the video at 17.15 minutes to see his interview.

Displaced people from Afghan/Pakistan border

We went to the camp where we had given medicines! $1440 was collected from friends and Rotarians in US & Singapore for medicines. These were bought in Peshawar and distributed by Relief International at the camp for displaced people from Bajour, one of the Tribal Territories.

These are photos of people in the camp. Not many people were left since most had been moved to another camp closer to Peshawar.

Below are sewing & literacy classes for girls and women, something they never could have had at home in Bajour. The women were uncovered and very friendly until I took my camera out.

The Pakistan government estimates 190,000 people have been displaced by the fighting but Relief International says it is 300,000.

These people will not be able to return home for a long time. Most houses and farmland have been destroyed. The Pakistan Army says it will take only a few more months to eliminate the rebels. This is not about religion but about uneducated people empowered by drugs, who ravage most of Afghanistan as well as across the border into Pakistan. Al Qaeda is also hiding out in FATA so American drones are bombing certain targets.

Peshawar

Peshawar is not the same as before. People are afraid and you can hear military planes flying over at all hours. I spoke to a guy from UNCHR and he said this is the first time he has seriously starting to consider leaving his own country. He is worried about the future of his children if he stays here. One lady said she used to walk for exercise every day but now she is afraid to go out.

I am staying with Rotarian Zamarud Shah. We have just submitted a Matching Grant application partnering my Rotary Club, Ipswich, with his club, Unitown. The grant is to help a school near Charsadda, closer to FATA (Federally Administer Tribal Agency). It has rooms but no desks or trained teachers. Among the things the grant will provide are a well, washrooms, computers, teacher training, & books. Our partnering organization is DOSTI. We went to one of their better schools today.

A beautiful Day

I brayed at this baby donkey and he thought I was his mother until he saw I only had 2 legs! Had him fooled for a minute...

Photo above left is myself with Shehzad and new Rotarians. Next is Bali, the head of the Kujer Buffalo Project, and a villager. Bali got married on Nov. 22, 2008.

This photo is the villagers cooking the sugarcane water into a thick sweet paste for us to eat.

These are Shehzad & Maimuna's lovely kids!

Maimuna


Shehzad, also known as "ZORO"

We went to Kujer on a lovely day with a clear blue sky! This is something many of us take for granted, but in developing counties often the atmosphere is clouded by smog and dust...

It was a trip with Shehzad & Maimuna Ahmad and their children, plus his father and his brother and sister and their families. The Kujer villagers made us sugar in every form you can imagine. Chewing the juice out of the stalk and drinking the juice were most popular.

Shehzad is not only incoming District Governor for Rotary District 3270, he is also an inspiration to many others to start Rotary Clubs. Representatives from four new clubs came over to shake his hand!

Lunch was served on tables out in the farm field where they had just harvested a fresh crop of sugar cane. This they served to us in numerous ways, all of which were very tasty.