"A Simple Desire from Afghanistan: 'We Want Lives without War' "

"A Simple Desire from Afghanistan: 'We Want Lives without War' " by


Kathy Kelly, July 23, 2012 by Common Dreams

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/07/23-2

Kathy Kelly kathy@vcnv.org, a co-coordinator of Voices for Creative
Nonviolence http://vcnv.org/

KABUL -- For the Afghan Peace Volunteers, living in a working class
area of Kabul’s “Karte Seh” district, daily problem-solving requires a
triage process.

Last week, upon arrival, I looked at the sagging ceilings over the
kitchen, living room and entryway and felt certain that shifting to
new living quarters should be the top priority. The following evening,
tremors caused by a small local earthquake sent me running out of the
house to interrupt a game of volleyball all the others were playing,
but cooler heads prevailed and the game continued – what else was
there to do? I stayed outside to watch. Later, we talked about the
inevitable need to make a move away from our dangerous dwelling and do
it soon, so now the daily schedule includes scouring the neighborhood
for a new home with comparable space and rent.

Some daily problems are predictable. For example, Ali knows he is



behind many other students in the Kabul secondary school he attends,



because back in Bamiyan, where he grew up, he’d had limited



opportunities to learn the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic.



On mornings in the APV house, he struggles to make sense of notes he



has carefully recorded in class. Early this morning, he was sitting in



the yard carefully writing and rewriting a sentence describing the



function of the present continuous tense in English, preparing for an



English exam later that day. He and I spent some time writing English



sentences in the present and present continuous tenses, and then he



taught me how to do the same in Dari. Some problems at least have



simple solutions.







Abdulhai wants the best for his widowed mother. Like almost every



other Afghan family, Abdulhai has experienced deep personal loss, the



loss of his father to war. I remember one late evening in Kabul some



months ago when he confided in me and Hakim about the difficult



memories of fleeing away from the fighting through the snowy mountains



of Bamiyan province where his simple and honest family resides.







Shedding some tears, he said, “I wish I could buy my mother a good



pair of shoes. “Abdulhai has a growing commitment to working among



fellow Afghan peers and youth to understand and practice non-violence.



In 2011, his picture was selected by Fellowship of Reconciliation USA



to be featured on the big board at Times Square in New York. It was a



poster of Abdulhai on his favorite hills behind his village, with



these words reflecting his heart, “I wish to live without wars."







The small community here listens to its members’ problems – very much



including the needs of their loved ones - and tries hard to sort out



cooperative ways to help them respond. Each member of the community



comes from a home grappling with problems attendant on economic



destitution. Aided by small contributions from peace activists abroad,



they creatively “troubleshoot” ways to keep their project going.







Meanwhile, they are doing their best to address social problems in the



struggling neighborhood around them. This week, after several delays,



a workshop for seamstresses has been set up right here in our living



quarters. Each morning, eight women, both Pashto and Hazara, come to



learn tailoring skills. The Afghan Women’s Fund assisted the group by



buying eight sewing machines along with fabric, thread, scissors and



patterns. With the help of a neighbor who is an accomplished



seamstress herself and is willing to teach others to sew for a nominal



salary, the women will learn tailoring skills and earn desperately



needed income.







Today, we sat with a mother whose child comes to the after school



tutoring program Afghan Peace Volunteers launched three months ago.



Her husband struggles with an addiction to opium. By collecting



laundry from homes near hers and washing the clothing from morning



till night, she earns the equivalent of $3 per day. Hakim asked



whether her husband might be able to help earn income, but she said



she is afraid to let him out of the house for fear that he’ll be drawn



back to drug usage. Two of the APVs vouched for an impressive program



we have visited which has helped people overcome their addictions.



Some of the people who were helped by the program now run a small



restaurant in our neighborhood. Before she left, a meeting was



arranged between the young mother and the woman who founded and



coordinates this program.







I’m privileged to watch young and vulnerable practitioners of



peacemaking risk their own safety to advocate for those even less



safe. And poverty, which descends from war, which engenders war,



equals danger as surely as war does. It’s the ceiling of a collapsing



room. Here in Kabul, it’s so much harder to escape the connectedness



of what Dr. King called the “evil triplets” of poverty,



discrimination, and war.







Last summer, in Mexico, a movement arose which aims to bring together



people suffering the ravages of multiple wars, encouraging them to



pour out their grief together and demand needed social change. The



“Caravan of Solace,” led by renowned Mexican poet Javier Sicilia,



traveled across Mexico several times, reaching many thousands of



people in a country where 50,000 people have been killed by drug



violence since 2007. The Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity



insists that militarized solutions will not work.







Now the same organizers will be traveling across the United States as



the Caravan for Peace, calling for an end to drug wars and military



wars. They will proceed along a multistate route culminating in



Washington, D.C. on the 11th of September 2012.







The Afghan Peace Volunteers, who have paid close attention to the



Caravan of Solace, were very pleased to speak with one of the main



organizers by phone last summer. Now, their hopes are raised quite



high because Caravan for Peace organizers, in coordination with Global



Exchange, recently invited them to participate in the caravan during



the final ten days of travel across the U.S.







Abdulhai and Ali await an August 5th interview at the U.S. Embassy in



Kabul; their opportunity to join the Caravan for Peace and to



contribute their perspective to discussions along the route rests on



whether consular officials will approve their request for a visa. You



can register your support for them in this process here.







They would be accompanied by their mentor, Singaporean born Dr. Wee



Teck Young, whom we call Hakim.The U.S. Embassy will want assurance



that they will return to Afghanistan, that they won’t seek to escape a



collapsing roof in a country where it often seems as though the weight



of poverty, warfare and discrimination could threaten future collapse.



But Ali, Abdulhai and the APVs have realized that they have good work



they can do here and now, building on several years of activity



developing the Afghan Peace Volunteers. As with many of us, sometimes



the work involves setting our own houses in order (and there’s always



more order we can set them in) and often it involves small actions we



can take to help one another. Joining the Caravan for Peace would be



a big step for the APVs, giving them a chance to feel solidarity with



people from Mexico and across the U.S. who support Afghan Peace



Volunteers in their clear and simple message: “We want to live



without wars.”



------



We Got Hakim a Visa. Ali and Abdulhai Need Them Too.



http://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=6382







Together with our allies (Voices for Creative Nonviolence, Fellowship



of Reconciliation, Global Exchange), we flooded the State Department



with emails asking them to grant a visa to Hakim, a leading peace



activist in Afghanistan. When Hakim re-applied, the U.S. Consulate



reconsidered his case and they granted the visa.







But Hakim is a mentor to the Afghan Peace Volunteers. When he visits



the United States, at least two of those youth should come with him.



Abdulhai and Ali (in photo at right) care deeply about their country.



They are not a risk to stay in the United States (as the State



Department fears). The only risk is that they will tell us what our



occupation of their country is doing, and what they are doing to



promote nonviolent alternatives.







Hakim expresses his gratitude and tells Abdulhai and Ali's moving stories here.







Please sign this petition, which will be delivered to the U.S. State



Department. Please ask everyone you know to do the same.



http://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=6382