Dateline ACT

Afghanistan 12/02

In the "widows' capital of the world", a program assists the most vulnerable

Kabul, Afghanistan, November 3, 2002
By Chris Herlinger Church World Service

Church World Service is a member of ACT International

 Kabul is often called the widows' capital of the world, and one of the city's 30,000 widows is Shkiba.

Like many women from rural areas, Shkiba doesn't know her exact age - she guesses it's close to 28 - and has come to Kabul out of sheer necessity. Her husband, a farmer, died six years ago, the victim of a Taliban assault in northern Afghanistan.

Shkiba shepherded her seven children to relative safety in Kabul, living for a time in a deserted home but since reclaimed by one of the many families now returning from Pakistan. Now, Shkiba and her children live in one of Kabul's many abandoned buildings - in this case a school pockmarked by bullets and rocket craters, dusted by rubble and debris and the scent of hopelessness.

But Shkiba is determined to protect and feed her children - up until recently, the only income the family earned was by the children selling water at the market.

Recently she greeted visitors while making a quilt. Shkiba is one of 1,874 women participating in a CWS-sponsored program that provides them with the materials to make quilts, earning a small income - about $1 per quilt; in turn, the quilts are sent to hospitals and other institutions for use by patients and those in need.

The project is modeled after a similar CWS program for Afghan refugee women in Quetta, Pakistan, and is administered by two local Afghan partners -- the Norwegian Project Office (NPO) and the Shuhada Organization. Sima Samar, the founder of the Shuhada Organization and is also the head of the Afghan Independent Human Rights commission, said it is imperative to support women like Shkiba, both because they are eager for dignified work and because it begins building, even in small ways, a foundation for the women's children, the future of Afghanistan.

Shkiba would agree -- saying simply "we want to be rid of this situation" and adding that she is happy to be working and earning an income: for her and her family, the quilt program is the difference between a foundation of some sustenance and going without food at all. "Instead of being hungry, this is good for us," she said.

For another woman, Wahida Sadat, 35, the quilt making is providing her with the money to support her family - in this case her five children, ages 1-15, and her husband, a police officer who, like many in Kabul, has a job but has not been paid on a regular basis.

Wahida's family recently returned to Kabul after spending 5 ½ years in Pakistan; the quilt-making income, she said, is helping put food on the table as well as pay for medicine for the children. "It's a very big help for us," said Wahida, who, like Shkiba, is determined to make a quilt a day.

Sima Samar said programs like the CWS quilt-making project are making a difference to women needlessly neglected and forgotten. "They are among the most vulnerable in the world."