Simple solutions in a dangerous place
Posted by Global Administrator on Mon, Jun 01, 2009 @ 02:49 PM
By Doug Chabot
June 1, 2009
Over the last two weeks I’ve been traveling into sketchy areas of Afghanistan. Some regions are bad enough that I only move with well trained security forces watching my back. I’ve been based in the eastern part of the country, about six miles away from the Pakistan border, checking out villages for future schools. The terrain is rugged and 15,000 foot snow covered peaks ring the horizon. Pavement is a foreign concept and the roads are rutted dirt. In addition to the common hazards like washouts, drop-offs, car accidents, river crossings and wobbly bridges, there’s the Taliban factor. That’s why I’ve got the armed security.
The town I’m visiting is located at a road juncture with a large, well stocked bazaar; the biggest for miles. Pakistanis routinely cross the nearby border to shop here, paying small bribes to the police to cross quietly. Pakistan’s influence is so great that most stores don’t even take the local money, the afghani. Instead they take Pakistani rupees or the US dollar which is still the universal currency everywhere, even in these remote dirt walled shops. Everyone here knows Ben Franklin.
Since I arrived in this poor village there’s been at least some level of political unrest or general crime on most days. Soon after I arrived a police officer was stabbed to death. A shady hashish deal went bad and escalated to throwing rocks and bloodied faces. A knife was unsheathed and the policeman was fatally stabbed. He wasn’t trying to break up the deal like an honest cop; instead he was the one buying the hash. Shops can sell hash, heroin and alcohol openly because a $10 bribe gets authorities to look the other way.
On another day the Taliban ambushed the Afghan Army 10 miles down the road. They injured one, but the ensuing attack by the US military left 30 dead from blistering airstrikes. I could see the planes dive in to drop their 500 lb bombs and heard stories of an AC-130 gunship spraying bullets like the “Breath of Allah”. The Taliban in this area are rumored to be mostly Chechens and Uzbeks. They came from Pakistan and hiked along well worn mountainous paths to hidden caches and encampments. These impromptu bases are staging areas to ambushes and other insurgent operations. Their goal is to try and control the roads, which controls all the commerce and puts the population under their dirty thumb. A Taliban checkpoint demands tolls of money, food, or whatever else they want in exchange for passage.
It seems almost impossible for anyone to gain control over these areas. It’s a deadly tug-of-war with the civilians losing. The Taliban want control. They want to instill Sharia, or Islamic law. They want power.
I’m over here keeping my head down trying to increase education opportunities in these war zones; specifically girls’ education, because regardless of who’s in power, regardless of who wins, the girls inevitably lose.
They lose by not knowing how to read and write. They lose when they can’t add and subtract in the markets. They stay powerless through their adult lives, living like children, fully dependant on the men in their lives for the most basic tasks.
They lose their lives in childbirth and they lose if their baby dies. A simple 5th grade education has been proven the world over to improve the circumstances and lives of girls and women. They learn how to read medicine bottles; they learn how to ask for help and how to seek answers. They are cleaner, healthier and stronger than females without primary education, and so are their children. Solutions are simple and cheap—one teacher, a blackboard, pencils and paper can launch the education of 50 girls in a blink of the eye. And it’s a cheap blink at that; about $1 a month per kid. Even though these areas are dangerous and unpredictable, the results are worth it.
It’s the least we can do.
Doug Chabot is an avid climber, adventure traveler and Global Rescue member. He also volunteers in Central Asia building girls schools. Doug has been on 16 Alaskan climbing expeditions as well as climbs in Nepal, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.