Tzu Chi completes second relief mission
to Afghanistan
After experiencing the conditions endured
by Afghan refugees, Huang Szu-hsien, Chen Chin-fa, Lin Ching-yu,
Wang Chih-hung, and four other Tzu Chi volunteers returned
to Taiwan. During their relief distribution journey in Afghanistan,
they did not bathe for eight days and could only brush their
teeth every other day. From January 10 to 15, they visited
a refugee camp, a school, and a hospital in the Samangan province
of Afghanistan, and they personally witnessed the refugees'
struggle for survival in the most trying environments. Members
of the relief team considered this trip the most saddening
in all their years of disaster relief.
Through arrangements made by Knightsbridge
International, an international relief agency, the team entered
Afghanistan through Termez, on the border of Uzbekistan and
Afghanistan, then traveled southeast of Mazar-e-Sharif to
the settlement of Aibak, where they delivered relief supplies.
During the eight days, they visited a refugee
camp and five ruined settlements. A variety of relief items
were given out, including rice, wheat, beans, blankets, sugar,
cooking oil, coal, stoves, shoes, and first aid kits. A total
of sixty-five tons of food and other goods were distributed
to four hundred and fifty refugee families, or nearly three
thousand people. The provisions should last for three months,
enough to help these refugees get through the harsh winter.
Apart from this work, the relief team also visited a local
girls school and a hospital. What they saw was heartbreaking.
What life is like for refugees
Several hundred refugee families huddled
in the ruins of a school, shops, a theater, and a movie house.
An entire family was packed together in a space of one hundred
square feet. There was no privacy, since households were separated
only by tattered cloths or low hedges.
One of the tents in the refugee camp housed
four children, with the eldest only five years old. Our interpreters
explained that their mother had passed away, and their father
was usually away working odd jobs. Because of natural calamities
and government persecution, they had had to leave their hometown
behind. The family has been living in the refugee camp for
over nine months. Since the father was away, the five-year-old
son had to assume the role of patriarch and watch over his
younger siblings.
A woman peered at the Tzu Chi volunteers
from the entrance of an unfinished underground shelter. She
was frail with influenza and prolonged malnutrition. She was
one of the many refugees suffering the torments of cold and
hunger. They could never be sure of their next meal. When
our relief rations reached the refugees, they could finally
survive the winter.
Before the relief team left Afghanistan,
they revisited parts of the refugee camp that had received
support from Tzu Chi. They saw the men of the camp standing
on hills and the women in front of their tents; all had come
out to give the team a warm goodbye. They cheered and clapped.
With smiles they called out: "Tashker, tashker, tashker
(thank you)."
A school converted to a horse stable
Apart from handing out relief supplies,
the Tzu Chi team also visited the only girls school in Samangan
province. Under the Taliban regime four years ago, it was
converted to a stable for horses and mules, thus implying
that the status of women was even lower than that of animals.
The classrooms had no desks or chairs, and the blackboard
was simply the cement wall painted black. All of the books
in the library had been burned. In those four years, over
ten inches of horse manure had accumulated on the floor of
the classrooms. They were finally cleaned up after Tzu Chi
and Knightsbridge International exchanged one hundred fifty
bags of wheat for the labor needed.
A hospital with no water
The only hospital in the area did not look
like a hospital at all, yet it served a population of seven
hundred thousand people. This hospital had no running water,
no electricity, and no generator. It had only a few heating
stoves, a wrecked operating table, and simple medical supplies.
The head of the hospital explained that since there was no
water or electricity and transportation was scarce, those
who lived far away would never make the trip to see a doctor.
Therefore, while fourteen doctors worked in the hospital,
only seven patients stayed there.
Reaching beyond the boundaries of nation,
race, and religion
After making this journey to Afghanistan,
the volunteers all said that this was the saddest situation
they had seen in their years of disaster relief work. After
observing first hand the plight of the refugees, team leader
Huang Szu-hsien shed tears and shook his head in lament. "The
sky here is a gloomy gray and the ground is a bleak yellow.
The people are helpless and desolate, and the places they
live in cannot be called 'homes.' Being here, one cannot help
but lose hope in humanity." Despite his years of disaster
relief experience, team guide Chen Chin-fa wept when he reported
the conditions to Master Cheng Yen.
After this passage through Afghanistan,
where they came face-to-face with the plight of the refugees,
the volunteers waved goodbye to the Afghan people and immediately
started another effort to help them. After his return, Huang
represented Tzu Chi at the International Conference on Reconstruction
Assistance to Afghanistan, held in Japan on January 20. He
reported on the humanitarian assistance that Tzu Chi had provided
and called for more direct aid channels to be provided to
non-governmental agencies so that relief supplies could be
delivered more efficiently to the people of Afghanistan.
Huang commented: "The Tzu Chi Afghanistan
relief team has already begun preparations for the next relief
mission. We are preparing to give the suffering Afghan people
new hope for life."
