Visiting the Aschiana Children's Network

Visiting Aschiana Childrens’ Center
by Le Anne Clausen

We met the director of Aschiana in a dark room, empty of furniture except for a few rusted folding chairs. He took the broken one while giving the older participants in our group the better ones and those of us who were younger took the windowsill. It was a stark backdrop for the stark realities he was dealing with.

‘Aschiana’ means ‘nest,’ a meaning which is likely not lost on the beneficiaries of this massive shelter network, which provides housing and schooling for more than 900 street children in Kabul. However, the main program itself is now looking for safe shelter, having been recently evicted from its rented facilities, which we were now visiting. The landowner plans to sell the property to a luxury hotel chain. Now they have divided the displaced children among three other facilities, which means “three times the rent, three times the staff, and three times the vehicles,” according to the director.

As a stopgap measure, UNICEF provided rent for two centers, for four months of rent. European Union funding bolstered the budget through June. Still the need is unmet; it’s tough to take out a lease for less than one year. Rent is the biggest problem for the program, as rates are considerably inflated in Kabul.

Due to the high numbers of children, the center runs two shifts and provides lunch to each. They used to serve meat and fruit, but now they can only afford rice and beans. Individual soldiers from ISAF (International Security Force in Afghanistan) will take up collections for the center, but they do not receive funding from the government.

On another day, we visited a different shelter under the Aschiana network and found the children there thriving in the basic yet well-kept facility, studying painting, calligraphy, Dari, English, and the standard school curriculum. “If they learn painting, they can establish their own shop for income,” said the site director. There are also workshops at the school for fixing electrical appliances and carpentry. They hope to resume a bike-repair workshop when they have enough money and space, and add music and theater. They also teach banking and business education, and teachers offer weekly parent workshops on health, parenting, and basic educational tutoring for parents who did not attend school themselves.

The director emphasized that in addition to vocational training, they are also preparing students for university education. He expressed hope that some of his brighter students, female and male, would be going on to become engineers. While the center teaches both male and female students now, the director was jailed under the Taliban for tutoring girls during that time. This forced them to suspend the program until the regime was deposed.

50% of Afghanistan’s population is under 19 years old, and most are uneducated. According to the UN’s most recent statistics, there are 40-60,000 children out on the streets. 20,000 are thought to be in Kabul, and the number is rising. Many have lost at least one parent and are helping to support the family at the expense of their education. Usually they beg or collect scrap paper for fire kindling if they have no other skills. Our group of foreign visitors attracted dozens of such children at each place we stopped. Some of the children are sponsored and don’t have to work at the end of the day; others go out to peddle after classes. The school offers instruction on running a small business to these children so they can save for themselves and gain financial stability that can help them finish their education. These children will sell books or magazines and the center sets up savings accounts complete with bankbooks, if students wish.

Corruption in the local and international aid community was repeatedly mentioned as a major concern during our stay. The director estimated that 90% of Afghan NGOs soak up donations in ‘administrative costs.’ International NGOs, such as the U.S. Creative Associates, live in luxury while the people around them remain in poverty. These organizations are also accused of not hiring qualified Afghans to do the work at a living wage, instead of importing highly-paid foreigners and leaving Afghans out of work. The director suggests that two steps towards increased accountability include NGOs being required to produce financial statements and to be open with and about their donors.

The director was also skeptical about the merits of development funding being put into women starting businesses out of their homes. “Everyone already does it. They are subsidizing our cottage industry businesses, instead of helping the underprivileged or providing appropriate vocational training. These programs have lost the original intent of micro-credit,” which would be to give a more equitable starting ground to disadvantaged populations trying to support themselves without the ability to receive standard bank credit. The director believes it would be better to gather all similar microcredit networks together under the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and take the next step towards women’s rights. This might mean getting them out of their houses and establishing their freedom to fully participate in employment and civil society without threats to their security.