Provide Care for Afghanistan's Abandoned Children

The Baharak Children's Garden (BCG) is a food security program managed by the residents in a small village in Northern Afghanistan and funded by Global Roots.

If you've read previous reports, you know what a miracle it is that we were given approval by our new landlords to bring back the BCG. Please see the preceeding report for the backgournd on this amazing project.

I would like to dedicate this report to analytics. Record keeping is one of the keys to our success. In the words of the management guru Peter Drucker, “If you can't measure it, you can't manage it.”

Introduction

We spent the first few months of the year growing crops and getting everything ready for the reopening of the BCG. It’s difficult to explain what it is like to launch a food security program in a place where people are starving. Fortunately, our team on the ground has learned how to differentiate between economic hardship and true human desperation. On April 1st, 2022, we opened our garden, our classroom, and our hearts to 80 true children of war. Without this program, these 80 children would not have stood a chance.

BCG analytics for 2022

• The BCG distributed 8,320 kilos of vegetables to 80 children in 2022. Additionally, each child

took home a food package with 20 kg of rice, 5 liters of oil, 7 kg of yellow split peas, 2 kg of

sugar, 2 kg of black tea and 10 kg of potatoes to share with the families that took them in.

• An estimated 602 family members benefited from the program.

• Each child spent a total of 84 hours in the garden and 300 hours in the classroom.

• Each child received a school uniform, bag, and stationary kit.

• The project paid a fulltime salary to 10 staff members and gave work to 200 others.

• Extra produce was sold for a total of $300. With most start-up costs paid, we are looking

Please see the attached photo of "Sama", a young girl in our program who would like to tell you how the BCG has changed her life.

(this is a very rough translation from Dari, the language of Northern Afghanistan to English)

"I now have a place to go," says Sama. "Before this project I had nothing to do except sometime collect trash in the streets and work in the fields. Nothing was mine. Today I get cucumbers of my own to share with my family and lots of other produce and chicken. My family is excited for me to come home because they know I will hring them food. We cook everything just right but this is also thanks to the BCG because they also gave us salt and cooking oil. I never knew how easy it could be to make really good food. That's because I never cooked before this. Now i get to cook. I think it's because I am the one who brings home the food. Thank you so much good people donors!!."

A note from Rick Montgomery, founding director of Global Roots

In 2019 we were forced to close down a food security program that had previously helped hundreds of orphaned children find loving families to take them in. Despite early success, we eventually faced so many threats that we could not continue to operate the program in good conscience.

Many children suffered when we closed the program down.

All of us at Global Roots were deeply distressd about what would become of the children who had been sopping up every opportunity we gave them -- not to mention taking food home from our gardens and dairy farm to feed the families that took them in.

We are pleased to report that after a long period of negotiatiing with our new landlords, we were granted approval to relaunch the Baharak Children's Garden

We took a chance to cultivate land and lease a building while we were waiting for approval and our gamble paid off. By the time we were allowed to begin selecting children to take part in the program (see photo: child selection), we already had a massive amount of produce blossoming in our three-acre Children's Garden (also referred to as the Small Scale Farm Baharak).

What's more, after a recent a visit from a Taliban group who checked on our activities, we now know we can share photo and video images of our work on social media without fearing some kind of backlash.

In a world that is currently so dominated by so much bad news, we are happy to tell you that your donations are making a miracle happen in Afghanistan!

We have attached several photos below and a link to videos as well.

Global Roots wins local status

We are pleased to announce that we have achieved something we thought would be impossible last year. The Taliban has approved the creation of a local charity that is staffed by the same amazing local Afghans who have managed Global Roots projects in Afghanistan for many years. The organization is called Global Roots for Life (see photo: approval). I am particularly pleased (and somewhat shocked) that I (Rick Montgomery, the founder of Global Roots) am allowed to sit as a board member on a local Afghan charity! As a board member, I will able to guarantee a great deal of oversight and transparency to prospective donors.

This is a very big development because now, for the first time, major international relief organizations can fund our work in Afghanistan directly. Most major aid outfits are required by their bylaws to fund projects directly in the country where the relief is needed, not through a third party. 

A note to GlobalGiving donors from Sama, an eleven year old orphaned girl who has never attended school and was selected for this program. 

Sama requested the opportunity to thank GlobalGiving donors for "helping her to go to school". Our Children's Garden has an educational element (click the link to the video below: "classroom time") that Sama loves. As an orphaned girl, this is the first time she has ever been exposed to a classroom setting and she is loving it!!

"Thank you Global Roots donors. I am in love with learning. May peace be with you." Sama.

We are so proud of Sama and the other 69 participants in our program.

We are hoping to add 70 more children to our program in few months when we create a new Children's Garden in the destitute Badakhshan village of Wardoge.

Thanks again for your donations!!

Links:

• Classroom time at the Baharak Children's Garden!!
• Our children on distribution day in Baharak Afghanistan