The dream came true
With emotion
and satisfaction we can communicate that the project which we work
from over one year has come to an important result: March 11 th 2008
HAWCA Cultural Center in Kabul has been inaugurated, with the presence
of the representatives of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, of the Italian
Embassy, the Local Technical Unity, Hawca, ICS and CISDA. An objective
made possible by the important net of relationships and solidarity
created by the Italian Coordination of Solidarity to Afghan women (CISDA),
whose incessant job of relationship, has allowed to build the essential
bridges for this intervention. A big thanks also goes to the Italian
Embassy, to the Central Technical Unity (UTC) and the Local Technical
Unity: thanks to their precious suggestions and addresses, it has been
possible to overcome the inevitable obstacles..
The characteristics of the building are the followings:
- general surface on three floors 420 mqs, in area Khushal khan, near the University of Kabul and the superior schools
- 10 general rooms, eight 4*6m, one 7*7m and one 6*11m
- underground 11*15 ms
- 4 rooms in the first floor, four in the second floor and two in the third one
- 3 kitchens and 4 baths divided in the different floors
The Centre
is already perfectly working: the classrooms of computer science and
English, the library and the meeting room have been organized and HAWCA
office has been transferred in the Centre. The courses of English and
computer science are offered for free and are very participated; concerning
this, it is useful to remember that the public school doesn't foresee
the teaching of these subjects.
Despite this extraordinary result, the general situation of Afghanistan
remains dramatic: big part of the territory of the provinces is devastated
and Kabul tragically appear as a contradictory reality. The most important
roads are illuminated and asphalted, but take a turn and everything
changes: all the other roads are submerged by the dust or, when it
rains, by the mud. The public illumination and the energy are disbursed
at the most for a couple of hours a day. In the very middle of poor
districts, luxurious houses have been built; the most important buildings,
inclusive residential ones, the hotels and the banks, are constantly
garrisoned by armed people, defended by possible attacks.
Water and sewerage are entirely absent and who can afford the expense
constructs small wells and ditches . The piles of garbage have become
the destination of small flocks and the thousand of children that live
along the roads are forced to the begging.
The firewood is too much expensive and heating the houses, for the
greatest part of the families, is a unattainable luxury. From December
2007 to February 2008 the temperature has gone down of over twenty
degrees under zero and this has meant the death for thousand of children,
women and men that have not had the possibility to take refuge from
this real calamity.
The only productive activities are the commerce and the housebuilding
sectors, in which everything is done by hand. As a matter of fact,
the hauling sector is the production and the commerce of opium, that
has reached the amazing quota of 95% of the global production, with
all the consequences: the official data speak of a million people addicts,
of which 60.000 children.
Security has gone worse and worse and the talibans are not the only
cause: insecurity derives mostly from the attempt of the government
to find mediations among the powerful warlords and the talibans, from
the spread corruption in the institutions and from the more and more
precarious economic situation of the population.
The International Cooperation, that has made many errors and many damages,
has had also some good results, financing for instance the realization
of interventions in the sanitary sector, of manual water pumps in the
roads of some central districts and some school.
The reconstruction aid funds amount to 35 billion of dollars; if only
one small part of this mountain of money had produced services and
infrastructures, the war would be probably already ended. Instead,
in a territory that has always seen many defeated and no winners, the
military option is still the priority. The poverty and the violation
of the human rights, particularly of the women, are the tragic everyday
reality of a Country in which, with these premises, there i
s no justice,
and there can be no peace.
Concerning the other part of our project, HAWCA Safe house for women
in need, the beneficiaries are about twenty at the same time, and some
one hundred per year. The place is absolutely secret and defended by
possible attacks. Legal assistance is also offered, besides psychological
and medical support.
The women beneficiaries are young, aged between 14 and 20, some of
them are run away bringing their small children. Young brides, bought
or promised to violent and cruel men that are often thirty years older,
and that sometimes force their wives to prostitute. Women destroyed
by blows that sometimes find the strength to run away and succeed in
obtaining the divorce, facing three degrees of judgment that requires
about ten years and rarely conclude positively for the weakest part.
An epilogue that doesn't put an end to their difficulties: when any
relatives accept to shoulder the weight of this infamy, it is the most
absolute desperation, considering that it is inadmissible for women
to live alone in a Country whose Constitution, launched in the month
of January 2004, is founded upon the Sharia.. Certainly the Sharia
is not expressly named, but it is set as the first source of the law,
especially thanks to the article 3, according to which any law can
be in contrast with the sacred principles of Islam; therefore these
principles precede the same Constitution, and the Constitution can
not ignore them anyway.
The expectation
of life in this Country is 45 years.
Peace and justice: this is what Afghan people want, nothing more, nothing
less.
It is still a distant objective and this is why it is necessary to
implement solidarity and interventions of civil cooperation, so that
these women and their children, can cross with serenity the road, today
insidious, that conducts to a more correct and equitable society.
The "Project for the improvement of the conditions of life of
the women of Afghanistan" doesn't certainly resolve the enormous
problem, but it approaches to the solution and maybe it makes feel
everyone less alone.
An important part of the project must still be realized: the training
of the operators of Hawca, and the implementing of the centre of documentation
and the library.
In the next month of April it is forecast a mission in Italy of the
responsible of Hawca, for the definition of the training courses. Then,
next May, five people from HAWCA staff will be engaged in Milan for
the training activities, previously defined.
Particularly the activities will concern:
- Cisda for the hospitality
- the Municipality of Osnago and the Foundation Badaracco for the preparation of the library
- Studio Azzurro Productions for the realization of the Centre of documentation
- Naba for the activities of communication and development of the Cultural Centre
- Chico Mendes for the productive activities, with particular reference to the fair trade
- the House of illtreated women in Milan for the training of the personnel of the Shelter
Up to now Hawca has shown great ability of intervention and management besides competence and honesty. We strongly hope that, thanks to the contribution of all of our net, this project will meet the expectations of the Afghan people, and in particular for the women and their children.
