ISSUE 2 SEPTEMBER 2007   |   Visit our website   |   How you can help

• Hope House and Peace House Community Centre
• Taekwondo champions – Sport takes hold at Hope House!
• Education, the key to a better life.
• Helping Schools
• Star Pupil - Future President?
• Panjshir Valley Girls’ shine
• News of the Orphans
• Sabit School
• The Sydney Office

• Issue 1 - Feb 07
• Issue 2 - Sept 07
• Issue 3 - Feb 08
• Issue 4 - Jul 08
• Issue 5 - Jan 09
• Issue 6 - Feb 10

After many months of hard work, fundraising and organisation by Mahboba and her widespread team, we are delighted to announce that Hope House – our new training & community centre in Kabul – is fully operational!

Designed by Michal Tomaszewski of ‘Architects without Frontiers’, Hope House was officially opened in April this year. Celebrating this milestone, Hope House is featured in an exhibition being held by Architects without Frontiers – at Customs House Library in Sydney during the month of September. Make sure you get there to see it.

In addition to the main building, we have added an extension known as Peace House. This has been made possible through a generous donation and a commitment of ongoing support by Tents4Peace. The priority for Peace House is to offer support to refugees returning from Peshawar following the 2005 earthquake.

Established within Peace House is a vocational training centre containing two rooms designed for specialized training. One – lined with mirrors, cabinets and revolving chairs – looks very elegant and is for our beautician course. Beauticians are in great demand in Afghanistan for weddings and engagement parties. So far, the widows that have taken up this option are thoroughly enjoying their training, and once they have their certificates, will be helped to set up to work from home, or to find jobs.

The other training room has been set up for sewing and tailoring with a small grant made directly in Kabul through the Australian Government’s Direct Aid Program. This grant will enable us to purchase new machines, including an overlocker - allowing us to update the very old machines we have now! The older girls and widows will learn to sew and there are some interesting opportunities already presenting themselves for sewing commissions.

Older orphan boys without extended family support have a very difficult time getting accommodation in Kabul. Part of Peace House has been set aside to offer just that. Most of the boys here are starting to work, and do apprenticeships and training. This is similar to a half-way house where they can find their feet – still able to get some emotional support – but able to contribute to their accommodation once they start to earn money.

The garden and recreational areas around Hope House and Peace House have now been well established. A small grant from the IMF through Permaculture Across Borders was given to celebrate Global Youth Service Day 2007 and the older boys used the money to build compost bins for the community.

The gardens are being used to teach vegetable gardening – simple skills that are easily lost when children are uprooted from their traditional homes and culture.

Already the garden is very productive. When Mahboba was there on her recent trip, the older boys came in with baskets of fresh tomatoes, eggplants, chilis and corn on the cob.

A boost to the furnishing of Hope House and Peace House came when S3 AG, a member of the Sefinor Group, which has been clearing Afghanistan of land mines, donated goods in kind. William Sudell, the Manager for Afghanistan said “We had surplus equipment which we thought might be useful to Mahboba’s Promise and were delighted that they could use the furniture in Hope House.”

Encouraging our orphans to participate in individual and team sports is a priority for Mahboba’s Promise. “Most of the children have never participated in organised sport & recreation before, but they love it once given the chance, it’s incredible to watch their enthusiasm”, says Mahboba.

The soccer team has been together now for three years. We have recently started Taekwondo classes at Hope House Community Centre. Sidiq, our Executive Director in Afghanistan, is also introducing netball for the girls now that there is a wall around the area for them to play in privacy.

In the recent Taekwondo Competitions held at Ghazi stadium in Kabul, 25 teams competed, including a team of orphans sponsored by Mahboba’s Promise who won 3rd prize overall and brought home three trophies. Two girls who have only been attending classes for a few weeks came second in their competition and another 8 children received certificates. This was a tremendous achievement.

Participation in sport and competition has been a tremendous boost to the confidence of the children. Sidiq says “All the orphans were so excited by the competition. Not only did our team win prizes, but they were the best behaved team in the completion and the judges commented on their good attitude and behaviour.”

" Most of the children have never participated in organised sport & recreation before, but they love it once given the chance, it’s incredible to watch their enthusiasm."

Mahboba’s Promise is working to assist extended families send orphans to school. Access to education can often be lost due to the cost. Fees, school uniforms and transport are all expenses that many families simply cannot afford – especially when the child could be working and contributing to the family by earning money.

Mahboba’s Promise tries to address all the hurdles that prevent the orphans from not only attending but excelling at school. As well as ensuring that all the economic costs are covered, another factor is catching up years of lost schooling. Supplementary teachers teach the school curriculum every day at Hope House and at Hazrat Ail Orphanage, helping the children catch up and understand their lessons.

A recent report from a major charity highlighted hunger as one of the biggest obstacles to education. Often children do not eat all day and are too hungry to absorb their lessons. We encourage schools to provide school lunches and where possible, we ensure the children have breakfast.

We also recognize that sport and recreation are an important element in improving grades at school, as children are more relaxed, learn through sport and develop a positive outlook.

Schools are key to the success of education. While we focus on the children and encourage their attendance at school, we also try to assist various schools throughout Afghanistan to ensure they can give the students what they need to get a good education.

With the help of Australian schools, donations and sponsorship programs, Mahboba’s Promise continues to improve the facilities at the schools we support. Blackboards and stationery are highly sought after, but we also help to improve infrastructure. We recently repaired the pumps and tanks at the water well of a large school in Kabul and installed piping and taps so the children now have easy access to something as simple as drinking water.

Panjshir Valley school was recently delighted with finger puppets received in April from Asquith Girls High School in Sydney and have also received funds to go towards a Library.

New steps have been built up to the school and the surrounding wall has been completed at the Abdara Girls’ School in the Panjshir Valley.

One of the orphans at the Hazrat Ali Home which is run by Mahboba’s Uncle, Haji Fazal Ahmad Sabit, was recently nominated as a Future President of Afghanistan after he won a competition run by the Ministry of Cultural and Youth Affairs of Afghanistan.

The competition was open to orphans and asked them to choose from five categories what they would like to be in the future.

Mohammad Khalid chose to become President. After many rounds of the competition, he was voted the winner. He was given a coat and a hat like those worn by President Karzai.

The children and helpers at the Hazrat Ali Home were delighted! Khalid is the youngest of seven children. His father died in an accident. His older brother works in the fields as he never had the opportunity to go to school. Khalid says “Here they encourage us to study and everybody here wants to study. I thank God that He has given us this opportunity and I feel very happy and want to thank all those people who are helping with this great project.” Khalid is also very well mannered and polite.

" Here they encourage us to study and everybody here wants to study. I thank God that He has given us this opportunity and I feel very happy and want to thank all those people who are helping with this great project."

The girls at the Abdara School in Panshir Valley were in the headlines too when their work was featured in an exhibition run in the NSW Parliament called ‘Big Ones Little Ones – Together’.

The exhibition was presented by Gallery Amichi & St Lucy’s School and was officially opened by NSW Governor Professor Marie Bashir.

This is an annual exhibition giving young indigenous artists from Australia and overseas a chance to shine. The girls in Abdara have no access to art teaching, but with donated coloured pencils they have produced some simple drawings which reach out with a spontaneity that touched us all.

For all the wonderful achievements that Mahboba’s Promise can be proud of, life continues to be very difficult for some of those we assist.

One of our widows recently lost her only daughter in a flood, while working in the fields. Her grief is compounded by the fact that her daughter was her main source of income. We are helping her through this difficult period,

Sadly, one of our orphans died from a brain tumor. She has two surviving sisters and we are now organizing medical examinations for both of them, as they too are complaining of headaches.

In the last few months we have started to assist orphans who have had life threatening conditions. Some overseas medical teams are visiting Kabul regularly to operate on difficult cases. Although they operate for free, there are incidental costs and the chances of making a good recovery are often lost in the after care. We step in to make sure that the patients have good food and rest after the operation in the hope that their chance of recovery is much improved.

The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission has recently been directing orphans to Mahboba’s Promise. Sidiq says “There are now many agencies that want us to take the orphans as the opportunities for them in our community are truly unique in Kabul. I have to look at each case. First I take those with no mother or father.”

Sabit School in Peshawar was closed in July after the Pakistan Government announced the closing of the Jalozai Refugee Camp in August 2007. This school was built by Mahboba’s Promise in 2001 and has educated hundreds of Afghani children. Uncle went from Kabul for the final graduation ceremony.

The Sydney Office

Zuli has been working in our Sydney garage office for nearly two years. Soon she will be leaving us to go to Canada to live. We thank Zuli for her continued efforts throughout her time with us and wish her the best for the future.

Mahboba Rawi

ABRN 135 823 880
Mahboba's Promise Inc is an Association Incorporated in NSW
and the liability of members is limited.
Mahboba’s Promise is a non-profit organisation that brings hope to orphans and widows ravaged by war.
PO Box 6234 North Ryde NSW 2113

OUR THANKS TO ALL OUR GENEROUS SPONSORS AND DONORS WHO HELP MAHBOBA'S PROMISE TO CONTINUE ITS RELIEF AND DEVELOPMENT WORK

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