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!!."