Project Report
| Feb 10, 2017
New Expansion in Afghanistan!
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One of our earliest projects, our Afghanistan Children’s Gardens, continues to thrive! Our vegetable gardens are abundant and fruit trees have matured over the last four years — and the food we produce continues to help our children find loving foster families.
We have always known, however, that the cost of irrigation has been proportionately too high when compared to other costs. Fortunately, our local partner took our advice to look into the purchase of a greenhouse kit. Careful negotiations led to the purchase of a fabulous “drip line” greenhouse structure that allows us to create a year round vegetable growing operation. Thanks to drip irrigation (the scientific rationing of water) the cost of irrigation will decrease 90%.
Furthermore, with the amount of vegetables grown in our greenhouse will exceed the need of our current program. Excess produce can therefore be sold at a local farmer’s market and 100% of the proceeds will go to costs unrelated to feeding our children — such as books for school and warm winter clothing.
Expansion to Faizabad
In 2015 Badakhshan, the northernmost province of Afghanistan, was invaded by Taliban troops. They pushed through Baharak but did not notice our food security program. We do not have any markings on it and only a few of our local partners know that an outside NGO provides funding for it. Our local gardener and security guard rounded up the 30+ children in our program (including 22 orphans) and transported them to relative safety in nearby Faizabad.
While in Faizabad, our local managers met several women who manage a Women’s Vocational Center. If you know anything about Afghanistan, Sharia Law and women’s rights, you know how radical the concept of a vocational center for women is.
Our managers met with the women in charge and soon learned that the center wasn’t just about helping war widows learn a trade that can produce an income — it was also a place where the legions of Faizabad street children could go for food year round and shelter during the coldest winter months.
After a meeting with our local manager recently in New Dehli, we decided to expand our successful food security program in Baharak to Faizabad! The total number of lives touched by Global Roots will increase from 30 to 180 children in one year! The initial cost of program set up (greenhouse construction, training, etc) will be $10,000 but the annual cost per child after that will be $133 a year!
In other news, our founder, Rick, will be making a journey to Afghanistan this spring on a special mission. A young girl has gone missing from an orphanage which Global Roots encountered on our very first missions to the area. Rick will be traveling to Afghanistan to personally investigate and search for missing Sasha! We wish him luck!
Stay tuned for our next Afghanistan update in just two weeks….
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