2009 In Review

We measure our year in two ways: First, through the faces of the needy Afghan children whose lives we have had the privilege to touch.  Second, though harder to gauge, by the amount of joy we have brought to our donors through facilitating their giving to these wonderful children. 

Throughout the year, we continued to distribute your many boxes of donated items to needy children and orphanages. New this year, however, we also began collecting cash donations for lifesaving medical operations, renewable energy systems, blankets, bedding, mattresses, toys, and school supplies for war-scarred children living in orphanages, refugee camps, and even caves.

And this year, through your generosity, we have grown to the point where it seemed time to form a 501(c)(3) corporation so that your future donations will be tax-deductible. We are also in the process of creating a new website, and should soon be able to accept your PayPal and credit card donations.

What has not changed this year is that 100% of your donations reach the children. We are all volunteers and we ourselves pay the entire costs of running this organization.

Looking ahead, we will continue to help you win young hearts and minds in Afghanistan, either through our projects or in any other way you specify. And finally, our current, pressing need is to raise $25,000 within the next 6 months to send a young Afghan child to India for a lifesaving bone marrow transplant (see story, below).

Thank you all for your generosity this past year. We hope it has brought you as much joy as it has brought to Afghan children.

Note: We will soon be distributing our "Year In Review/Year Ahead" DVD of pictures to all of our friends. If you would like a copy, send us an e-mail with your mailing address.

--Will

Our 2009 Team of Volunteers

Forming a 501(c)(3) Tax-Deductible Organization, Etc!

It is time 2 go tax-deductible.  Of course, real charity couldn't care less about tax deductions.  But this way you can now give needy children the additional tax savings, rather than have your government spend it on war.
We are now in the process of forming a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization with the express purpose of charitable giving for children in Afghanland and perhaps other dysfunctional places around the world.  The whole process could take several months, however donations made in the interim should still be tax-deductible once IRS approval is received.
So look for new names, logo, a Board of Directors and eventually an interactive website.  Also PayPal and credit card donation options.  But do not worry--your donations WILL NOT be paying for any of these niceties.  We will pay for it all ourselves, and as always, 100% of what you give will go directly to the children.

Mozart's Memorial Fund to Help Poor People Living in Caves

On November 21, Mozart, "a little person in a doggie suit," died peacefully. He was a few days away from his 15th birthday. All his life, he was a best friend, an inspiration and role-model for selfless giving.  He brought joy to most everyone he met, particularly children.

Mozart was born in Alaska.  His mother, Lady Zoe, was a yellow lab from Birchwood.  His father, Darby, a chocolate lab, lived at a remote lodge on the Talaschlitna River and was widely-known for his penchant for treeing black bears.  Mozart loved riding in the Super Cub and his favorite places on Earth were the barrier islands of Prince William Sound.

At one point in his life, Mozart attended some classes at law school, however he proved smarter than most of his fellow law students and prefered chewing on sticks.  He also lived for a while in Nicaragua, where he took a daily dip in a swimming pool that had belonged to the Somozas.  He was an avid hunter, but in later life preferred braised boeuf. 

He delighted many people with his parlor tricks.  His German Shepherd impersonation (in which he did a "Heil Hitler" salute with his forearm) was a particular showstopper.  He also could scrunch his face into an uncanny Sharpei imitation.  In his final years, he spent a good deal of time impersonating government workers.

About the time of Mozart's death, Jawad Wafa, a good friend of mine from Bamyan, Afghainstan, asked me if I could help out some extremely poor families with children living in caves. Due to any number of reasons in this disaster-ridden country, they are having a rough winter and are badly in need of coal and blankets.  Jawad sent me these pictures of some of these people and their caves.

In keeping with Mozart's way of loving and encouraging everyone, I am going to help each family buy coal and good, warm blankets. Jawad says they need around 70 blankets.  I estimate the whole project will cost around $2,000.

If you were inspired by Mozart, or simply want to help the cave dwellers get through the winter, I invite you to send me a donation (money and/or blankets) to help bring some Mozartean joy and warmth to these poor children and their parents.

--Will

Helping Sediq get a Lifesaving Bone Marrow Transplant in India

I am a materialist. When I buy myself a present, it makes me happy. But when I buy you a present, it makes two people happy. Thus I am always happy to help your gifts--large and small--get to those who really need them. Thanks to your generosity these past two years, I have had the pleasure of helping dozens of folks in the US leverage their giving to several hundred people in Afghanistan.

And now I have gotten into by far my largest and most ambitious gift-brokering project ever. In short: We need to come up with $25,000 in 6 months to send a little Afghan boy to India for a life-saving bone marrow transplant.

Last summer I met Aimal Khaurin. Aimal was traveling in the Hindu Kush working on the much-discussed presidential elections here. He has a very cute 2 year old son named Sediq, who at age 3 months, was diagnosed with Thalassemia Major. Sediq has been kept alive by approximately 30 blood transfusions at roughly three-week intervals ever since. One is not normally expected to survive with this condition in Afghanistan.

But Sediq's father and I have been researching treatment options in India. It turns out that with a bone marrow transplant, Sediq has a 4 out of 5 chance of living a normal life, or at least just plain living.  And Sediq has two older brothers, Usman and Omar, who are eager to serve as marrow donors to help their brother they dearly love.

When I was in India for my own surgery in August, I found the Thalassemia Society India. We learned of the work being done to treat children at Vellore Christian Hospital in southern India. Surprisingly, the total cost for a BMT procedure at Vellore only runs between 18,000-25,000 US$.

This is, of course, a huge sum of money to me, especially as I see all the opportunities for life-changing gift-giving in Afghanistan and want to reach out to as many people as possible. Nonetheless, I believe it was not accidental that I met Sediq's father. The more I have thought about this project the more I am committed to raising this money.   2 Years is said to be the optimal age for the BMT, so we need to act fast.

Any act of kindness to a living creature, no matter how small, returns multiples of rewards. Whether you have a spare sack of $25,000 dollars in the attic, or want to give just $1, you can give a gift that will potentially save a life.  And you can be assured that every dollar will go to Sediq's treatment.  As soon as I raise the money for the BMT, I will personally pay for the whole family to go to India and live there for 3 months for the procedure.  Please help if you can.

BTW: As of mid-December, we will have a 501(c)(3) charitable corporation, so you can give tax-deductible gifts.

--W.

60 New Mattresses for Bamyan Orphans

Thanks to your generosity, we just purchased 70 new mattresses in Kabul for the orphans in Bamyan who currently sleep on rough wool blankets.  And thanks to my pilot friends here at Blackwater Aviation, these mattresses are being flown in as I can get them on planes.  It is amazing how much room one can still find on a "full" flight, if it is for a good cause.  We will soon post Pics of gleefully soporific children and the orphanage's new solar electric system.   For now, here is Meredith and I on the Bagram flight line getting ready to load mattresses on a flight to Bamyan.

UPDATE 12/6/09:  All of the mattresses have been delivered.  Note that the children are wearing warm winter clothes,which some of you will probably recognize as from your own children.  There is no central heat in the orphanage and it is pretty cold in Bamyan.  They have about 6 inches of snow on the ground there right now.  But at least the children have, what is for most of them, their first mattresses ever.  The blankets were donated by folks in New Zealand.

A Visit to the Samar Orphanage

Nine-year-old Ajmal Khan lives high in central Afghanistan's Hindu Kush mountains. He plays in the shadow of cliffs from which were hewn the magnificent Buddha statues destroyed by the Taliban. He loves books, school, kite flying and potatoes. He lives with fifty-seven other children, not far from mass graves that may hold the remains of their parents.

But Ajmal and the other children at the Samar Orphanage do not focus on what the world has taken from them. Instead, Ajmal sprints to be the first to greet a surprise visitor from the US. Soon, an undulating knot of children warmly envelop the visitor. Handshakes become hugs; greetings become English demonstrations; everyone is soon a friend.

The Director is eager to meet me in his office and discuss the orphanage's acute needs. But the votes of fifty-eight enthusiastic children are that it is more important I first see what they have, rather than what they lack. Of course, the children win.

Each room houses eight children in steel bunk beds. Like children everywhere, they are pack rats. Their oddball possessions fill the corners of their bunks. Barney the Dinosaur is missing his purple tail. Not from a land mine, I am assured. Hello Kitty dons a headscarf as part of a light Moslem makeover. And they obviously love picture books in any language. They seem to love anything in any language, collecting everything from stones to discarded hardware to any sundry ephemera. Just children.

I meet some of the six adults who act as "parents" to the children.  They are among the few saints on Earth who really know the meaning of a ten-to-one child/parent ratio.  They tell me their secret is for the children to learn to help one another at an early age.  Something is working, as the Samar Orphanage seems more like a family with fifty-eight brothers and sisters than an institution.

Now it is time for lunch. The children line up in Dickensian fashion, each with a tin bowl. They await a serving of food cooked over an open wood fire. Some of the older children (they range in age from four to sixteen) help with the cooking and serving. Today's lunch: white rice and fried potatoes-a child's, if not a dietitian's, dream. The Valley is deservedly famous for its fine potatoes.

After lunch we tour the outside. While the Bamyan Valley is mostly full of lush potato fields that are currently in bloom, the orphanage seems to have been located in its most sun-baked, desert-like reaches. It lies at the mouth of Dragon Valley, so named because of a serpent-like rock outcrop. The rock dragon was once alive, it is said, requiring a human sacrifice per day for its dietary needs. Then Mohammed's son-in-law swept in from Mecca, turned the dragon to stone and thereby eased the area's forced conversion to Islam.. Unfortunately, it did little to green up the area immediately surrounding the orphanage, which is hot and dusty in the summer. And at 8,500' elevation in the Hindu Kush, presumably cold and snowy in the winter.

The buildings housing the orphanage were built by NGOs like the Shuhada Organization and look clean and new. But the orphanage is pretty much on its own to fund operations, particularly things beyond bare necessities. For instance, they have a donated generator in the yard, but are generally without power, as there is no money for fuel. Instead, the Director shows me pictures of a small solar electric system he hopes to install. Then the children can at least have electric lights in the evening for their studies.

It takes little time to realize just how well-studied these children are. Some of them actually brief me on the Valley's history. I'm told it lies on the ancient Silk Road and predates Alexander the Great, so there is plenty of history to talk about. "But is anyone still afraid of the dragon"? I ask. "He only eats potatoes now," I am told to intense laughter. Finally, I have found another vegetarian in Afghanistan.

The children attend school right next to the orphanage, girls included. Here they mix with children from nearby families and apparently excel at their studies. One Samar alumnus now attends university in Kabul on a merit scholarship.

Ajmal thinks he may someday become a doctor. Here, he can look to his Provincial Governor as a role model. She is an epidemiologist, as well as Afghanistan's first and only woman governor. Such advances are possible here because the people of this region practice a relatively moderate and tolerant form of Islam.

Yet one thing these people have never tolerated is the Taliban.  Isolated and independent, they were among the last holdouts. When they finally fell, the Taliban slaughtered thousands. Their legacy is orphans and the rubble of shattered antiquities.  The Taliban have no friends here.

But that is the past. The Samar Orphanage is the future. Fifty-eight reasons why this perpetually war-torn nation can hope for better.  And after already losing so much to extremism, these children could become the most promising weapons we have in the so-called "war on terror." For while terrorists are arguably a mixture of ignorance, despair and hatred, these children's unique lives appear to have made them miraculously opposite concoctions.

For centuries, the people of this region have been renowned for their hospitality to strangers and loyalty to friends. Based upon my visit, it appears nothing has changed. Whoever befriends these children is likely to have loyal allies here for many years to come. Not to mention having helped some extraordinary children.

W.

Fall Fundraising Half Way--Still Need Computers

First of all, the counter in the upper right corner is not what we have raised for orphans in Afghanistan--we are up around $5,000.  And thanks to the generosity of two donors alone, we have already raised the money for the new solar electric system and new mattresses, among other items.

Meredith has all of the new bedsheet sets for 70 beds.  We are now raising money for the pillows and blankets and learning supplies. Overall, we have about half of the money we are targeting for our projects at the orphanage this fall. 

What we really need now are your used but OK computers.  We have dozens of intelligent and promising young Afghans in high school who have never had a computer of their own.  If you have one you could send or know someone who does, please shoot me an e-mail.  wfs99501@yahoo.com

--W.

Greetings

The words and pictures on this page are intended to thank you for your generosity in the past and to keep you updated on what we are currently doing to help the orphans in Bamyan. Your donations of clothing, shoes, school supplies and money over the past two years have delighted the children of the orphanage and impressed many Afghans.

There is no official organization here. No tax write-offs. But through a set of unique circumstances, including the help of Blackwater Aviation and the wonderful New Zealand troops based in Bamyan, I have been able to get 100% of your donations to the children, with no bribes, overhead, middlemen or rake-offs at all. If there are any costs in getting your donations to the children, I will pay for them myself.

After two years, I am attempting to expand our help to the orphanage. This does not mean that I am undertaking any sort of recurring commitments, just that in addition to the items sent from the US, I will also help the orphanage obtain specific items which make more sense to purchase in country (e.g., mattresses, pillows, solar panels). Thus, in addition to the generous donations of items mailed from the US, I am now also attempting to raise money for specific needs at the orphanage. Look for the list of these needs elsewhere on this page, and please help out if you can. And maybe pass this idea on to others who may be interested. I am always happy to correspond with anyone.

W.
wfs99501@yahoo.com

Kiwis Deliver Your Donated Items

Will,

I took the clothes etc you sent to this Orphanage and they were very grateful for them and asked me to thank you for your kindness. The children loved us visiting and just crowded around us trying out their English on us.

The Headmaster of the Ayenda Foundation Day School for disadvantaged Children thanked me for the HA stationery and pens you have sent to us.

Sincerely,

Murray

Note: Since I started gathering donations for the orphanages, the New Zealand peacekeeping troops based in the area have been wonderfully generous with their time in housing and delivering the items.  --W.

Orphanage Seeks a Solar Electric System

Though situated high in the mountains, the Bamyan Valley has two things in abundance: potatoes and sunny weather.  The valley does not, however, have any central electric utility.  Thus the orphanage is usually without power as it hasn't money to operate its generator. 

But hopefully they will soon have a small solar electric system that will allow the children light in the evenings.  I received the following message and photographs from the Director:

Dear Mr.Sherman:  
We are thankful of you for your visiting Samar Orphanage in Bamyan Province.Secondly we Appreciate your nice feelings upon the Orphanage and the Childs.
Please find the attached files which are includid two Pictures of Solar and the bill from where we have [previously bought a system] from kabul for one of our Clinics.  For three months we are using that and yet we have received a positive result from it.


Thanks alot dear Mr.Sherman

Best reguards,
Eng,Ghulam Hussian "Matin"
Head of Shuhada Organization
Bamyan Provincial Office

These pics are of the system in use at a Shuhada Organization-funded health clinic in Bamyan and it is apparently working wonderfully.  I have the receipt for this systyem.  It cost $1500 in Kabul and would probably total $1700 when delivered and installed at the orphanage.

I am so enthusiastic about providing the children with lights at night as well as promoting renewable energy, that right on the spot I promised the Director I would deliver this system before winter.  

If anyone is interested in providing the money for this system, I will personally see that it is installed and in working order before I even cash your check.  I guarantee you will never receive greater satisfaction from any other donation.
 
--Will

Thanks to all of you who sent badly-needed school supplies

Terrorist organizations generally rely on ignorance for recruiting.  If a person cannot read or write it is much easier to sell them on extremist ideologies and even, say, to convince them to blow themselves up for the organization's causes.  Therefore we should all be thankful that schools are now operating throughout Afghanistan, and that Girls also attend, long the Taliban's bête noire.

However, school supplies have been in particularly short supply in the Bamyan Valley this summer and fall.  When the usual NGOs were not able to provide, I was contacted and asked if I could find any.  Of course, my friends responded with incredible generosity.  All together, we sent around 15 boxes of school supplies to the orphanage and several charity schools in the Valley.  The Oneonta, NY First Presbyterian Church, led by Mrs. Patten, send wonderful supplies, following on the heels of a huge shipment of winter clothing last year.  And Chuck Lopez's family and church in Virginia sent a large shipment with shipping from the States courtesy of Avenge, Inc.  Thank you all for these badly-needed supplies.

W.

How Can Orphans Be "Our Best Weapons Against Terror"?

Long-term history teaches that war in Afghanistan will not be fast or easy. Recent history teaches that there will be no lasting success in Afghanistan without rebuilding the nation. When the Soviets left, the world turned its back on Afghanistan, allowing it to fall to the Taliban and become a global haven for terrorists. In 2002, having routed the Taliban, we again largely ignored nation building, allowing the current Taliban comeback. So far this year, over 220 US soldiers have died in Afghanistan, more than in the first 4 years of the war combined.  (http://icasualties.org/oef/)

We are thus left with two interdependent goals in Afghanistan: Rebuild the nation, and keep it from again becoming a terror haven.

Nation building is essentially about winning (and keeping) the hearts and minds of Afghan people. These orphans are among many needy people and worthy causes in Afghanistan and I never want to take aid away from anyone else. But these kids may provide one of the best returns on your donation for a number of reasons: 

●. Many have already lost their parents to extremism, war or some other avoidable pestilence-- if anyone longs for a changed Afghanistan, they do;

●. These children, girls and boys alike, are receiving a reasonably good education;

●. They are being brought up in a relatively tolerant and non-fundamentalist part of Afghanistan;

●. Due to the relative stability of their region, donations will not find their way into the hands of the Taliban, as in some other parts of the nation.

●. Children are the future leaders of Afghanistan.
●.100% of what you give goes directly to the children--we pay any expenses ourselves.

Two years ago, I just thought it would be cool to fly presents out to these orphans so that when they thought of the US, they would think of hope and friendship. Now I think that we may actually need these orphans more than they need us.
--W.