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.