Extensive New York Times article discussing the merits of small grants and projects having bigger impact versus the billions spent through governments. Mentions the work of Aga Khan Development Network. With Multimedia Slide show.

Five years ago, The Aga Khan Development Network spent more than a year trying to persuade a mullah to allow a girls' school. Today, the village of Fargamanch has a girls' high school.

–excerpt– Jurm presented many obstacles, and it took a development group with determined local employees to jump-start the work here.

One basic problem was literacy, said Ghulam Dekan, a local worker with the Aga Khan Development Network, the nonprofit group that supports the councils here.

Unlike the situation in Iraq, which has a literacy rate of more than 70 percent, fewer than a third of Afghans can read, making the work of the councils painfully slow. Villagers were suspicious of projects, believing that the people in the groups that introduced them were Christian missionaries.

“They didn’t understand the importance of a road,” Mr. Dekan said.

Most projects, no matter how simple, took five years. Years of war had smashed Afghan society into rancorous bits, making it difficult to resist efforts by warlords to muscle in on projects.

“They said, ‘For God’s sake, we can’t do this, we don’t have the capability,’ ” Mr. Dekan said. “We taught them to have confidence.”

via An Afghan Development Model – Small Is Better – NYTimes.com.
Link to Multimedia slideshow

Badakhshan in northeast Afghanistan is now ranked second worst in the world when it comes to maternal mortality. And just a few years ago in 2006, Badakhshan had the worst ever recorded incidence of maternal mortality ever recorded in history. And yet there are many NGOs working here.

John Tomaro is the director of the health programs for the Aga Khan Foundation, which is very active in Badakhshan.

He says the statistics still are so grim there because, “it takes a long time to really have a change in the maternal mortality ratio. There are a couple of techniques that will indicate whether or not we’re on the right course — that is that the maternal mortality ratio is going down. But it takes a significant amount of time to measure it. We do think, however, that we’ve begun to put in place some of the measures that will have an effect in reducing the ratio.”

One of the measures Tomaro’s group is working on is a community midwife school that recruits young women from the villages in Badakhshan.

via Maternal mortality in Afghanistan | PRI.ORG.

Christopher Alexander (former Canadian Ambassador to Afghanistan) – November 1, 2009

–snip– The third dimension is business infrastructure. A Private Sector and Civil Society Enabling Council is active at presidential initiative, following a conference organized by the government and the Aga Khan Development Network in July 2006. Over 10 million Afghans now have access to mobile telecommunications. Access to finance has improved with 14 banks now licensed, including a network of entities offering microfinance. Under Afghanistan’s Border Management Initiative, customs procedures are improving, due to new equipment and better training. On September 27, 2008, Afghanistan inaugurated the Afghanistan Central Business Registry – a one-stop shop.

Tourism and culture – the fourth pillar – are equally critical. Badakhshan, Bamiyan, Herat and other provinces are already cultural magnets – as pilgrimage sites, as centres of civilization, and as stunning settings. With better security, tourism is set to become a major driver of Afghan growth. A new generation of mountain guides took several expeditions to Badakhshan’s highest peaks in 2005. On April 22, 2009, Mostapha Zaher, Director-General of Afghanistan’s National Environmental Protection Agency (and grandson of King Zaher Shah), inaugurated Afghanistan’s first national park at Band-e Amir – a series of six terraced lakes in Bamiyan province. The Afghan story has a huge audience – from Khaled Hossaini’s best-selling Kite Runner, to Atiq Rahimi’s Prix Goncourt-winning Syngue sabour (Pierre de patience), to the blockbuster Afghan Star feature on Saad Mohseni’s Tolo television – itself the subject of a prize-winning documentary. Farhad Darya remains one of the Farsi-speaking world’s greatest singers. “East-West Divan,” an exhibition of contemporary Afghan, Iranian and Pakistani artists shown at the 2009 Venice Biennale, has put this vitality on display, as has urban regeneration and restoration of historic monuments by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture in both Kabul and Herat, and by Turquoise Mountain in the Murad Khane precinct of Kabul’s Old City. The “Bactrian Gold” exhibition, now shown in Europe and North America, has refreshed the world’s taste for the richness of Afghanistan’s archaeological legacy.

Rest of the article and video at the source: http://globalbrief.ca/blog/2009/11/01/afghan-futures/

[Dr Hajira] has dedicated her life to helping save women’s lives.

And a new army of midwives is slowly being trained to start bringing modern practises to this battle.

In a programme run by the Aga Khan Foundation, young women are chosen by their villages, given approval by their husbands or fathers, and come to Faizabad for an 18-month course.

Eighteen-year-old Masuma , already a mother with two children, will return to her village in Shahr-e Bozorg.

“It was a community decision and I want to be a midwife to serve my people,” she says.

She and a dozen other young women in white medical coats and pale blue caps watch intently as their teacher Farzana Darakhuna demonstrates with a rubber infant how to deliver a baby safely.

Farzana sees progress: “In the past, men wouldn’t think of taking their wife to a clinic. They used to think if they took her there, there might be many men, and her dignity wouldn’t be protected.”

In this conservative society, changing women’s lives means changing men’s too.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/8326102.stm

Kabul is a chaotic capital, but at the heart of the city is a rebuilt garden where noise and guns don’t permeate. Reporter Alex Helmick takes a walk through maybe the most peaceful place in Kabul.

— Alex Helmick, World Radio Switzerland

Ajmal Maiwandi is deputy program manager for the Aga Khan Trust for Culture. Headquarters for the Shia Ismaili Muslim spiritual leader the Aga Khan and his many charities is in Geneva, Switzerland.

The Trust for Culture spent nearly 7 million U.S. dollars restoring a once sacred place in Kabul.

(Audio report at the source) via WRS | The most peaceful place in Kabul.

http://www.akdn.org/slideshow.asp?Sid=153

Date: 13 Oct 2009 – Schooling for Afghan girls remains a focus of Germany’s reconstruction aid.Six hundred girls will now be taught in the new building of the Mario Keller Girls’ School in the village of Shuduj in Northern Afghanistan’s Shegnan District. The school was named in memory of a German police officer killed in Kabul in 2007.

The new school building was opened with a moving ceremony on 10 October 2009. In future girls from the region can have lessons in a proper environment rather than in temporary buildings and tents.

Not only the girls themselves but the whole village celebrated the long-awaited move into the eight large and well-lit classrooms.

–snip–

The Federal Foreign Office assumed the remaining costs for the project, carried out by the Aga Khan Foundation

http://www.reliefweb.int/
http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/
Earlier: Germany promotes private initiative to build girls’ school in Northern Afghanistan

Focus Humanitarian Assistance (FOCUS) Afghanistan is currently implementing a Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction (CBDRR) project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Office for Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA). The CBDRR project seeks to increase awareness and disaster-resilience in highly vulnerable communities by strengthening local capacity to anticipate, prepare for, respond to and recover from natural disasters.

More … http://www.akdn.org/Content/857 – Photo Gallery of Disaster Resilience Training

A native of Lower Coverdale, Rebecca obtained her undergrad degree at Langley, B.C.’s Trinity Western University, and at the London School of Economics and Political Science in the UK, earned her masters degree in gender, development and globalization. That prepared her well for her current job in Afghanistan as program coordinator for governance and community development with the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) — a rural development agency within the Aga Khan Development Network.

–snip–

There’s much that Rebecca finds personally rewarding about her present work, and it is understandably life-changing. From chairing a working group on gender issues within NSP, to field visits where community improvements are clearly visible, positive change is happening. She believes she’s making a difference in relation to gender/woman’s issues, and as well when she “listens closely” — not only to the needs of her colleagues, but also to those on whose behalf she advocates among the various agencies she works with.

Rebecca Haines is seeing Afghanistan in a way that most of us never will, and she is completely committed to the people she serves there.

http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/news/article/821386

Four young Afghan Ismaili mountaineers from Wakhan wanted to offer a message of peace and hope to their countrymen. Together with a team of Frenchmen, they set out to climb Noshaq — the country’s highest mountain.

Link to France24 video documentary about the climb http://www.france24.com

Article at theIsmaili.org: A beacon of hope from the summit of Afghanistan’s highest mountain

Earlier related: Life: A mason and a mountaineer – Two climbers first locals on Afghanistan’s highest peak

By ANN MARLOWE Kabul, Afghanistan

Afghanistan is not quite ready for tourists. But when it is they will stand here, at the edge of Kabul’s Old City, preparing to explore the area of a couple of square miles known as Asheqan wa Arefan. Though from a distance Asheqan wa Arefan looks downtrodden, on closer inspection it contains many lovely 18th- and 19th-century wooden houses, sensitively renovated over the past seven years by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture.

Home to about 22,000 mainly poor Afghans, the neighborhood in central Kabul, like much of the city, has ancient roots. It bears the name of two brothers whose grave dates from the ninth century. On the steep hillside above is an old Islamic period mausoleum and, higher still, the remnants of a Buddhist stupa.

“The municipality thinks it is a slum,” says Jolyon Leslie, the local head of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC). In the absence of tourism in the Old City, the AKTC, a nonprofit founded by a hereditary leader of one of the largest Shia Muslim sects, is working to preserve Afghanistan’s heritage for those who live among it. Afghan architects have done the design work, supervising Afghan artisans.

Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/ - http://www.artsjournal.com/

Sep 24, 2009 – 04:30 AM By Kristen Calis

Canada’s work in Afghanistan is far from over and pulling troops out before the mission is complete would be premature, said a retired Durham police officer who served in Afghanistan.

–snip–

Alnoor Maherali shared his experience as an executive assistant for the assistant deputy minister for international security at Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada.

“I’d be lying to you if I said I wasn’t scared going out there,” he said.

But it was great to see how Canada can help Afghanistan to hopefully become independent one day, he said.

http://www.newsdurhamregion.com

October 05, 2009 By Antoine Blua

The Bamiyan Valley is nestled among green fields, ochre cliffs, and eroded geological wonders in Afghanistan’s central highlands.

In recent history, it is best-known for the Taliban’s destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas in 2001. The dynamiting of the two giant statues, carved into sandstone cliffs along the ancient Silk Road in the sixth century, sparked an international outcry.

But tourists continue to be attracted to the site’s cultural riches and ancient ruins that remain, including the network of caves dug into the rock face by Buddhist monks.

Another attraction is nearby Band-e Amir, a series of deep blue lakes that became the centerpiece of Afghanistan’s first national park earlier this year. The park is home to the ibex goat and to the urial sheep, along with the Afghan snow finch, the only bird found exclusively in Afghanistan.

–snip–

The Bamiyan central highlands today draw thousands of Afghan tourists annually (as well as foreigners living and working in the country). And the nonprofit Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) is implementing a program to help local people to welcome foreign visitors back.

http://www.rferl.org/content/Afghans_Prepare_For_Tourism_Development/1843909.html

Monday, October 19, 2009
International Development Experts Speaker Series @ Rotman
7:30-8:00am coffee and muffins; 8:00 sharp to 9:10am presentation and Q&A

GUEST SPEAKER: Karim Khoja, CEO, Roshan Telecom Development Company Afghanistan Ltd.

TOPIC: “Together for Tomorrow: How the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development and Roshan Are Shaping a Brighter Future for Afghanistan”.

PLACE: Classroom 134 (ground floor), Rotman School of Management, U of Toronto, 105 St. George Street

FEE: None., All are welcome.

TO REGISTER: Pre-registration to attend on October 19 is mandatory by noon on October 16 at www.rotman.utoronto.ca/oct19

QUESTIONS: events@rotman.utoronto.ca or call 416-946-7462

via Rotman School of Management.

By ANN MARLOWE

Afghanistan is not quite ready for tourists. But when it is they will stand here, at the edge of Kabul’s Old City, preparing to explore the area of a couple of square miles known as Asheqan wa Arefan. Though from a distance Asheqan wa Arefan looks downtrodden, on closer inspection it contains many lovely 18th- and 19th- century wooden houses, sensitively renovated over the last seven years by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture.

Home to about 22,000 mainly poor Afghans, the neighborhood in central Kabul, like much of the city, has ancient roots. It bears the name of two brothers whose grave dates from the ninth century. On the steep hillside above is an old Islamic period mausoleum and, higher still, the remnants of a Buddhist stupa.

More … http://online.wsj.com/article
Print PDF

13 August 09 – excerpt -

Midwives are believed to have improved women’s access to essential health services and have reduced maternal mortality in some parts of the country.

“Maternal death during child delivery has decreased by about 50 percent,” Zainab Rezayee, an obstetrician in Bamyan Provincial Hospital, told IRIN, referring to her hospital. Both Bamyan Provincial Hospital and Bamyan Midwifery School are managed by the Aga Khan Development Network.

In 2004, two to four babies were born every month at health centres in rural Bamyan. Today, more than 35 are born in medical centres every month thanks to 41 graduated midwives in the province. Deliveries at Bamyan Provincial Hospital have increased from 30 a month in 2004 to more than 130 in 2009, Rezayee said.

Read at the source: http://www.humanrights-geneva.info

Dr Zemaryalai Tarzi is an Afghan with a big dream. To be exact, this archaeologist dreams of a giant – a 1,000ft (300 metre) sleeping Buddha.

Try to imagine a stone statue reclining across the length of three football fields.

–snip–
“I will persist,” the sprightly 70-year-old declared with a firm shake of his head. He guided us to another area running along the foot of the sandstone cliffs where he believes a much bigger Buddha still lies sleeping.

Dr Tarzi does not want this remarkable history to be forgotten.

In the middle of the day, when a hot sun blazes in the sky, he teaches a master class for young Afghans training to be tour guides at an eco-tourism centre set up with the help of the Aga Khan Foundation.

Bamiyan is one of the few places in Afghanistan now safe enough to dream of tourists too.

Article at BBC with video: http://news.bbc.co.uk

19 January 2009. The Aga Khan Trust for Culture and the United States, are renovating the old castle of Herat, as part of the conservation of historical places.

Earlier related at Ismailimail
Related at AKDN

Ann Marlowe, 09.02.09, Forbes.com

For the cities of Afghanistan, the 21st century may be the road to dystopia. Like many million-plus cities of the Islamic world, Kabul, Mazar-i-Sharif, Kandahar, and to a lesser extent, Herat, have already joined the worst of East and West, traditional and modern. They have the stifling, impractical concrete and glass buildings that read as “modern” in the developing world, but none of the elements of contemporary civil society.

–snip–

Yet looking forward to the next 100 years, there are a few rays of sunshine. One is the wonderful conservation work being done on an austere budget, and without fanfare, by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture in Afghanistan. With just one foreign architect on staff, Jolyon Leslie, skilled Afghan architects and craftsmen have renovated properties in an area of Kabul that is home to more than 20,000 people. A typical project, renovating an 18th-century home, costs just $60,000 to $100,000. Thanks to the fine work of the AKTC, the Afghanistan of 2109 will still have access to its heritage.

Read at the source: http://www.forbes.com

By: Aunohita Mojumdar

After decades of upheaval, Afghanistan today finds itself unable to remember its cultural past.

–snip–
Creating a receptive audience is also a challenge faced by Mirwaiss Sidiqi, the programme coordinator for the Aga Khan Music Initiative for Central Asia in Afghanistan. The programme teaches classical music to young Afghans, with classes conducted in vocal music and the traditional instruments of Afghanistan – the dilruba, rubab, tabla and sarinda. Initially, it was hard to find students to come and even harder to make them stay. As such, the classes remain free in order to encourage families to send their children, and students even get a small stipend as travel expenses so as to remove any disincentive.

–snip–
More heart than money
Still, the Aga Khan Foundation is one of the lucky ones, as others struggle just to keep their initiatives afloat. When Montagu organised the three-nation exhibition, she faced the timeless question of arts versus bread: Why, in a country of so many urgent and competing needs, should anyone spend money on art?

http://www.himalmag.com/Creating-an-audience-from-the-void_nw3419.html

By Ivan Watson CNN

Thursday is “Chinese night” at the Hotel Silk Road in Afghanistan’s Bamiyan province.
–snip–
“The natural resources and cultural resources here are probably the single best place for economic development to happen, around revitalizing the tourism industry here,” says Bob Thelen, the representative for the Aga Khan Development Network in Bamiyan. The nonprofit organization has been working with the government of New Zealand to distribute $1.2 million over a three-year period to develop eco-tourism as an industry in Bamiyan.

Story with photographs and video at CNN.com

More photographs at the source.

On the wall in the French Medical Institute for Children - run by the Aga Khan Development Network and a French charity La Chaine d'Espoir, which means chain of hope.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/pm/2009/08/hugh_sykes_in_afghanistan_1.shtml

Source: Government of Germany
Date: 14 Aug 2009

Germany and Norway are jointly funding the modernization of Faisabad Provincial Hospital. The hospital, which is responsible for providing medical care to more than 800,000 people, is in urgent need of repair and modernization. The KfW Entwicklungsbank (KfW development bank) and the Aga Khan Foundation are partners in the project.

Under the terms of the financing agreement, the Federal Foreign Office is contributing 6.3 million euro to the project, which will make it possible to renovate existing buildings, build new, much-needed diagnostic and treatment units and enhance the hospital’s training capacity. Norway’s contribution (1.3 million euro) is targeted at extending the hospital’s maternity facilities.

Faisabad hospital is responsible for the entire north-eastern Province of Badakhshan. Some 820,000 people, the large majority of whom are ethnic Tajiks, live in its catchment area. The hospital currently has 85 beds and employs 129 persons. Neither its buildings nor the quality of the medical care provided satisfy the requirements which are normally placed on a provincial hospital. Its maternity facilities, in particular, urgently need to be extended and improved. According to a UNICEF study, the region’s neonatal and maternal mortality rates are depressingly high.

The executing agency is KfW Entwicklungsbank. The planned measures are due to be completed within five years.

Another crucial factor in the project’s long-term success is the commitment given by the Aga Khan Foundation to take over the running of the hospital for 30 years. The Foundation is already present on the ground, and is involved in nurse training and local basic healthcare projects. KfW Entwicklungsbank has already been cooperating successfully for many years with the Aga Khan Health Services. The US Development Organization USAID has agreed to fund the running of the hospital.

Read at: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/OYAH-7UWN3E?OpenDocument

Health officials in Bamyan Province say newly trained midwives have increased child delivery rates at health centres and have reduced maternal deaths

“We have earned the peoples’ trust in our work,” Saleha Hamnavazada, coordinator of Bamyan Midwifery School, told IRIN. “We have created a reliable learning environment for women and have assured their men that women are totally safe and protected here.”

-snip-

Midwives are believed to have improved women’s access to essential health services and have reduced maternal mortality in some parts of the country.

“Maternal death during child delivery has decreased by about 50 percent,” Zainab Rezayee, an obstetrician in Bamyan Provincial Hospital, told IRIN, referring to her hospital. Both Bamyan Provincial Hospital and Bamyan Midwifery School are managed by the Aga Khan Development Network.

Read at source: http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=85680

Jul 26, 2009 (BBC Monitoring via COMTEX) — [Presenter] An agreement worth more than 12m dollars has been signed by the public health minister [Dr Sayed Mohammad Amin Fatemi] and representative of Aga Khan Foundation in Kabul to provide proper healthcare services.

Based on the agreement, the Aga Khan Foundation will provide healthcare services in three districts of northern Bamian and Baghlan provinces. Nilofar Kowsar has more.

[Correspondent] The agreement, which was signed by Dr Sayed Mohammad Amin Fatemi, the public health minister and Ali Moji, representative of Aga Khan Foundation in Kabul on Sunday [26 July] and based on the agreement, the Aga Khan Foundation will offer quality healthcare services in Shebar District of Bamian and Doshi and Dahan-e Ghori districts of northern Baghlan Province.

via Apria – resources – News.

BAMYAN, 27 July 2009 (IRIN) – A hospital in Bamyan Province, central Afghanistan, has set up a tele-medicine facility, linking it to the French Medical Institute for Children (FMIC) in Kabul, the capital, for tele-radiology, tele-conferencing and other medical services.

The machine was launched in the Bamyan hospital by the Aga Khan Health Services (AKHS) and Roshan Telecom, also an Aga Khan enterprise.

“The tele-radiology allows us to electronically send a digital scan of an X-ray to an expert in FMIC in Kabul and receive the interpretation and expertise quickly, instead of sending the patient with his/her film to Kabul,” Mattew Rodieck, Bamyan hospital manager, told IRIN.

In addition, through live tele-conference and tele-consultation sessions, health workers from Bamyan hospital are involved in training and exchange of information with experts in Kabul for diagnostic purposes.

The machine, costing US$100,000, has helped the hospital and patients save money and time because they are not required to travel to Kabul – about 230km away – for diagnosis and training.

“Instead of sending staff for a two-hour training session in Kabul we electronically link the trainees in Bamyan with the trainers in Kabul,” said Rodieck.

Up to 20 scans were exchanged between the FMIC in Kabul and the Bamyan hospital in June, the first month of the project.

The first tele-medicine project was launched in 2007 linking FMIC in Kabul to the Aga Khan University Hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. So far, more than 340 patients have benefited from the tele-medicine and some 231 Afghan medical personnel have participated in diagnostic and training opportunities facilitated by the new technology, according to AKHS.

via IRIN – Print Report.

Source: Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

Date: 26 Jul 2009

Dr. SMA Fatimie, Minister of Public Health of Afghanistan and Ms. Samira, health Coordinator of Agha Khan Foundation (AKF) signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the implementation of Basic Package of Health Services (BPHS) in Bamyan and Baghlan provinces in the presence of His Excellency Mr. Ali Mawji, Ambassador of His Higness Prince Karim Agh Khan. The project targets district of Shibar in Bamyan and districts of Doshi and Dahana-i-Ghori in Baghlan province. The total value for this project is $12.1 million for 12 years from 2009 to 2020. For Shibar district the budget is $4.9 million and for Doshi and Dahana-I-Ghori districts the budget is $7.9 million.

via ReliefWeb.

A group of ordinary Afghans from a remote area of that war-torn nation set out with a dream — to scale the country’s tallest peak in the name of peace. 
Aunohita Mojumdar tracks their epic journey all the way to the top

It all started over a cup of tea, as things do in Afghanistan. Malang, a cook in the Aga Khan office had a simple question: “Why not go up Noshaq?” And there it was. A straightforward question. The question ‘why not’ probably had many logical and sensible answers: because Afghanistan was a country in conflict; because Afghans had no tradition of mountaineering in the last three decades; because there was no money to back such an impossible dream. In the end, the answer to the question lay in the question itself: “Why not?” And four ordinary Afghans from the Wakhi community in the remote Wakhan corridor set off to climb their country’s highest mountain, Noshaq. On July 19, they became the first Afghan team to reach the top, and Noshaq now proudly flies the Afghan colours, planted there by Malang the cook and Amruddin, a Wakhi farmer.

Read at http://www.khaleejtimes.com

I’m a Human Resources Intern, at Roshan Telecom.  I’m in charge of employee database verification and policy revisions – but the best part of the job is that my office is full of locals. The people here are the highlight – hilarious, friendly and welcoming.

This blog is dedicated to all peace loving people.

http://aliminafg.blogspot.com/

KABUL, July 20 (Xinhua)– Over 400 small and medium development projects financed by Agha Khan Foundation have been completed over the past five years in Baghlan province north of Afghanistan, director of the agency in the province Abdullah Paidar said Monday.

“Totally 412 projects which include building bridges, roads, small power plants and small dams, etc. at a cost of more than 347 million Afghanis (nearly seven million U.S. dollars) have been completed over the past five years,” Paidar told newsmen at a press conference.

The projects have been implemented in 160 villages under National Solidarity Program (NSP) administered by Ministry for Rural Development and Rehabilitation, he further said.

Agha Khan Foundation like other international aid agencies has actively contributed in the rebuilding process of the war-torn Afghanistan over the past seven years.

via news.xinhuanet.com.

Jul 20, 2009 – Kabul – Two mountaineers became the first Afghans to conquer their home country’s highest peak, 7,492-metre Noshaq Month, in north-eastern Afghanistan, a senior member of the climbing team said Monday.

Malang, 35, and Amruddin, 25, members of the Afghans to the Top expedition, made it to Noshaq’s peak Sunday and planted the Afghan national flag, Jérôme Veyret, one of two French mountaineers accompanying the Afghan pair, told German Press Agency dpa by phone from the peak.

Two other Afghan climbers only made it to the base camp. All four Afghan mountaineers are from Ishkashim, a town located in the northern province of Badakhshan, one hour from Noshaq valley.

The idea for the expedition was hatched when the four Afghans shared their dreams of reaching the top of the mountain with three French mountaineers who visited the area in 2007.

The French climbers drew funds from Mountain Wilderness International, the Aga Khan Foundation, the United Nations and USAID to make the expedition possible.

via Two climbers first locals on Afghanistan’s highest peak.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8159998.stm

Bamiyan, Afghanistan — There’s a new building in town, and it isn’t a military barracks or a hospital. It’s a Tourist Information Center.
—–

In this photo taken Tuesday, June 16, 2009, visitors enjoy the view of a lake in Band-e-Amir, in the central Afghanistan's province of Bamiyan. The six azure lakes in Band-e-Amir are Afghanistan's first national park. In an attempt to return one small part of the country to normalcy government officials and international donors are promoting tourism to attract visitors to the Bamiyan area. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

Even as troops fight militants in the south, government officials and donors in Afghanistan’s central Bamiyan valley are training tour guides and teaching restaurateurs about customer service. It’s an attempt to draw tourism and return one small part of Afghanistan to normalcy.
—–
The tourism training program is funded through a Geneva-based Islamic organization, the Aga Khan Development Network, as part of a $1.2 million ecotourism program. All Afghan tourism initiatives are currently funded by international donors, according to Deputy Minister for Tourism Ghulam Nabi Farahi. New Zealand and Japan are big donors in Bamiyan.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/18/MNO918JCV7.DTL#ixzz0LiiyKPSO

“…the Obama administration wants to hold troop levels here flat for now, and focus instead on carrying out the previously approved strategy of increased economic development, improved governance and participation by the Afghan military and civilians in the conflict.”

WASHINGTON — To Afghanistan’s many problems—Taliban insurgents, narco-trafficking, corruption, a president who shuns campaigning—can be added one more: It’s one of the worst places in the world to do business.

–snip–

All who testified agreed that saving Afghanistan entails not only crushing the tough Taliban but also rebuilding a fragile economy.

Speaking to the panel from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, a spokesman for The Aga Khan Development Network, credited Afghan business savvy for the country’s resilience over years.

“Afghans are inherently very entrepreneurial,” the spokesman for the coalition of aid agencies said.
“It’s what allowed them to endure over 20 years of war.”

http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/washington/news.aspx?id=135815

Madrasa in Tashqurghan

The two latest issues of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture’s Afghanistan Newsletter are now available on ArchNet.

The March/April 2009 issue reports on the restoration of a Kabul funerary structure near Bagh-e Babur, a mission to document notable sites in Balkh and Faryab, the reclamation of an urban square in the core of Herat’s old city, and glazed tile-work repair on the Western Tower of Qala Ikhtyaruddin.

The May/June 2009 issue includes an update on restoration efforts at Shanasazi Mosque in Kabul, which appear to reveal a pre-existing mosque on the site with Mughal elements. Accounts of the progress on underground drain repairs in Herat and the beginning of reconstruction efforts on the Mulla Mufti Rasoul Mosque in Herat’s Bar Durrani quarter also appear in this latest issue.

You can view previous issues of the AKTC-Afghanistan newsletters within the ArchNet Digital Library.

http://archnet.org/news/view.jsp?news_id=17561

Afghan Telecom and Roshan Jointly Announce the Signing of the Agreement to Utilize National Optical Fiber Backbone Ring Network in Afghanistan

KABUL, July 6 /PRNewswire/ — Afghan Telecom (AT) Afghanistan’s first long distance domestic private leased circuit (DPLC) and international private leased circuit (IPLC) provider through Optical Fiber Cable (OFC), today announced a significant agreement with Roshan to sell the transmission capacity of its National OFC Backbone Ring Network. The OFC, constructed by AT, will complement Roshan’s existing infrastructure, enabling Roshan to ensure the redundancy of its network and provide additional capacity for its growing number of subscribers.

—-

“This is an important milestone for the development of Afghanistan and the telecommunications industry. We are extremely pleased that Roshan is the first GSM operator to be entering into a commercial partnership with Afghan Telecom for fiber capacity,” said His Excellency Amirzai Sangin, Minister of Communications and Information Technology.

—-

“We declared our interest in, and support for, the OFC project over four years ago and we are proud to be able to express our long term commitment to Afghanistan by being Afghan Telecom’s first major anchor tenant. We believe that this project can have a significant impact on the information and telecommunications sector in Afghanistan, ensuring the availability of competitively priced capacity and infrastructure to meet the growing needs of the industry. We look forward to strengthening our relationship and cooperation with AT in the years to come,” said Karim Khoja, chief executive officer, Roshan.

Read at source: http://news.prnewswire.com/ViewContent.aspx?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/07-06-2009/0005055105&EDATE=

In this photo taken Wednesday, June 17, 2009, people walk past the cliffs that once held giant Buddhas destroyed by the Taliban in 2001 in Bamiyan, central Afghanistan. In an attempt to return one small part of the country to normalcy government officials and international donors are promoting tourism to attract visitors to the Bamiyan area. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

HEIDI VOGT | The Associated Press

BAMIYAN, Afghanistan — There’s a new building in town, and it isn’t a military barracks or a hospital. It’s a Tourist Information Center.

Even as troops fight militants in the south, government officials and donors in Afghanistan’s central Bamiyan valley are training tour guides and teaching restaurateurs about customer service. It’s an attempt to draw tourism and return one small part of Afghanistan to normalcy.

The challenges are many — landmines, dangerous roads outside Bamiyan, and, not least, Afghanistan’s reputation as anything but a tourist haven. But the hope is to persuade history buffs and adventure seekers that Afghanistan can be safe, and locals are eager to give it a shot.

The tourism training program is funded through a Geneva-based Islamic organization, the Aga Khan Development Network, as part of a $1.2-million ecotourism program.All Afghan tourism initiatives are currently funded by international donors, according to Deputy Minister for Tourism Ghulam Nabi Farahi.

Read at source: http://www.amherstdaily.com/index.cfm?sid=266006&sc=510
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap
http://www.metronews.ca/edmonton/world
http://www.lacrossetribune.com

Muslim trust restores Jewish sites in Afghanistan
Posted by: Tom Heneghan | June 24th, 2009

Amid the glum news from Afghanistan, Golnar Motevalli of our Kabul bureau has sent this from Herat:

Behind a parade of old mud brick shops, through narrow winding alleys, a tiny door opens onto a sundrenched courtyard, where school children giggle and play alongside the ghosts of Afghanistan’s Jewish past.

The Yu Aw is one of four synagogues in the old quarter of Herat city in west Afghanistan, which after decades of abandonment and neglect, has been restored to provide desperately-needed space for an infant school.”

(Photo: Afghan children study in Yu Aw synagogue in Herat, 8 June 2009/Mohammad Shoiab)

The restoration work has been done by the Agha Khan Trust for Culture. The city’s three other former synagogues are also being restored. Read the feature here.

Read at source: http://blogs.reuters.com/archive/tag/agha-khan/

View slideshow at: http://uk.reuters.com/news/pictures/articleslideshow?articleId=UKTRE55N01P20090624&channelName=lifestyleMolt#a=1

New Afghan Team, New Afghan Tasks

Excerpts:
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For the past three years, there have been a many civilian personalities deeply intertwined with Canada’s mission in Afghanistan. Chief among them was David Mulroney, formerly Canada’s top bureaucrat on the file, and Canada’s next ambassador to China.
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Other up-and-comers also soon joined the file, including former ambassador to Afghanistan Arif Lalani and his successor current ambassador Ron Hoffman.
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Mr. Lalani will take over the influential post of director general for policy planning at Fort Pearson.

Read at source: http://www.embassymag.ca/page/view/new_afghan-6-24-2009

‘Fort Pearson’ refers to the Lester B. Pearson building. It is home to the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (next door to the Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat). Additional information available in article A look inside the enigmatic ‘Fort Pearson’ by Maria Cook, Ottawa Citizen.

This institute was established in Kabul in 2006 and has done about 200 complex heart operations on the children with heart problems. The World Health Organization (WHO) is a UN agency that is globally tasked by the UN system to enhance health status of the member countries. Dr. Sayed Mohammad Amin Fatimie the Minister of Public Health attended the awrding ceremony of WHO membership certificate to FMIC on Thursday 28 May 2009.

Dr. Fatimie in his speech said that: I am proud of participating in this ceremony of awarding WHO membership certificate to the FMIC. This event is not only a pride for 435 health personnel of the institute but it is also a pride for the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, MoPH, French government and the Agh Khan Foundation. Dr. Fatimie added that the president of Afghanistan and the leadership of the MoPH emphasize on the continuation of cooperation with this institute. The institute has a sound and active administration and provides quality health care. This success was undoubtedly possible because of support from our friends in France and Agha Khan Foundation. According to the policy of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan these health services will be delivered to the needy people in an equitable manner.

via Ministry of Public Health Afghanistan – MoPH.

Posted on June 8, 2009 Please also see: Slideshow

People began gathering in mid-morning after the men and women had finished their early morning chores. The entire village of Kalan Guzar turned out for the meeting which was held in a big compound next to the school and the clinic. The men and boys, wearing woollen hats and turbans, sat cross-legged on carpets spread on the ground. The women and girls sat on a raised area just behind them – little girls, mothers and grandmothers, some completely veiled, others wearing simple headscarfs. Beyond the compound walls, the morning sun illuminated the barren purple crags of the mountains which hem in this narrow valley of the central Hindu Kush. In the other direction, a dusty path led down to the “Big Ford” across the Shikari River, after which Kalan Guzar is named.

http://www.akdn.org/blog.asp?id=765

Jali screen in a shrine in Kabul’s old town – restored by the Aga Khan Foundation

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefaninkabul/3597816127/

Related AKDN

Roshan, Cisco, the Government of Afghanistan, The Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, the French Medical Institute for Children, Aga Khan Health Services and the Bamyan Provincial Hospital Team up to Expand Healthcare Access by Linking Afghan Hospitals to International Medical Institutions

KABUL and BAMYAN, Afghanistan, June 1 /PRNewswire/ — Roshan, the leading telecom operator in Afghanistan, today announced the expansion of its first-of-its-kind Telemedicine solution in Afghanistan beyond Kabul to include provincial hospitals. Bamyan Provincial Hospital will be the first provincial medical facility linked to the innovative Telemedicine project, which uses broadband technology, wireless video conferencing and digital image transfer, to provide hospitals in Afghanistan with real-time access to specialist healthcare diagnosis, treatment and training expertise from abroad.

–snip–

“After the launch and initial success of Telemedicine in Kabul, we are delighted to begin extending Telemedicine links to provincial hospitals in Afghanistan, where the need for access to quality specialist diagnosis and training is even greater,” said Karim Khoja, Chief Executive Officer of Roshan. “Telemedicine further demonstrates the power of wireless technology to improve people’s lives and expand the healthcare resources available to the people of Afghanistan.”

Details at the source: http://news.prnewswire.com
Earlier related

http://www.globalhealthtv.com/news/rebuilding_afghanistan%27s_shattered_health_system/

15 October 2008 – Ethical perspectives – Nursing Project in Afghanistan, by Karima Velji, RN, PhD, CHE

http://epresence.ehealthinnovation.org/1/watch/263.aspx

Karima Velji previously featured here and here.

The Unspoken Outcomes of War

Do prolonged conflicts with extreme violence and loss affect ordinary people? War is recognised to take its toll on the mental health of soldiers and now, increasingly, on civilians…. [read PDF]

http://www.aku.edu/News/index/Newsletter.shtml

French Foreign Minister in a surprise visit to Kabul reaffirmed the commitment of France in the reconstruction of Afghanistan

Talking to his Afghan counterpart, Rangeen Dadfar Spanta, French Foreign Minster said the donations will be driven to improve health services in the country.

“The money will be spent to provide more facilities to the French Medical Institute for Children in Kabul,” Foreign Minster Bernard Kouchner said.

The French hospital in Kabul is one of most well-equipped with professional medical team hospitals providing free treatment to needy Afghan citizens.

The officials of the healthcare centre said 18 million Euros are needed to expand the hospital and develop it to a 400-bed health centre.

“Aga Khan Foundation will contribute the remaining 9 million Euros to complete the second phase of the hospital,” Nadim Khan, an Aga Khan Development Network AKDN official, accompanying French FM in the hospital said.

via quqnoos.com – French Minister Pledges 9m Euro for Afghanistan.

By Arno Maierbrugger, Staff Reporter – Published: May 04, 2009, 22:44

Dubai: After decades of war, Afghanistan makes another step towards normality and looks to revive its tourism industry.

With the help of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Afghanistan’s first national park Band-e-Amir was opened in Bamyan province last week.

–snip–

A local institution was founded to manage the area which covers 56.000 hectares. With the help of the WCS as well as the global environmental consultancy Ecodit and the Aga Khan Development Network, local small businesses are beginning to emerge in the 13 villages that are located within the park and small shops, restaurants, hotels and a campground are being built to serve the expected growing number of visitors.

http://www.gulfnews.com/business/Tourism_and_Travel/10310644.html – Related search

30 April 2009

Afghanistan has taken an important step in protecting its wildlife and preserving the beauty of its natural environment. In celebration of Earth Day 2009, the Director General of Afghanistan’s National Environmental Protection Agency, Mostapha Zaher, declared Band-e-Amir as Afghanistan’s first national park.

The official designation affords legal protection to the lakes and surrounding landscape and will ensure sustainable environmental management for this scenic area.

–snip–
With help from USAID and its implementing partners, the Wildlife Conservation Society, Ecodit (an international environmental consulting company), and the Agha Khan network (a group of development agencies), local entrepreneurs are already building small shops, restaurants, and hotels – in accordance with the park’s environmental management plan – to serve the growing number of tourists.

via VOA News – National Park In Afghanistan – Earlier Related

The government’s top players on the Afghan file put their heads together last week at the third edition of RoCK Talk, a forum that just keeps on growing.

Whereas the first RoCK Talk (named for the Representative of Canada in Kandahar) was a modest 20-person affair in Kandahar City, this edition attracted some 150 officials from across government.

–snip–

Also on hand were folks like Canadian Ambassador to Pakistan Randolph Mank and Canada’s number two in Kabul Ben Roswell, as well as some civil society types like Aga Khan Foundation Canada CEO Khalil Shariff. In fact, the only obvious absence was Ambassador to Afghanistan Ron Hoffman—but then somebody has to man the fort.

The main focus of the meeting was to bring the “Class of 2009″—the Canadian civilians that will be deploying to Afghanistan this summer—up to speed.

http://www.embassymag.ca/page/view/chatterhouse-4-29-2009

–excerpt–
A first significant step was taken yesterday when Afghanistan declared that one of its most astonishing natural features will become the country’s first national park – 36 years after a previous attempt to do so was interrupted by political strife and decades of war.

Few people would deny that the crystal-clear lakes in the country’s mountainous centre, which are ringed with pink cliffs, deserve their new designation, which still needs to be ratified by parliament.

Nancy Hatch Dupree, in her classic 1970 guide to Afghanistan, wrote that a full description of such a place would “rob the uninitiated of the wonder and amazement it produces on all who gaze upon it”.

–snip–
Amir Folabi, head of eco-tourism in Bamiyan for the Aga Khan Foundation, said the eco-tourism initiative was not intended to cater for a sudden increase in foreign tourists but to lay the ground work for sustainable tourism in the future.

Article at Guardian. There are few photographs here, and here.
USAID Helps Establish First National Park in Afghanistan – USAID Press Release