Editorial News
Gifts from heart do
world of good
Our Opinion

3/12/02
Yesterday marked the six-month anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Americans have reached deep into their pockets to assist survivors and the families who've lost loved ones.

But the Sept. 11 horrors and ensuing war on terrorism also have brought much-needed attention to the needs of the Afghan people. A dollar goes a lot further in Afghanistan than it does in this country.

There's no shortage of ways for those of us in Santa Barbara to help, or even lead humanitarian projects.

At first, Diana Haskins of Goleta planned to send money to New York. "But as I sat down to write a check, I had a profound feeling that it needed to go in a different direction," she told the News-Press.

She and friends held a fund-raiser at the Earl Warren Showgrounds for a hospital treating Afghan refugees in Quetta, Pakistan. From that, she met local resident Kathleen Rafiq.

The pair are working to support a school and orphanage in Kabul known as the Afghan Academy of Hope.

The name fits. Afghanistan's children for too long have lived in a world of war, fear and hunger.

One hundred and twenty students will start classes at the academy next week. A third partner from Afghanistan, Soraya Abdullah Hakim, founded the school and orphanage in the mid 1990s. Ms. Hakim had been director of the United Nation's English Language Training Center in Kabul when warlords began shelling that has destroyed much of the city.

She and her husband transformed the family compound into the orphanage and school. "People were dying and the children were running around the streets with no mother, no father, no nothing," Ms. Hakim said. "It was terrible and unsafe and every day there were people crying in the streets. I decided to do something very little, to educate some of the children. We gave our home and our furniture to the school."

The Taliban took over the city in 1996 and prohibited girls from attending.

Now the girls will be back. They'll make up about 20 percent of the student body.

Afghanistan's future depends on educating its children -- all its children.

Americans with a few extra dollars can help make that happen. For proof, look no further than the good works of some of our neighbors right here.