Bittersweet

The 7th Bpeace Mission Team to Kabul, April 2007, all cleaned up and ready for dinner: Farah, Wendy, Ray, Toni, Khatera, Marla and Ladan. (Ray has his eyes closed dreaming of chocolate in Dubai.)

Khatera distributing toiletries and candy to Afghan refugees.

The mission is starting to wind down. Khatera and Ladan gathered up our extra toiletries, power bars and candy and took it over to a refugee camp of about 500 Afghans living marginally with no roof or sanitation. Ray’s Nivia moisturizer cream will help a mother care for the parched skin of her children. Ray’s sunscreen went to a woman who had burns down half her face. Brave Khatera and Ladan distributed something to about 100 people.

A few of us left for Dubai this morning. And a few are staying behind to do some additional work. It was a very good mission. We accomplished all we set out to do and more. Laila has a long list of follow-up activities.

As previous mission teams have said, tell your friends about the progress in Afghanistan. They are a lovely people who want the best for their families. And if you are a friend of Bpeace cruising by this blog, thank you for sharing this journey with us.

In case you couldn't tell: We're having a good time

Habiba receives English books sent by her mentor Carol Fallon via Marla (center) and presented by Najib.

Habiba and her daughter.


The foundation of Habiba's pre-school.

Hostess with the mostest, Katrin, and Toni, Khatera and Marla.

A man had to leave Farah’s class today. The topic got too hot to handle. Farah, who as some of you know, used to make her living as a dressmaker in Iran, was teaching the AWBF trainers “How to make better fitting clothing.” It was a reprise of the workshop she held on Sunday, just for the Bpeace Associates. The women wanted to know how to use tailoring tricks to make a woman’s bust look larger. It was at that point that the lone male in the room figured he better excuse himself. Both Farah and the ladies breathed a sigh of relief and laughed their way through the rest of the lessons.

In response to the seamstresses wanting to know what was trendy and new in the US, Farah pointed to Bermuda walking shorts in the fashion magazines she brought. Oh, said the ladies, that would never work here in Kabul. People would laugh at us, thinking our pants were short because we ran out of fabric.

Meanwhile, back at the hotel, it was a full morning of Hanifa Askar (Oscar) Ali and her English school. She has agreed to drop the computer side of the school for now and just focus on the English school, and later use the positive cash flow to re-engage the computer school. So here was the three-ring circus: Khatera was conducting personnel interviews (she is a PhD professional at this at Personnel Decisions International) with the four candidates Hanifa was considering to manage the school and be the head English teacher. Ladan was chatting up the candidates to assess their English conversation skills while they waited for Khatera. Marla, Laila and Toni worked with Hanifa on her Forward Plan. After most of the team leaves Kabul, Farah will work with Hanifa on the curriculum for her school. After a very busy 3 hours, with Toni emphasizing to Hanifa that Bpeace believes in her, but the amount of people and time dedicated to her will not continue at this level. We will have to give another Associate a chance. Marla wrapped up the pro-bono consulting sessions by presenting Hanifa with books that her mentor Carol Fallon had sent.

Where was Wendy? Doing her usual: In a meeting with Nasima or BN—her girls. She loves them so.

In the pm, we took the hot dusty ride up to Habiba’s construction site for her pre-school (actually that was the day before. We have our days screwed up. But we’ll right about it now.) Bpeace had raised $30,000 last year to help Habiba build a pre-school for 500 students in District 6, a middle-class area of Kabul. The septic was in, and the walls of the foundation had been formed with stone. But the foundation cement still had not been poured. They were behind schedule because of an early rainy spring. Habiba believes the school will be finished in about four months. Not knowing the pace of Afghan construction, we couldn’t comment. She showed us the revised blueprints where she had made changes in response to comments from Pam Massenburg’s architect friend David Ashen. She increased the number of bathrooms from two to 10 (thank goodness). Habiba is still nearly $30,000 short to finish construction (about one-third of the cost). And then she has to find another $10,000 to furnish the school. Toni’s Forward Plan with her focused on additional fundraising.

Roshan, one of the telecom companies here, reached out to us to help with the Bpeace Gala on May 9. Since they financially support the Ashiana School for street children, they offered us some of the artwork created by the children to auction off at the Bpeace Gala. So Ray, suitcase in hand, went with Najib to pick out some interesting pieces. Stay tuned for more details. They are also giving us three snappy phones to auction off.

In the evening we had a fabulous dinner at Katrin Fakiri’s large Afghan home. It’s always a treat when you’re on the road to be invited to someone’s home. Katrin invited Bpeace Associates Kamela and Latifa and some other friends as well. Ray was the only man in a room full 14 women. (He looked pretty content.) The conversation got a little crazy when we got around the subject of good looking Afghan men. (In order to keep this blog PG, we’ll stop here.)

My Turn: Marla

Laila and Marla.

It's great to be back in Kabul and seeing all the Bpeace associates; however, I am particularly happy to see Laila – Bpeace program manager, and our sister, in Kabul.

Laila is what keeps the Bpeace program moving in Afghanistan. She is sincerely dedicated to Bpeace, its mission and the Associates and it shows.

Amidst all the jealousy and infighting that goes on within the businesswomen community here in Kabul, the Bpeace Associates stand apart as a unified group who work together in harmony and support each other in their business endeavors. According to the Associates as well as other Bpeace friends, this is to Laila’s credit. I am incredibly proud of Laila, how she embodies the Bpeace mission and maintains our unique position and integrity here in Afghanistan.

The Woman Who Knows Everyone

Ayscha.

Farah, Bpeace Associate Rangina who was visiting from Kandahar and Khatera.

Malalai Wassil, Sarah Takesh, Wendy and Ladan.

Kabul's Woman in the Know In every city and town around the world there is always a key "connector" who knows the movers, shakers, VIPs and talented new people in town. For Kabul, that person is Ayscha Hamdani. We first met her a year ago, and she has been substantially helpful to Bpeace in linking us to people and partners who can help Bpeace and our Associates. Several nights ago she opened her lovely home to the Bpeace mission team and invited a who's who of accomplished women.

One of Ayscha's friends is Seema Ghani who supports 25 orphans, including 8 in her own home, who she adopted. One of the orphans is a 14-year old girl our Masuda Sultan rescued from a Kandahar prison 4 years ago. Lina has now grown into an 18-year old woman who recently won a judo competition in Norway, and teaches judo at a girls school in Kabul. When Lina came to Seema, she had no schooling and has studied so hard she has advanced two grades a year. Seema hopes one day to get her a scholarship to an overseas university. (Lina quite liked Norway.) In the meantime, friends of Bpeace, Seema needs judo uniforms. These can't be sewn in Afghanistan because the uniforms need special stiff-collars. If you can help us source a donation of these uniforms please email: donate@bpeace.org so we can contact you with the number of uniforms and sizes.



Also at Ayscha's soiree in our honor, was Katrin Fakiri, who is a Bpeacer but most importantly operates Parwaz, a successful microfinance organization she founded; Sarah Takesh, the pioneer in producing high fashion made by Afghan women. Her brand Tarsian & Blinkley is sold through trunk shows in the US and through her storefront in Kabul; Drana Nezam, an Afghan-American fashion and interior designer, who has been training disabled women, mostly victims of war, in fashion production over the past four years; Mina Wali, who returned from America to help and support the people of her village Surgh Road in Jalalabad by founding Hope of Mother, an NGO that helped the community in building a school and training centre for both girls and boys and who puts special attention to disabled children in their teaching approach; Malalai Wassil, a legal adviser to the Ministry of Energy & Water, who carries the interest of her people at heart and supports various projects that help the poor and disadvantaged in this country and Ariane Mahmud-Ghazi, a psychotherapist (the Ecology of Being Human), who is currently working on a community development project that aims at creating better working environments through trauma counseling. Before we arrived in Kabul, we thought security concerns would keep us hotel-bound in the evenings. Thank goodness Ayscha's invitation lured us out.

On with the Show--Ladan on Stage

Ladan teaching "How to Use the Internet" to Afghan men and women.

Classy post-training certificates.

Ladan and her Internet students.

Esther, Toni and Marla south of the border in Kabul.

Wendy had one too many meetings with Nasima and BN, and woke up sick. She overdosed on her girls, or the food, or her meeting with the landlord's brother. So it fell to the understudy--Ladan--to go on with the show.

Ladan was a natural, teaching AWBF trainers "How to Use the Internet." There weren’t enough computers to go around for the packed house. So for the hands-on part of the class, she gave the computer seats to those men and women who did not already have email addresses, so she could coach them through setting them up.

One man kept on getting up from his chair, to give his seat to the group of women surrounding him. But they all had email addresses, so Ladan had to keep asking him to sit down. In a country where women are still marginalized, this Afghan was a true gentleman.

Ray and Marla were running around to a few NGOs, still interviewing potential on-the-ground partners. Khatera and Farah were on another secret mission.

Toni was collaborating on 12-month Forward Plans with a few of the Associates. Suraya’s 12-month vision is to improve the production capacity of her workers. Rahima wants to start a cotton factory, but this may be problematical. Kamala wants to extend the footprint of her BDS (Business Development Services) consulting and start a business institute for high-school graduates who are not going to university. Nargis wants to add another gym location. Our associates have bold dreams, and that’s a good thing.

Now hold onto your seatbelts you Kabul veterans. Our day ended with a meal at a MEXICAN RESTAURANT in Kabul! We were with Women for Afghan Women’s Esther Hyneman and Fahima Vorgett of the Afghan Women’s Fund. (Fahima is one of our heroes. She has raised money to build two schools in Afghanistan for nearly 2,000 girls, plus a couple of dozen other things like clinics and drinking wells. Her goal for this year is to build five more girls' schools in Logar and Laghman provinces.)

Esther had her mouth watering for a margarita, which would have, in this no-booze city, been a real feat, let alone treat. But we did have chips and salsa in Kabul. Who would have thunk?

My Turn: Farah

Farah, Suraya, Laila and Tuba.

Suraya and Saaghar.

Farah was born in Iran and was once imprisioned there during the war. She now lives in California, operating a successful translation business and she is so in love with Afghanistan, she would like to help the economy by starting a translation school in Kabul. This is her second Bpeace mission to Afghanistan.

"After the hardworking day of many meetings and sitting under spring shower of hail and thunderstorm we are all up in the reception area of the Park Hotel getting ready to leave for the evening. It is about 4:00 PM and Suraya seems a bit nervous but excited. She disappears and in seconds she is back with her daughter Tuba who is all drenched in water as she has walked under the heavy rain.

"Tuba is introduced to Toni who is about to leave and too tired to socialize and Toba is too shy to start any conversation. She is wearing a glamorous long black dress and a matching scarf embellished with dazzling colorful crystal stones, beads and filigree.

"Toni talks to her a little bit about her dress and jokes with her about the boyfriend she is hiding from her mother. Tuba is still shy and waiting to be translated, but nevertheless keeps her big smile while stealing her eyes from Toni.

"Framed in her black scarf, Tuba’s face is alluring with a pair of significant happy eyes. She seems more at ease talking with me, hoping that she would be translated back to English as she understands most of what Toni says in English.

"Another young girl named Saaghar arrives in the room. She introduces herself as the Deputy Director of the nonprofit organization she and Tuba just recently registered with the Department of Education. So, who is the director I ask myself and soon I learn that Tuba is the director as the license for their daycare center is flying in the air and at the end in Tuba’s hand.

"Suraya is still nervous but she also is encouraging, or rather pushing, the girls to talk about their business to Toni. Saaghar who seems to have more soft skills and self confidence starts speaking. She trembles like a little chick as she is trying to get over her dry mouth and deliver some of the words she has already rehearsed for this meeting. She tells us that they want to start a daycare center for the street children and they have already spent all their savings for the licensing and renting a place for their daycare. Their problem is now funding for the rest of their plans.

"They are too proud to ask for money directly but the load on their shoulder for continuing their program is too heavy to hide. They are breaking into tears as they explain how they see orphan children wandering in the streets of Kabul doing nothing.

"Toni is now well into the conversation and I am translating back and forth; sometimes not even enough time to finish one sentence when the other side has already started with her response. Every once in a while Suraya drops a sentence here and there trying to distract emotional statements by Saaghar and Tuba.

"Toni tells the girls that she has to close her eyes to the children in the streets when she is in Kabul. “I have to focus on the Bpeace work with our Associates to create sustainable businesses for women who could in turn help other women with no means of employment or supporting their families,” Toni declares as she is having a hard time hiding her tears.

"Tuba works in an international school and earns $200 a month. Saaghar works with Japanese Consulate and earns $400 a month. They feel privileged and they want to do something. They have planned to charge $40 for the admission plus $2 a month for tuition. “But people are so poor that they can’t even afford $2 a month let alone $40 for the admission” Saaghar expresses with tears in her eyes. “We have to do something otherwise these kids will grow up illiterate and no better than their parents.”

"You can see Toni doing the math in her head. $2/month. 30 students. Total of $60 income a month. $600 a month in expenses for rent, teachers and food. $540/loss every month. Just about the combined salaries Tuba and Saaghar earn at their teaching and office jobs.

"Toni listens to Saghar and Tuba with no interruption and tells them how much she admires their big heart; her advice, however, is not what the girls are hoping to hear. “You need to continue your jobs and you can set aside a percentage of your monthly income to hire one or two women who might be illiterate but kind and can each take care of 5 children in their homes.” Toni suggests. “This way you have created a job for two women and at the same time have not stopped your growth.”

“So, what about us? We want to be a part of the training and directly involved in it.” Saaghar and Tuba both reply with no seconds to lose.

"With her eyes covered in a big smile and two shiny eyes, Suraya interferes: “I could tell this was not a wise way of spending their money from the beginning but they are young girls and they have to experience, so I didn’t stop them. I know they have great hearts and they want to do something good about their country and their people but I wanted them to hear Toni’s opinion.”

"Toni repeats her suggestion trying to convince them that they don’t have to drop their career growth in order to help their people. She tells them how proud their parents are for what they are doing and how much more they still have in front of them to grow. She advises them that Afghanistan needs literate young people to work in all sectors. They can encourage and support other less educated women who are kind to take care of children. “They need a job too!” Toni says with a smile trying to cheer up the girls.

"It is time to leave and our drivers are ready to take us back to our hotel. Heavy silence from the girls is indicative of their bursting bubbles and broken hearts. Suraya suggests if they could join us in the car and we could drop them off by the bus station where they can catch a bus to get back home. In the car, Toni asks the girls if they wish to go to Dubai for their higher education. Their response is quick and with no doubt. They both express how much they would love to continue their education. Now everybody is talking in the car and hard to hear one conversation. The car stops in the middle of a heavy traffic street to drop off Suraya and the two girls. I look at Saghar and Tuba’s face and I can see the residue of a smile. Their eyes are shining as they are filled with the dreams and hope of going to Dubai and continuing their higher education.

Great Customer Service Needs No Translation

Marla teaching "How to Finance Your Business with Loans."

The class including people from Afghan provinces.

Kabul landlords watch out: Wendy has your number.

Marla and Ray were talking money at the AWBF (Afghan Women's Business Federation) delivering the Bpeace training module: How to Finance Your Business with Loans.

The class was standing room only with nearly 30 Afghan men and women being trained to deliver the module throughout Afghanistan. At one point during the training, there is a case study to determine what is the best option for a particular borrower. Lower interest--or slightly higher interest at a closer location with a nicer staff. Ray said the discussion was quite heated among the participants, with voices raised across the room and the different opinions flying. BN, who was in the class being trained as one of the trainers, of course put her passionate two cents in. The group voted that the finance institution with the better service and location should be chosen, even if the interest was slightly higher. Marla said this is consistently the choice borrowers make the world over.

The training modules are starting to get around. An Afghan women who Toni met at a meeting in Kabul came up to her: "I recognize you, you were on the business planning video." Toni's 15 minutes of fame: only it's in Afghanistan.

Now that we are more confident moving around Kabul, we are networking with old and new friends. Marla, Ray and Toni had a lunch meeting with Katrin Fakiri. Ladan, Farah and Khatera were on secret missions (at least they speak the language fluently).

Wendy needed no confidence boost to take on the landlord's brother of the RKA shop. According to Wendy, at first he was only going to fix the roof and not do anything to the inside. He would not look Wendy in the eye. So she goes up right close to him, complimented him, told him what a great man he was, how the Associates wanted to be there for years. He had to look at Wendy directly, he had no choice. Finally he agreed to do the inside.
Our master negotiator then went back into heavy mentoring mode with Nasima. While Nasima has signature scarves which are now being sold in several locations including a new web site launched by the Atash sisters (Samira Ata`sh used to be a Bpeace member, and her sister Mariam Nawabi has helped Bpeace on many occasions.

A Safe and Sunny Sunday

Sunday in Kabul.

Good to know for future missions: you can fit 5 associates plus the driver in one tiny car.

Ray and Toni with the students of Dubai Women's College who are creating the Rangeen Kaman Artisans web site.

Sunday was a crazy quilt day. We were off in different directions for the first time, Toni having loosened the security reins. Sure enough, Najib starts calling our mobiles at about 11. "There's been an explosion, stay where you are and don't go on the roads till I call you back." Turns out it was an old mine that went off in the city. No big deal. We hardly gave it any mind at all.

Farah was oblivious to the minor hub-bub--she was training the Associates on "How to make better fitting clothing." In her native Iran, Farah made her living as a seamstress. Today, of course, she operates a successful translation business in California and is trying to open a translation school here in Kabul. Back home thanks to Carol, Parinaz, Sonali, Karine and Emily for this module. We fielded a post-training evaluation (created by Athena and Barbara), and Farah got very high marks. The Associates left the class with fat issues of Vogue and In Style magazines stuffed in their purses--hiding the deep cleavage on the covers from prying eyes on their way home.

Wendy and Ladan spent the morning at the peaceful and beautiful Babur Gardens with Najib. Marla, Ray and Toni were visiting with Katrin Fakiri.

Khatera spent part of her day visiting an orphanage and refugee camp where she made a very generous donation of monies she had collected before leaving the US. She gave a mother in the refugee some moisturizing cream which was received as though it was a Rolls Royce.

Marketing the RKA Shop
The afternoon's agenda for Wendy, Ladan and Toni were next steps for the RKA shop. Lively discussion ensued regarding plans for marketing – many Associates happily reported how much free TV and magazine advertising they could get – Rahima is going to spread the word in Parliament, Asmat is going to place an ad in the Herat newspaper telling people that “When in Kabul make a stop at RKA, Bakhtnazira is going to bring her existing customers and Habiba is going to get free time on TV via her son who works for the station.

Toni showed the Associates their new Rangeen Kaman website under development by students at the Dubai Women's College. Toni was expecting some pushback from them on having their photos on the site, but they loved the treatment and are anxious to see the next iteration.

Peacebuilding and the Movies: Storylines you won't forget

The Bpeace Team and the Bpeace Associates: April 2007

Farah and Toni get the day going.

Kamela learning she won the Triple-A Award for increasing jobs and training 3,000 Afghans to start businesses.


Nasima learning she won the Triple-A Award for increasing her workforce and doubling her production.


What's in the bag? All the Associates were winners with "second-year graduation" gift bags with perfume and headbands (courtesy of Linda Meyer), candy, pens and make-up.

Asmat and Najib working on the movie script on Suria's team with The Grove materials on the table.

Saturday was the first time during this mission we had mostly all of the Associates in the same room at the same time. (Exceptions: Palwasha in the US at Bucknell University; Rangina in Kandahar; and Rahima in a meeting at Parliament). Lots of hugs and kisses.

We started our big reunion with an update from each on their accomplishments during the past year. They had made bets with Toni on who would grow her own business the most, and create the most jobs. We were delighted to hear their progress.

Nargis, who operates Venus Gym, reported a 25% increase in memberships.

Habiba has started construction on her new preschool, and has set-up a new accounting system.

Mahbooba, in addition to her ongoing handicraft business which she operated under the Taliban, has started a farming business. She has provided jobs for 35 women in Kabul and the rural areas. These 35 women work with 750 other women and in the next year they will work with 2,000 families, and with each family having 7 people in it, this translates to 14,000 people benefiting by the program.

Hanifa Adil completed a large order for tablecloths for Dasnet. In her spare time she also knit hundreds of gloves and socks for her home province of Bamiyan because the winter was very tough. While distributing the items, she found additional women who can do knitting and embroidery for her business.

Hanifa Askar Ali’s English and computer school put a competitor out of business. She added 9 more teachers and 60 more students.

Afifa added 6 embroiderers in Ghazni; 2 in Kabul and 2 tailors in Kabul.

Asmat opened a co-op store in Heart with 10 other women.

Suria doubled her knitting workforce to 30 and has another 10 in training.

Bakhtnazira added 6 workers, and completed a $3,000 order for Dasnet for draperies, and booked $2,000 in sales on an India trip. She is under consideration for a major uniform contract.

Latifa is now working at AWBF (Afghan Women’s Business Federation) and is helping create an international market for Afghan carpets.

AND THE WINNERS OF THE BET WITH TONI…now called the Triple-A Award (Associate Achievement Award) for 2007 are:

Kamela who now employs 12 people in her BDS (Business Development Services) consultancy and trained 3,000 people throughout Afghanistan to start businesses in the last year. She has enough business booked for 60% of her expenses over the next 12 months.

AND….

Nasima who had 35 workers last year and this year added 10 more, completing an order for 1,000 silk scarves. She continues to keep her old and new workers busy.

Kamela and Nasima were thrilled. And the Associates reminded them that when they win such an award, they have to do something nice for the rest of the team, like prepare a meal or give gifts of sweets.

After the Triple-A Awards, the Bpeacers held their breath with anticipation as we embarked on a very important moment with the Associates. Coaching them to formulate and launch Business to Peace (B2P) projects that is a most important part of their third year in the Bpeace program. Toni said, “We are not the Business Council of Gender Equality. We are not the Business Council of Handicraft. We are not the Business Council of Microfinance. We are the Business Council of Peace. We have invested in you in the past two years. Now we want to see how you can invest back in your own communities to help create peace.”

In order to help the Associates create their peace projects, Toni used a tool donated from The Grove called “In the Movies.” Kamela, Suria and Bakhtnazira volunteered to be Peace Team Leaders, and the Associates separated themselves into teams. Toni charged them with envisioning a Bollywood movie being made three years from now about their peace projects. What would be the storyline of the movie, who would be the main characters and what would be the happy ending?

Ladan and Ray; Khatera and Marla; and Wendy and Farah each participated in the team brainstormings. Toni asked Najib to participate as well. As a bonus we learned that Najib studied filmmaking in school. Who knew? After lunch, each team described their movie vision and how it would translate to an actionable peace project over the next 12 months.

Bakhtnazira's Team Movie: Peace and Life

Our movie starts with a family that is very happy – 2 children and 2 parents. The beginning of the movie starts with the family coming home and there is nice Afghan music in the background and the daughter is dancing. All of the sudden in the midst of this peace, they hear the noise of a rocket. And the girl stops dancing and goes to her parents. All of the neighbors are screaming and trying to escape.

The next scene shows everyone standing in the home that was struck by the rocket talking to each other. It shows how they were helping everyone who was wounded who had problems, those whose homes were destroyed etc. And then in that group gathering they are talking about how it happened – who was the group that did this.

So an appointed group of men and women decide to find who fired the rocket. And then they contact the part of town where the rocket came from. And this group decides to talk with people from the other side and talk about peace. They go to the mosque and other neighborhoods and talk about peace. In the course of the movie you see the challenges before them – those that are against them, those that don’t agree etc.

With all of the challenges in front of them they convince people to see things are better when there is peace. It shows people gathering back in the old neighborhood and rebuilding their lives, children going back to school and men and women start to work again and the group that is bringing peace to the neighborhood is called Peace Envoys. The reviewers of this movie will say this movie had brave women, big service to peace.

And this is very much what our team will do – we will go to our different areas and each work for peace in our individual regions.

Suria’s Team’s Movie: Saleaha

There was a young girl in a village called Saleaha. She lived with her 2 older brothers and her parents. Everyone was illiterate. Because of the restrictions from her family she could not go outside. In her mind Saleaha always wanted to go out and be with intellectuals, go to school and become an active member of the society. She was always looking for ways to come out of the house. She was upset that her family wouldn’t let her leave the house.

Her aunt who was living in the city came to their home. She told her story to her aunt at night when they were alone. The aunt returns to the city and thinks how she can help her niece. We were thinking that Asmat, Hanifa, and Suria are the friends of the aunt. They advise the aunt on how she can help her niece. They tell the aunt to bring her niece to the city where there are schools. The aunt is afraid to bring her niece because she doesn’t know the school. Her friends tell her to bring her niece and the friends will help.

The next scenes show that the girl has gone to school. The friends who are also business women teach her about business trades as well as just her schooling. The girl then returns to the village so that everyone could see what she has learned. When she goes back to the village and she realizes that there is no school or training, she realizes the best thing she can do is to start a school where she can help the people of her village.

When people in the village see she is such a great seamstress they bring all of their clothes for Saleaha to make. She makes a lot of money so that she can now support her family who at first wouldn’t even let her leave the house. She made clothing for the mullah of the village. As the mullah was speaking in the mosque he praised Saleha’s sewing and praised the people who taught her these skills. She brought money, peace and education to the village.

To turn this movie into a peace project, each of us on our team will work with a real young woman to encourage her family to send her to school and to guide her into business.

Kamela’s Team’s Movie: Believe in Yourself

Violence starts in the house and this permeates into society and is a block to peace. When a boy is born, everyone is happy and it is as the best things that has happened. When a girl is born, people don’t care. They say she will go away in 15 years.

And the first day the girl is born, the mother is depressed and this affects the relationship she has with her husband. And when she has more girls, the relationship gets worse. Ahmet, the first person in the movie, has seen how it was when his mother had girls, how bad things were and he said when he is married, he is not going to treat his wife that way.

He marries and has 2 children a boy and girl. Ahmet remembers from his life that everything in his life that everything was for the boys and nothing for the girls. Ahmet’s wife Razmir is like his sister – she didn’t go to school, but Ahmet helps her with anything she wants to achieve in her life. Then when they have children Hadeen (boy) and Maureen, Ahmet treats the children equally.

They have financial problems and there is a lot of pressure from society for the way Ahmet thinks. He comes home concerned, and has a talk with his wife. He tells her that the community doesn’t agree with how he does things. Ahmet has many friends telling him that it is wrong that he gives his daughter an education etc. Ahmet talks again with his wife and Azmet tells him that they should continue to treat their daughter as they believe.

Maureena has learned from her mother and has given good ideas and has influenced her father that what he’s done was right. He sees what a lovely, bright and accomplished girl she is. She tells her father:

“Believe in me
Don’t listen to people
Let me do what I want to do.”

I want to tell you that I want to do something that will help the finances of the family. And she tells her father that I will show you a day that I will be a symbol of a strong woman for the other women in our society. The other women now see Maureena as a successful women and that she can do what she wants. People are learning gradually that they should do the same thing with their daughters.

People are hearing that many girls are saying they want to be like Maureena. They see how Maureena mother is bright and open; how her brother is supportive and they want brother and mother like Maureena.

In the last scene we see Maureena’s father and brother holding her hands with her mother smiling in the background. Our message for the families is to allow the children to do what they want to do and then encourage them.

We will turn this movie into a peace project by taking a few real-life successful women like Maureena and promote them and advertise for them and show the general Afghan public, that when they let their daughters go to school, they will have more successful families. We will make a plan to figure out how to do this.

Dear blog readers. Our rendition of these movies and their translation into peace projects here, don’t do justice to the excitement and passion our Associates demonstrated in creating them. We have do doubt they will carry through. And you will read into their movie plots, what we have learned from our Afghan friends: Peace begins in the home.

Thank you to Farah for the excellent translation of these movie plots, and to Wendy for the essential recap.

Meeting our brains out

Hey, Ladan's mom: here she is. (She's doing a great job by the way.) The scene: the fancy-dancy 5-star Serena Hotel. Amazing that such a venue exists in Kabul where the best hotel in town three years ago was a bomb-blasted Inter-Continental (not part of the chain).

Where's Waldo? Find the 5 Bpeace meetings. Hint, that's Ray in the winter Irish cap. Why? We don't know.

You'd grin ear-to-ear too if your mint water sold at twice the price of unminted brands.

Farah, Ladan, Ray, Toni, Wendy, Khatera and Marla preparing for the B2P workshop with the Associates on Saturday.

Cultural hybrid: Nasima taking her mid-morning tea break with an American Power Bar.

It’s Friday in Kabul, day off for everyone—except us, a few of our Associates, Najib and his team. At one point this afternoon, five different Bpeace meetings were in progress in the gardens of the Park Palace Hotel. We learned about Afghan food processing initiatives including that Afghans will pay twice as much for a bottle of water that has mint in it, believing in its health benefits. Met a woman who has written 80 business plans in the past two years, and 100% of her clients have received bank loans. Learned of a large color offset printer who is producing slick printed calendars and brochures for Afghan businesses.

Cultural complexities—stuff you don’t think about…Yes, turns out everyone in Kabul has a leaky roof during the winter, spring and summer. Doesn’t bother them. So when the dry season comes in September is when they address the problems. That’s why the RKA shop ceiling leak didn’t seem urgent.

The long networking arm of Kate B. reached out to us at our hotel. An American walks up to us and introduces himself as a friend of Kate, and gave us reassuring advice on security. Ladan also charmed him into taking a group photo of us.

And we managed to squeeze in connections with old friends. Ladan and Khatera went to Sarah Takesh’s shop. And Masuda Sultan stopped by after dinner for a chat about her Kabul consulting business—now a year old.

Big day tomorrow: Meeting with all of our Associates to set expectations for their third year in the Bpeace program, and facilitate their formation of Business to Peace (B2P) projects.

Today's theme music: Up on the roof and the hokey pokey

Up on the roof in Kabul.

Wendy and Suria in yarn heaven.

Put your right hand in....and do the hokey pokey.

Laila, Khatera, Hanifa, Ray and Kamala with the much desired Dell laptop.

Marla ditched the rest of the mission team today, grabbed Najib and went in search of men at various NGOs (yes, Dan, tis true). She was looking for an NGO on-the-ground partner to help us with the new Associates, especially an organization who can provide technical assistance in the food processing area.

Speaking of food stuffs, who knew that our Associate Afifa owns land with grape vines that she dries into raisins and sells to Pakistan for packaging. She’s been in the Bpeace program for two years and only now do we learn (in addition to her handicraft business) that she wants to build Afghanistan’s first raisin- packaging factory. Last year her idea was a fish farm. We don’t see the connection, but we’re here to listen to her business dreams and see how we can make it happen.

Dreams do get rained on…and then they can get moldy. Wendy was still coping with the leaky roof at the Rangeen Kaman Artisans shop, moving hundreds of dollars of products out of harms way. With amazing tenacity, she was up on the roof with a contractor trying to figure out what exactly was going on. We’re encountering a cultural divide here. This leak was discovered several weeks ago. Why didn’t the RKA partners put a plastic tarp on the roof as they tried to get in touch with the elusive landlord?

Suria, our knitting wizard of an Associate, received a big bonus from Wendy, a very large plastic garbage bag of beautiful balls of yarn from a store in Kent, Connecticut. When Wendy saw they were having a sale, she thought of Suria and stopped in to see if they would consider making a small donation of yarn. When she’s not addressing leaky roofs, Wendy is quite a salesperson. She secured over $1,400 worth of donated yarn, enough to fill 4 large garbage bags. Wendy was able to cart only one bag over on this trip.

Khatera and Toni, along with Bpeace Associate Kamala, spent a good deal of time with Hanifa Askar Ali, making suggestions on how to improve her English and Computer school. Hanifa’s distance mentor Carol Fallon and Marla has mined several resources in Kabul for Hanifa to hire better teachers and acquire easier curriculum. When Hanifa said one competitive English school she visited was teaching the parts of the body by doing the “Hokey Pokey,” Toni heard a great photo op and went to work.

Because she was denied a visa for two different trips to the US, Hanifa never did receive her own laptop from Bpeace. But today she did, and we were thrilled to deliver it to her.

Day One: Land, Eat, Plan, Shop, Plan, Eat

Kabul airport. Our pilot made it down on the first attempt and a very soft landing at that.

The gang has assembled: Laila, Ray, Wendy, Marla, Farah, Najib, Toni Khatera (Ladan behind the camera).

Spring has sprung: our lovely hotel garden.


At the Rangeen Kaman Artisans shop: Ladan, Bakhtnazira, Laila and Marla.

Lots of great things to buy at Rangeen Kaman Artisans in Kabul.

Marla and Toni display their inate fashion sense with scarves.

Ladan purchasing up a storm at Bakhtnazira's shop.

It's taken a few hours to get this blog up, and we finally had to email Kate B. back in the US to help put the photos up.

The Bpeace 7th Mission Team: Farah, Khatera, Ladan, Marla, Ray, Wendy and Toni assembled in Kabul. What did we find? Kabul is quiet. Or so it seemed today.

Those of us used to the bedlam of the Kabul airport were treated to a quiet scene. Our flight was full with 200, mostly non-Afghan men, on their way to some assignment or other in Afghanistan. But grabbing our baggage, usually a tustle with handlers wanting to “help” proved to be no problem. We calmly walked out of the terminal into the sun with Najib and Laila greeting us with big smiles all around.

The drive from the airport was on a new road, with barely any traffic. We remembered the scene two years ago when we were stuck for an hour on a quarter-mile patch.

New construction was still on every street corner, but fewer people seemed to be on the streets. Laila said it was because everyone was at work.

Khatera, an Afghan American who fled the country more than 25 years ago, basked in the Afghan hospitality, grateful to find it the same here as in her family’s home in California.. Ladan whose parents are from Iran, was surprised that she felt so at ease and at home here as well.

After unpacking at our hotel, we talked security strategy over lunch. We always feel comfortable under Najib's guidance and with maps in hand, we were able to see how tightly networked our movements around Kabul will be.

Tired or not from a 4:30 AM wake-up call, we still made it a point to visit the Rangeen Kaman Artisans store, the joint venture owned by 11 of our Afghan Associates. Wendy had spent the morning there dealing with a leaky roof. We spent an hour or two there trying to plug leaks in Ladan and Khatera's wallets as they delightfully shopped.

Around the corner, we also visited BN's shop, where Ladan and Khatera also found new accessories they just had to have.

We all did our part today to help infuse the Afghan economy with some juice. Tomorrow we put our brains to work.

On the road again or "April in Kabul"

We're already thinking of the wonderful Afghan meals we will enjoy.


There are seven volunteers on this Bpeace mission. Traveling from California, Washington DC, New York and Connecticut to Kabul via Iran, India and Dubai. We start arriving in Kabul on April 10. Most of us have been to Afghanistan before--for Wendy, Ray and Toni this is our fourth trip.

As usual, there is a packed agenda. We will consult with several of the Bpeace Associates who are facing significant decisions regarding their businesses including: Nasima’s future silk factory; Habiba’s construction of the preschool; Hanifa Askar Ali improving her English and computer curriculum; Suria weaning herself off of Bpeace's hand-holding as she expands her export business; feasibility of Afifa’s raisin factory; feasibility of Rahima’s cotton factory; Kamela’s funding needs for her BDS (business development services) consultancy.

Wendy will be spending significant one-on-one mentor time with Nasima and Bakhtnazira, focusing on product development, marketing and finance.

Our days will be spent leading training workshops, meeting the Afghan women selected to participate in our BART program (Bpeace Apprentice Road Trip) and most exciting, seeing what progress the 11 partners in the Rangeen Kaman Artisans store have made.

This moment in time is pivotal for both Bpeace and the Afghan entrepreneurs in our program. We will be celebrating the completion of their second year under our guidance, and working with them to set expectations for their third, and for some, their final year with us. Has our work had impact? Are their businesses stronger? Are they role models for peace in their communities? Please take this journey with us and see what we discover.