Every day, all over the world, USAID brings peace to those who endure violence, health to those who struggle with sickness, and prosperity to those who live in poverty. It is these individuals — these uncounted thousands of lives — that are the true measure of USAID’s successes and the true face of USAID's programs.
From craggy slopes of the Hindu Kush, Nuristan feeds snowpack and monsoon runoff into eastern Afghanistan’s river network, often with devastating consequences. Unchecked, these seasonal torrents wash out nearby settlements and flood riverside communities hundreds of kilometers downstream, some as far away as Pakistan. To compound the problem, Nuristan’s once-abundant forests, a natural defense against erosion and flooding, have been decimated by logging, drought, and clearing for farmland.
Despite the lack of safe drinking water, thousands of families live in and around crowded Puli Alam located in Logar Province. In particular, Al-Temor Village had no nearby wells or potable water sources, causing a great deal of hardship for residents because they had to collect water from unclean sources far from their homes. The burden of water collection often fell on children, which negatively affected their health and decreased the amount of time they could devote to schoolwork and other pursuits.
Khodai Nazar received a call one morning from the district governor of his district of Uruzgan Province. The governor reported that Nazar was invited to a meeting of elders the next day in Kabul and encouraged him to take advantage of the opportunity.
Abdul Basir Hotak, the owner of the Afghan-Macau Cashmere and Leather Processing Company, is witnessing the birth of a vibrant industry that could make Afghanistan a world player in the production of luxury clothing items.
One of Afghanistan’s greatest strengths lies in its booming agriculture sector. The nearly 35,000 international and Afghan visitors who streamed into the Kabul International AgFair 2010 showed that the world is ready for Afghanistan’s cashmere, nuts, and fresh and dried fruit. Opened by U.S. Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry and Afghan Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock Asif Rahimi, the AgFair generated almost $2 million in business deals and attracted business representatives from as far away as the United States and Australia.
Located in Afghanistan’s Hirat Province, Jebrayel District is home to many Afghan families living in desperate economic conditions. Women lack marketable skills, few are literate, and many families have no one to earn income at all. Children beg on the streets to survive. Little affordable food is available locally. The situation is dire, but with a practical idea, a commitment to change, and support from the Ambassador’s Small Grants Program (ASGP), women in Jebrayel are gaining skills in entrepreneurship and changing their community.
When 19-year-old Adbul Manan of Bala Buluk District in Farah Province learned that his father had died as a result of accidental fire from international military forces, he made the difficult decision to drop out of school and become the breadwinner for his mother and three younger siblings.
Haji Ghafoor is a farmer located in the Balkh canal irrigation system, where water allocation is done by farmers who take weekly turns irrigating their fields. Each farmer is allotted a limited amount of time to access the canal in proportion to his landholdings.
The Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Camp in Zhari Dasht District, Kandahar Province, is home to more than 7,000 refugees who fled their villages due to war and drought. Most of these IDPs are unemployed or rely on financial support from family members who leave the camp to seek work in Kandahar City, Pakistan, or Iran. At the same time, much of the camp infrastructure no longer in use is dilapidated and dangerous. USAID took action to address these problems simultaneously by hiring the camp residents to work on making community improvements.
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