July 21, 2005
Doctors Without Borders: Visiting An Afghan
Refugee Camp
Just yesterday I completed an interview with Doctors
Without Borders/ Médécins Sans Frontières
(MSF) and while researching their website, I found that some of
the volunteers at MSF
had written really interesting stories about their experiences in
foreign countries. MSF gave me the permission to republish some
of these stories, I think you'll find them very interesting since
they shed light on the situation of the local population and the
experiences of the volunteers in some of these far away places.
Visit to an Afghan Refugee Camp
By F.M. Dinshaw
Naureen Shah
Naureen Shah, a photographer who has worked on photographing women
issues in muslim countries, recently undertook another challenging
project. She visited the refugee camps at the Pakistan-Afghan border
to bring world awareness to the plight of the people torn between
politics and poverty.
Since the Afghan-Soviet war in the 1980s, Pakistan has given sanctuary
to over 1.2 million Afghan refugees. Even after the Soviet troops
withdrew, a devastating drought and a protracted civil war has forced
Afghanis to continue pouring over the borders. Most of the refugees
are housed in camps in the northwest.
Jalozai is a makeshift settlement, located in a place where you
don't expect towns to bloom naturally... parched, cracked dust as
far as the eye can see, and blinding afternoon light reflecting
off the row after row of shiny white plastic tents. The summer temperatures
frequently reach 49 degrees centigrade that make life in tents unbearable.
The squalor and harsh conditions are not conducive to optimism.
A disillusioned old woman told Shah, "You're not the first
to come with a camera. You take photographs to show the world, but
nothing changes for us."
Many of the families earn a pittance by weaving carpets. "We
don't want charity," said one woman Shah spoke to. "We
want to work and live normal lives. But who is there to help us?"
Another said, "Faced with a choice of death here or death back
home, I wish I had died there. At least that would have been with
honor."
Inroads into their self-esteem are not the only dismal consequences
of the Afghani's flight from the drought in their country. Respiratory
disorders caused by infected wool and aggravated by extreme temperatures
and malnutrition are common as are skin infections. Another occupational
hazard is permanently stooped shoulders from bending over the carpet
looms. Often, young children are given drugs to keep them at their
tasks all day as smaller fingers are better at knotting. Opium-based
drugs also keep hunger at bay. The staple food is a rock hard ball
of bread baked in a common oven, and usually it is the children's
chore to queue up at the tandoor with their family's share of kneaded
dough. The only schooling available is for boys only, and is limited
to religious instruction. In spite of the appalling conditions,
Shah says she noticed that the human spirit was not defeated. Children
followed her eagerly; one little girl even played hide and seek
with her.
On her visit to the refugee camps and Peshawar, Pakistan's border
town, Shah's particular interest was meeting the Afghani women.
Zubaida, a teacher by profession had fled to Pakistan because she
was not allowed to work by the Taliban. She told Shah with tears
in her eyes, "They [Taliban] have taken our country hostage
and driven us out." Her story is not uncommon. Bibi Jan was
another recent refugee who was forced to cross the border to save
her three small children from starvation because she could not find
work after her husband was killed in the civil war. Few of the women
Shah met were interested in politics. Gul Bano said, "I don't
care about Taliban or any other government. All I care about is
getting food for my children and praying for peace in my country."
Her experience at the refugee camps this summer in July 2001 has
taken on new meaning after the tragedy in the USA on September 11.
Shah, originally from Pakistan and now settled in Canada, faces
the tough predicament of protecting her two young daughters from
misconception about their religion in the Western media. "As
a mother and a Muslim, I want my daughters to know the Islam that
I know and practice which is the Islam of peace, love and tolerance
and not of hatred, intolerance and violence."
By F.M. Dinshaw
www.msf.ca
Related Articles:
Read my interview with Doctors
without Borders
Doctors without Borders: Visiting
an Afghan Refugee Camp
Doctors without Borders: El Salvador,
after the Earthquake
Doctors without Borders: Water
for Ixtahuacan
Doctors without Borders: Visiting
MSF in Sierra Leone
Doctors without Borders: Lost between River
and Sky
Doctors without Borders: Journey
into the World of Humanitarian Aid
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