Streams

Dear Readers,

As our by line from an Afghan Proverb reads “drop by drop a river is formed,”  we are encouraged to report there are streams flowing now.  Recently returning from Kandahar, where the eyes of the world focus on other things, I saw evidence of two communities taking their living conditions in their own hands, building flood drainage systems, getting clean water supplies and electrical power, not only to the few and well connected but to everyone in their neighborhoods. 

In the teachers’ university in Kabul four of the top students in the special education department are blind, having been resourced by our EMAD project staff for their entire elementary and secondary education.  Now, for the first time in Afghanistan, Deaf students are entering the same university, graduates of the SHIP school in Jalalabad.  The Afghan Sign Language has been recognized as a proper language by a linguist after a seventeen year combined effort.  SERVE was a major contributor, along with other agencies, and the Deaf community in making this a reality in such a short time. 

The Pashai community in Nangarhar Province is becoming literate in their mother tongue for the first time in history.  Both women and men are participating in classes.  In recognition of this effort in 2009, our Eastern Region Community Development project was granted an award by UNESCO for excellence in literacy, one of three awards granted that year. 

I think these are streams, what do you think? 

Stephen Craig

Executive Director