Afghanistan–– a never ending challenge! : Mahboob Shareef

by Mahboob Shareef

I joined UNICEF Afghanistan in 1994. Initially our office was in Peshawar, later it was moved to Islamabad, where I led the EPI programme. I was moved inside Afghanistan in 1998 to lead the office in the North and North Eastern Region as the Regional Programme Officer.

The “Back to School Campaign” in Afghanistan will always remain an unforgettable experience in my career.

I have experienced the rise and fall of the Taliban––their ban on girls’ education in 1998, the joyful return of girls to school after the Taliban was ousted in 2002. This was facilitated through a massive  cross-border operation across three central Asian countries and international efforts in support of Afghans, in particular, Afghani girls and women.

In the beginning, I led a non-conventional immunization service delivery programme. Regional warlords were in virtual administrative control of most parts of the country. UNICEF did not have any alternative but to channel EPI services through the fragmented regional authorities. In the absence of a functional federal government structure, the entire programme was implemented as a cross border operation with NGOs as implementing partners.

In the mid 1990s, the greatest challenge was implementing the first nation wide one-day polio immunization campaign. This entailed negotiations with warring factions, including northern authorities for an agreement to allow unhindered movement of supplies before the campaign began and a ceasefire during the week of the campaign to ensure safe passage of service providers so that they could undertake immunization activities on that particular day. It was a daunting task to get the factions to agree on a ceasefire for a social cause.

A couple of working groups led by the political wing of the UN travelled to Afghanistan for negotiations. After an arduous process, all factions agreed to honour the cause. This allowed UNICEF and its partners to successfully organize the first “National Immunization Day” in Afghanistan.  This was later repeated on many occasions.

One of the most reactionary measures of the Taliban was the ban on girls’ education (1997-2002). They also banned women from working outside of their homes - with very few exceptions, such as female doctors and nurses in all female hospital wards. These measures shocked Afghan families as well as the international development partners. Despite efforts and advocacy by the UN and other agencies including UNICEF, the Taliban did not change their decision. This was an immense setback for girls/women and in fact, threatened the future of an entire generation.

Closure of schools for girls prompted communities to consider alternative approaches to educate girls. With the active support of parents and community leaders, female teachers established schools in their own homes clandestinely, risking imprisonment and punishment. A large number of such schools thus started functioning. UNICEF field offices collected information about these schools, prompting UNICEF to assist them with locally provided education supplies and to extend some form of training for management of the community-learning centres.   Indigenous NGOs supported the implementation, training and monitoring. UNICEF continued to provide support through Afghan education officers, fully aware of the risks.

Soon, Taliban authorities learned of this operation but in most cases pretended not to notice while still keeping a close eye on it.

While returning from a field visit to one such school, the Afghan education officer of UNICEF-Mazar was attacked by an unknown assailant. He was shot in the abdomen but survived. This incident shocked everyone. In spite of my own initial shock, I remained focused on supporting our injured colleague and ensuring the safety of his family.

When the UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy was informed, she immediately contacted me and advised on various steps in order to save the lives of staff. Support from UNICEF-leadership for staff-safety was much appreciated by all staff.

When the new school year began on 23 March 2002 the post Taliban Ministry of Education and the international community made it a priority to bring back children (7-14 years) to school. It was a big challenge to reopen schools after a lapse of six-seven years. In many instances, school supplies and materials were either looted or damaged.

UNICEF’s supply centre in Copenhagen mounted a massive supply operation; first in designing “school in a box” to cater to the needs of 80 students and their teachers per box, and secondly to deliver them inside Afghanistan. When the supplies arrived in the country, the next daunting task was to dispatch these to far-flung and inaccessible areas. In most cases, traditional means of transport were used, including donkeys through dangerous mountainous routes. Often, army helicopters were used.

Nearly 4 million children returned to school all across Afghanistan that year. Of this total 4 million school returnees, nearly 2 million were from the North and North-Eastern Region. The success of this programme was largely dependent on the field office in Mazar-i-Sharif for which I was responsible.

The UNICEF Executive Director was present at the inaugural ceremony in Kabul with the head of the interim government. In each region we attended the inaugural ceremony with the regional governors.

Everywhere children were in a jubilant mood. As soon as we entered the classroom they started chanting “thanks to UNICEF”.  This was one of the happiest and most rewarding moments of my career. Local radio stations and TV broadcast my conversations with teachers and students on that occasion.

My mission to Mazar-i-Sharif began in 1999 with reopening of the largest UNICEF field Office.  It had been completely destroyed by the pre-Taliban militant group in 1996 and the UNICEF operation was therefore suspended for about 2 years.  My mission came to an end in 2002 following the reopening of the same office after the fall of Taliban. We then took up a massive emergency and rehabilitation programme including the back to school campaign.

I left Afghanistan happy to see that girls and women were back in schools and at work, as well as to see rehabilitation and social integration underway for the previously displaced population returning back to Afghanistan.

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