After the coming of the Taliban into power, women were deprived of any type of job outside home. They were ordered to stay inside and thousands were sacked from their jobs as teachers, doctors, nurses, tailors, government employees, etc. The majority of these women and girls don't have any alternative but to stay inside and find any jobs they can do in their homes. The number of female school and university teachers and lecturers was at its highest before the armed forces domination, especially before the Taliban took over Kabul.

The following statistics show the position of women before the Taliban and other armed forces:

50% of women were educated and employed (outside home)

Percentage of women in different populations at the time:60% of all teachers at Kabul University were women

50% of all students at Kabul University were women

70% of school teachers were women

50% of government workers were women

40% of doctors in Kabul were women

And according to Ahmad Rashid, a world-known Pakistani journalist, "...the Taliban's gender policies only worsened an ongoing crisis. Within three months of the taking of Kabul, the Taliban ban had closed 63 schools in the city affecting 103,000 girls, 148,000 boys and 11,200 teachers, of whom 7,800 were women. They shut down Kabul University sending home some 10,000 students of which 4,000 were women. By December 1998, UNICEF reported that the country's educational system was in a state of total collapse with nine in ten girls and two in three boys not enrolled in school." ("Taliban: Islam, Oil and the New Great Game in Central Asia")

So considering this atrocious reality, women must be provided whatever means possible so they can explore their talents and abilities and participate in the future construction of society. If not helped, a number of those women and girls who are literate and can share their knowledge for the betterment of their war-ravaged society and social fabric will be pushed to the wall day after day, their abilities will vanish gradually and psychologically they will be in constant fear and trauma.

ACAF's "Proyecto Mujer" Teacher Sponsoring Project is a good way to help those teachers who have been sacked and are homebound to get a salary in exchange for their work as teachers of home-based classes and literacy courses. Thousands of teachers are eager to run home-based classes in their houses for the children of the community.

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More than 20 years of destructive war not only collapsed the social, economic, political and cultural fabric of Afghan society but it also killed over 1 million people, maimed tens of thousands, orphaned thousands of children and widowed tens of thousands of women. There are more than 70,000 estimated widows just in Kabul. These widows lost their husbands either during the anti-Russian resistance war or during the civil fighting between armed factions or then between the Taliban and the so-called Northern Alliance. Hundreds of these widows are the eyewitness of their husbands death in rocketing, shelling, indiscriminate shooting. Some lost their lives while working in the fields. Many of these widows' husbands were forcibly recruited to fight for one of the warring sides and were killed in the battlefield.

As a consequence, there is a huge widow population in Afghanistan today. Many of these widows have to support their families because there are no mature male members in them. Their relatives are also poor and the target of war and destruction. Most of these widows are left with only three choices:

1.- Begging in the streets for a crumb of bread.

2.-Turning to prostitution.

3.- Starving to death along with their children.

The population of beggar widows is increasing day by day and most of them either live in large cities such as Kabul and Jalalabad or roam about the streets and business centers of Pakistan for a penny.

Karkhanoo is an illegal business center in the outskirt of Peshawar city where the misery of these beggar widows is more than apparent. Hundreds of them wander aimlessly around the market and who knows how many are prostitutes of war and forced immigration.

ACAF's "Proyecto Mujer" Widow Sponsoring Project is mainly in the service of these women. If helped, they can be saved from beggary and prostitution. If helped, their children can eat enough and can be prevented from dying in refugee camps and cities. If helped, they can be saved and helped to build the future of their children.

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As known, Afghanistan has one of the largest orphan and war-going child populations in the world. Due to continuous war and lack of attention by consecutive governments Afghan children are exposed to poverty, beggary, child-prostitution and child-trade. Almost all of the children, girls and boys alike, have no access to education, and because of poverty in their families they are forced to be engaged in child-labour. Most of the children are either begging in the streets or working as porters and servants in vegetable markets and shops inside and outside Afghanistan. The word "children-of-the-garbage" vividly explains the state of those children who collect rotten vegetables, fruit, paper, tins and other plastic and metal materials from each and every corner of the cities where garbage piles up.

The problem with these children is not just lack of schooling and education. At the root is another social problem: the absolute poverty of their families. The daily income of their families is hardly around 50 cent. With this they can hardly fill their empty stomach with a crumb of bread. They cannot afford the fees of the cheapest schools, or other school costs, like stationery, books or a bag. Personal hygiene and neat clothes are also unattainable for them. Also if children go to school, their families end up losing the money (however little this may be) they would get from the work of their children. So these realities force the families to unwillingly deprive their children of attending school. But this cannot be finished unless the families find an alternative.

ACAF's "Proyecto Mujer" Child Sponsoring Project is for the sponsoring of these forgotten girls and boys from destitute families. The money we send means helping their family cope with basic expenses such as food, accommodation, heating, basic hygiene, health and school costs. This will also help the family allow their children to attend school.

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