Herat orphanage challenges fate, restores hope for generations

[The Patriot]

Herat orphanage challenges fate, restores hope for generations

04-01-2011 01:03 AM

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Fri, 2011-04-01 08:54


Herat orphanage challenges fate, restores hope for generations


feature_story_photo:
Sweet treat
U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Kevin Wallace
Two orphans receive candy at the Herat City Orphanage March 26, 2011. Support continues to grow for the orphanage but the 105 boys living there still only eat meat twice a week and live in ragged conditions.





Herat orphanage challenges fate, restores hope for generations

Tech. Sgt. Kevin Wallace
Regional Command-West Public Affairs

HERAT, Afghanistan – From the walls of an eroding building in an insipid Herat City neighborhood, tiny footsteps and laughter were heard March 26, as orphaned children ran about singing and playing.

The orphans covered their tiny bodies with tattered clothes, most with no shoes, but were still miraculously excited. That day, they knew they were about to receive much-needed school supplies and donated toys.

After receiving gifts, a small boy entered the orphanage singing a song very quietly, in a near whisper.

Sitting down, 4-year-old Nasir Nagor Ahmad sang a song that revealed what weight sits daily on his tiny, little heart.

“I lost my mother and father, and know that I’m an orphan,” sang Ahman.

He got quiet for a few moments and the interpreter explained that Ahman’s parents died when he was a toddler, and the orphanage is the only home he knows.

His home is quite modest.

Walking through Herat City Orphanage, which houses 105 boys between the ages of four and 16, their ragged condition revealed itself with carpet-less concrete floors, broken dining tables and discoloured walls.

Despite their hardships, lack of public school-appropriate clothes, fuel and food shortages, mental growth and progress has continued to thrive at the orphanage over the years.

A handful of young teenage boys studied algebra on a small, broken white board as other children played on a swing-set in the courtyard. The fact they only eat meat two meals a week wasn’t apparent in their motivation or energy levels.

They had a seemingly unparalleled will to survive.

Such wasn’t always the case.

“Years ago I had about 350 orphans here in this very building,” said Azamary Mohmandziy, the headmaster. “One day the Taliban came and took away nearly all my children. They said the boys were old enough to work and left only the 30 youngest behind.”

Mohmandziy described the day as one of the worst in his life. But more tragedy would come to pass before hints of happiness would return to the orphanage.

“The next year, the Taliban returned and took away the rest of my children, only leaving behind seven. I feared I’d eventually lose them too so I brought them into my home and raised them as my own children, and the orphanage had to close its doors for many years,” said Mohmandziy.

All seven of the children he raised went on to finish high school, enter Herat City’s University, and moved on to professional careers. One became a medical doctor and another returned to teach Dari, Pashtu, English, biology and math at the orphanage.

Once the Taliban was removed from power, Mohmandziy re-opened the orphanage but had to start from shambles and received little funding.

“These kids will be Afghanistan’s future and we have to teach them hard work and education is the key to their fate,” said Mohmandziy, stressing how when a child is dealt the worst hand in life, they can easily be swayed toward crime. “I push them hard to keep them from crime or corruption.”

Mohamad Abdul Latif, a 10-year-old orphan, said he also wants to become a doctor and spends all his free time studying, but also enjoys playing soccer.

The Afghan Institute of Learning answered some of Mohmandziy’s calls for help and staffed two shift-working nurses at the orphanage, and provides medical supplies. The nurse’s aren’t available 24/7 and medicine is in short supply.

Support continues to grow for the orphanage, and for a good reason. During Afghanistan’s darkest years, children were made into labourers and not afforded an education or even a childhood.

As conditions improve, some scars will never heal.

After a long silence, a tear began to roll down Ahmad’s little cheek and he continued to sing, “I miss my sister, I don’t know where she is or where she lives, and I don’t even remember what she looks like. I love her.”








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