The Story of Hope

Abstract

Afghanistan is back in the news. It is “the other war” that the presidential candidates mention in their debates. It is The Kite Runner. It is the 23 South Korean missionaries kidnapped near Kandahar by the Taliban. It is Osama Bin Laden and September 11. To us it could be all the above but, rarely, a quarter-century of living in consecutive wars, fear of violence, and devastated economy. That, to Afghans, is both the memory and reality of their homeland entering 2008.

Arzu, meaning “Hope” in Dari, is a Chicago-based non-profit organization that has worked in Afghanistan since 2004 to help employ and educate women by sourcing and selling rugs woven by them. For illiterate, underprivileged Afghan women, weaving is often their only option to generate income in a culturally acceptable way. To date, Arzu has enrolled almost 700 women weavers, or 230 families, in Kabul, Bamyan and Andkhoi districts. In order to become an Arzu weaver, the women must sign a social contract agreeing to register their children in school and themselves in literacy classes. In return, Arzu provides the literacy programs, access to health care and pays weavers fair market value for their work as well as a 50% bonus at the completion of the rug. Profits from the rug sale in the United States cover the costs of Arzu’s operations and expand the project.

Arzu’s work—blending private- and public- sector activities and empowering a targeted group of women in remote villages—has so far created a sustainable aid operation.  Yet, Afghanistan still face the challenges of the resurgence of the Taliban, the detrimental effects of the opium-trade, and plight of returned refugees, with few resolutions in sight. The real story of hope can only be written by Afghanistan itself.