Background
A
small number of political dissident had been forced to flee Afghanistan as early
1973,when Sardar Daud overthrew King Zahir Shah, but the real influx of the
refugees started in April 1978 and reaches to 3.2 million at the end of
1980.Refugees were settled in 256 villages in the north west frontier province
while another 80 villages were established in Baluchistan province. Each village
was comprised of ten thousand individual average family structure was from five
to seven persons. Both the provinces are on the Afghanistan border famous as
Durand line, majority of the pushtun tribes live partially across the border in
Pakistan and Afghanistan. Apart from these refugees in the villages, also
scattered across Pakistan and settled in cities and other provinces where their
ethnic group were already settled. Afghanistan comprise twenty nine provinces
and almost all provinces people took refugees in Pakistan with different ethnic,
social political, religious identities. Being at war with Russia having common
enemy, they were united in seven parties in Pakistan and six in Iran. Soon after
Russian withdrawal in 1992 struggle for power started among different ethnic
groups. The war against Russia was fought purely on religious ground while the
later struggle was on ethnic identity bases. The two major fraction Pushtun
majority and Northern Alliances came into the ground to gain and control the
country.
As
the refugees were settled in different camps on their ethnic identities basis,
soon it was felt that the home country rivalry may not spread into the refugees
community, which will create, law and order situation with in the host country
Pakistan. Different strategies were adopted to handle such threats but the
social welfare cell a UNHCR funded project under the administration of
government of Pakistan started gross root based activates for peace building and
cultural harmony. Afghan being traditional and tribal people have their own
community-based problem solving institution called Jirga (elders council) from
thousand years. But it was totally restricted to men’s only, and other
community members, women, children were excluded from it. Any ethnic conflict
not handle from verities of way, may explode any time and create many problems.
Social Welfare Cell (SWC) took start to include peace massages and culture
harmony initiatives in already established network on the gross root level. Two
areas were taken into consideration the Old Age Peoples, who inherit and
dissemination bias and enmity to the young generation through stories telling
and other means, and the children the future of any country. Administration took
the responsibility to work with local Jirga, while children task was given to
SWC. Most of the information in the paper is from my practical fieldwork
experience with the children and while other has been taken from Government, UN,
and NGO’s reports.
Who
are Afghans?
Afghanistan
is home to a rich and diverse cultural history dating back five millennia. Over twenty distinct ethnicities have been identified in Afghanistan. The
dominant ethnic community is the Pathan (Pashtun) people, constituting
approximately 50% of the population, while Dari (Persian) is the more
predominant language spoken. The
majority of Pashtuns earn a living through animal husbandry and agriculture, as
well as trade. They have been
traditionally renowned for their fierce spirit of independence. The second-largest community is the Tajik, who account for approximately
25% of the population. They are identified with farming, and are located mostly in
the eastern fertile valleys, both north and south of the Hindu-Kush mountain
range. The Uzbek and Turkmen, who
live in the northern plains as farmers and herders, compose approximately 11% of
the population. Hazaras, a
Mongoloid Persian-speaking people living in the central mountains, the
Nuristanis, inhabiting the high mountains in the east, and the Baluchis from the
desert area in the south are other ethnicities living in Afghanistan. Each of these three populations makes up 1% of the
population.
Traditional
Afghan culture relies heavily on kinship and family loyalty. Afghans, despite
their many ethnicities, languages, and traditions, are united by their
commitment to Islam. In traditional Afghan culture, a family’s reputation is
closely linked to maintaining Islamic culture and values. One tradition has been the purdah,
the segregation of women from men. It
includes protecting the family’s honor by limiting a woman’s interaction in
the public sphere. One example of purdah is the wearing of the burqa, a cloth
that covers all physical features, including the face.
Due
to its geopolitical importance, Afghanistan has historically been the target of
tremendous struggle for influence and control by foreign powers. The most recent foreign attempts occurred in 1979 when the Soviets
invaded Afghanistan, making it a hotspot of the Cold War. In response to what would become a ten-year Soviet occupation, resistance
movements, supported by the United States, supplied arms, intelligence and
financial support to the Mujahadeen,
or freedom fighters, of Afghanistan. After
the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan, the conflict continued between the
various Mujahadeen factions and camps.
Insight
Afghanistan
Population: 25,838,797 (July 2000 est.)
Area: total: 652,000 sq km
GDP: $21 billion (1999
est.)
Ethnic
groups: Pashtun 38%, Tajik 25%, Uzbek 6%, Hazara 19%,
Minor
ethnic groups 12% (Aimaks, Turkmen, Baloch, and others)
Religions: Sunni Muslim 84%, Shi'a Muslim 15%, other
1%
Languages: Pashtu 35%, Afghan Persian (Dari) 50%, Turkic languages (primarily Uzbek
and Turkmen) 11%, 30 minor languages (primarily Balochi and Pashai) 4%, much
bilingualism
Social Work in the Refugees Camps
Since the arrival of the
refugees in Pakistan the international donor agencies with UN,sister organization
flooded into Pakistan to start relief operation and humanitarian work. It created
dependency among the refugees communities on foreign assistance and the donor soon felt it a continuous fatigue. In 1987 social welfare cell was established to decrease dependency syndrome and work for self
reliance initiative. The main focus of the cell was to identify venerable
groups, motivate
gross root community participation, development and create coordination network
on different levels. Social welfare cell always change its strategy according to
the situation and develop training packages and field based activities as and
when it was needed. There were many children activities across the province
guided by male /female afghan animators and supervised by Pakistani social
worker across the province. Many international NGO’s and UN agencies extended
all possible help in shape of provision of training and other material,
financial support as the previous social net work in the children give
sustainable and positive result.
Children are always near to
the parents but in case of the afghan refugees community where the literacy
rate was only 2%, children played effective role in awareness campaign in their families and communities. One example was drug awareness campaign where UNDCP change its strategies of awareness, from poster to cloth writing
material but was not effective and at the end when SWC advised them to print
plastic dinning sheets and
distribute it through school children, it give positive result. It give an
opportunity to the children to not only educate their family but also eating
together on dinning sheet, generate discussion among the family member and any
other visitor who visited their house. Such awareness leads to to spread the messages in the community through their elders and other
family members specially in the tradition society where mosque and Hujra
(traditional community center) play decisive role.
Japanese
Girls Scouts Peace Pack
There were already many
children activities on the ground but for peace building and cultural harmony
special events were kept in mind to avoid any failure. In the beginning the start
was taken by the Japanese girl guide, peace packs were distributed and delivered on yearly basis by the Japanese students.
Each pack was sent by the
scout by saving his/her own pocket money, with special letter to each Afghan Child
with varieties of peace messages. Each such material were given to a single child
and were asked to write the message in their own language and share these
information with rest of the family members. Such information bring an attitude
of peace among the elders, taught by the children. Children also disseminate such
information with other children in their community who were not coming to
school.
Golden Memories
A
group of elderly male/female Afghan, were organized to share their pre- war
stories/experiences with each others and transfer such information to the young
generation for peace building .Such groups of ‘Golden Memories' were
selected from different ethnic groups. They were meeting regularly on weekly
basis, share their pre- war stories with each other and an animators was
responsible to right down such stories for compilation and further distribution
to the children groups in the schools and communities.
In
the school morning assembly each individual from different ethnic groups were
given a chance to share such memories with school children on daily basis. Such
information were written by the children and on monthly basis, quiz
competition were arranged to evaluate the knowledge of the children about their
home country .All golden memories groups members were invited to such function
and the prizes were distributed through them, among the winner of competition.
It
create a bridge among the old aged and children in each community and also
inspire the children to ask more pre- war peace question from their own elders
in their family and community. They also came to know through such practice to
understand different ethnic groups with in the camps ,where they were residing
and also to update their knowledge about their home land as many of them were
born on the host soil not seen their home land and less aware about their past.
Child
to child program
As
Benvenisti write ;Communal conflict are like a chess board, where one can
think up the best arrangement of chess pieces and move them all at once. Harmony
in multi culture setting needs approaches from all direction to address it
accurately and create network top down and bottom up. It is an activities on the
elementary level to aware the children of their basic six children
rights. Children with their rights were also taught peace messages and how to
live with each other in peace with in the school and outside in their
community. Community volunteers were train in this subject to teach and
supervise the child groups with in the schools and community. Children first
takes starts from their home, where they teach the children rights of
education, speech, expression, play, health matters and other important aspect of
children rights with special emphasis on peace education.
As
children are very near to their parents and other family members they are
listen well by all the family members. The male children in the community go
with their elders to Mosque and hujra where they are asked with to tell to other elders in the community, what they learn in the
school. The elders feel proud of their children aptitude to education and
specially peace messages. On the other hand the girls children attend with the
their mothers and grand mother different ceremony in their localities and spread
the same messages on the same way as boys do it in the male community. Other
parents inspired through this way motivate
their children to join such groups to educate them and other community members
also feel proud. In area where the literacy rate is very low, child to child
activities were diverted from children to adults. Where children were asked to
educate what ever they learn in the school to their elders. Such groups were
organized even outside the school where small children from different ethnic
groups were given the task to spread the messages of peace to the elders of their community. Violence like domestic violence, children
fight ,drug addiction etc where reported by such children to the school teachers
or community volunteers, who took immediate action to address it. As minor
problem leads to major one such arrangement make prevention strategies for
further escalation of violence.
Islami
Khadmathgar, (scouts)
Theses
activities are mostly in the middle and high school. It is well organized program almost
in all schools now. The teachers are train in the organization structure, and
running the activities. The are discipline students selected by the
recommendation
of the class teachers and well train in different discipline. They are
responsible to teach and organized students activities inside and out side the
school. They have special strip of identity on their shoulder and present in any
social activities inside or outside the school. With in the school they arrange e
morning assembly the visit of the community elders to present pre-war peace
messages on daily basis. Arrange sports competition, keep discipline, resolve
students conflict. They keep record in a special note book and share /present it
with in the group on weekly basis. Such reports are compiled by the responsible
teacher and present it to the head teacher of the school on monthly basis. The
head teacher then present all achievements
of the students in a joint student parents meeting on monthly basis and address
all those issues which needs immediate attention by the parents and teachers
both. The community elders/parents and teachers interact with each other and
keep harmony and peace through this way.
Out
side the school islami khadathgar perform many duties. Any activities of any
institution with out community roots almost die soon and not getting community attention. If the community and school activities
are inter linked with each other it give more positive results and create
greater harmony among any community. They clean the mosque before the Friday
prayer. They keep the all the equipments with them for any emergency ,in case of
death immediately start to dug graveyard, As the refugees has special custom to
inform the relatives and friends in case of death in far flung camps, they write
the death messages, and distribute it to the people in different part. They also
announce it on the loudspeaker any special announcement of the village
interest. As refugees camps face major water problem, they take the
responsibility for the three days to provide clean water for the guest and host
when the family is performing the funeral of the dead. They do all funeral
arrangements with consultation of the refugees elders. On special occasion like
Eid they collect contribution from the wealthy community elders for special
celebration and other useful activities for the village village children, youth
.They help the village orphan ,widows ,disabled to assure their access to the
food/ relief distribution and other facilities provided by different NGO’s and
UN agencies with in the camp. They play a catalysis role for the awareness
campaign for immunization, Drug addictions, land mine in the whole camp areas.
They
also arrange free tuition in summer vacations. Elders of the camp know each and
every one as their selection are on tribe and ethnic basis from all parts of
the camp, they also provide all their assistance to each and every one with out
any discrimination. They create a web on the village level where all of the
communities are interlinked with each other. As they are grown up student they
easily communicate to the elders in the community and teachers in the school any
problem erupted to create law and
order situation .They also create trust among the their community by their
volunteer job which they performed for them.
Malgari
Joona (Girls friends)
Women
in the afghan refugees communities has no accesses to any social activities due
to the man monopolized society. Lack of awareness is felt a lot, right from the
first day of refugees arrivals to Pakistan. Any approach to female, needs prior
permission from the male. Any anti –traditional message strictly prohibited by the male community. Female education is not acceptable to many elders of the community. Child to child play important role in the female
school but Scouts were not accepted by the elders as it was considered a western
idea, middle school girls students
are almost grown up, not allowed to move freely in the community. After due consultation and
permission from the elders Malgaree joona (girls Friend) were introduced in the
middle schools. Main focus was on cultural and ethnic harmony. Here the strategy
was changed. As the tajik ,uzbak and Turkmen are expert in embroidery ,handicraft, and
gilm, carpet making. Such groups were organized on the each school level where an
old lady from the same tribes were given the task to teach such skill to the
other Pushtun tribes girls. While Pushtun women were given the task to teach animal
husbandry, food preservation ,poultry skills to the non pushtun ethnic groups.
The
knowledge of the schools further disseminated with the help of NGO’s in each
part of the camp by the same group of female children to teach it to their
community female children, who were not attending the school. On the community
level not only female children, but even younger and older women join the groups
to learn the new skill and further disseminate it to the other women of the
community. It create a network among the female folk and they not only learn the
skill but also came to know each other culture and traditions. Daily contact
bring an opportunity for them to discuss different other issues apart from the
skill. Even though the first start for such activities were not focused on
cultural harmony and peace building, but later it turn its shape to such
activities ,which was wonderful experience to learn about each others more and
develop good communication across different tribes of the community.
Such
activities was further strengthen with
the help of traditional birth attendant. (TBA’s) are old ladies moving around
in the camp with out much veil restriction. Such women communicate messages from
one home to another very easily. They have close contact with village elders and
pass on any information to them. Such groups are traditionally expert in almost
every walk of life and play a mentor role for the community women. Such groups
were motivated by the help of NGO’s by giving them some incentive to further
strengthen the activities of Malgree
joona group activities. They also disseminate
their own knowledge with other women group. As they were expert in resolving
female conflict on traditional pattern they were asked to keep an eye on such
issues and address it immediately. They were given free hand to help coordinate
between the male jirga or female committee with in their Ares. As old women and
men have a special status in the traditional setting ,they were respected by the
youth and children and were listen well what ever they share with such
groups. There selection were across the different segments and tribes, they were
considered the agent of unity and harmony in the refugees camps.
Youth
welfare organizations
Youth
selected for this group were the educated one who came across from child to
child, Islami khadmathgar groups. They were train in different social and peace
building activities. They were organized on community level to address youth and
children issues. They first organized themselves an a community based
organization (CBO) structure. Give representation to all of the youth from
different tribes. They arrange special ceremony like parents day, sport
events, quiz competition, etc and invite elders and children from all over the
camps and school on each occasion. Through their own contribution they also
arrange different festivals,
drawing
and painting competition among the children and invite UN, Government, NGO’s
official to participate. Such activities
give them exposer and access to different organization ,who support them
later. Elders of the community also donate them, from their own pockets inspired
by youth efforts. Soon they got sufficient funding to help themselves in
organizing different activities. It is interesting to note that due to the
prolong stay of Afghan refugees conflict arouses in different part of the
province between local and refugees. Which was timely taken by such group. One
of the example was close to the provincial capital Peshawar there were many
Refugees camps surrounded by local villages. They were in conflict with each
other at a point Government decided to settled these refugees some where
else. Cricket is played in each village of Pakistan while Afghan Refugees were
also very interested to play cricket game in their camps. SWC coordinator
organize a tournament between the youth welfare organization and local cricket
teams. On the final occasion all the elders of the camps and local villagers
were invited to watch the final match. It was not only appreciated by the elders
of both sides ,they also donate a
lot of contribution to the teams .A local villager offer his land for playing to
the refugees youth. The local also asked the Refugees youth to arrange
traditional games competition among the teams, which were no more played in the local community but Refugees were still playing back home in
Afghanistan. It become a routine in the later stage and the play ground was used
for different games in different part of the year. It give a leisure time
activities to the old and young both of the community and also developed good
relationship between the local and refugees community.
Income
generation, vocational skill
Children and youth are the
future support of each family in
almost all culture but in traditional setting male child is considered to be an old aged benefit. NGO’s established different vocational center
for male ,female in all camps but less attention was given to the children and
youth. As children were the bred earner for many families ,when the elder was
sick, disabled, or died in war. Lack of education
facilities compel the children to go to the child labor, street children to
collect from garbage different items and sell it for their daily livelihood
.Youth welfare organization raise this issue and asked different NGO’s to
established center for such children where they can get education and skill at
the same time. NGO’s accepted this genuine request and established different
center where the need was felt, were also supported by the community ,specially
by the youth and children groups. Child to child, Islami khadmathgar, Malgaree
joona and youth welfare organization, identified such children in their
community and motivated them to the center for enlistment. They groups not only identified the children but also pinpoint such venerable groups,
who were skilled and were able to teach the children with in those center. Youth
took the responsibility to teach and educate the children on volunteer
basis. While male / female committee extend their help by
providing, space, security for the center, and religious volunteer teachers for
religious teaching. The center provide a unique place for all the tribes and
ethnic groups children to learn skill and education
at a time and create social harmony among different ethnic groups.
Community
center
As
Afghan community have their own traditional community center (Hujra) in each
community. Its use is traditionally for special occasion and only limited to
male community. Female have no participation in Hujra, they socialized themselves on community oven, washing untie ceil or
clothing on stream, fetching water from a well or any other source. SWC raise the
issue to UNHCR to provide fund for community center in each camp ,for its multiple use. Center were established on each camp level which was a focal
point for all community based organization and donor agencies. It was used by
male/female, youth, children any time they wherein need of it. Male/Female Animator
was present in each center to coordinate all such activities. It was meeting
place, resource center, vocational ,training ,and recreation center for all these
groups. Again children and youth took leads in its utilization by starting
different indoor and outdoor games. Different activities were initiated for
mentally retarded children, war affected children, immunization for children. All
delegates from different part of the world were entertained by these groups over
there. The center were properly organized and maintained by the children and
youth groups through charts and maps, help any new comer to the camp very easily. Center also provide an opportunity to
the ethnic groups to utilized it for any activities as it was considered to be
belong to all and each one have their own due share in it. It give an
opportunity
to all such groups to share and discuss their daily issues/problem with each
others and find some solution for it. It provide an opportunity for leisure time
activities for all of them having different custom and traditions to share it
with each others and create a web of cultural traditional harmony. In different
the community arranged daily newspaper and placed TV, radio to update their
knowledge.
Conclusion
Pakistan is the host country
for one of the world largest refugees influx from almost all twenty-nine
provinces of Afghanistan, with varieties of languastic, culture, professional,
religious differences. In the beginning, and in the presence of common enemy
they were united but later power struggle made the situation worse inside
Afghanistan. Refugees flow to Pakistan was also different at different time. From
1979 to 1992 most of the rural refugees with agrarian background came to
Pakistan, who fought the Afghan war. From 1992 onward after the fall of
communist regime and Russian forces withdrawal the new influx of urban refugees
came to Pakistan. Such urbanized Refugees were considered pro-communist and the
one, who never took part in the war
against Russia forces. The urban refugees were, educated, ultra modern, less
religious. The rural refugees were religious, traditional, fighters, and
uneducated.
Pakistan being a developed
country, with proper prior arrangement and lack of resources were facing
tremendous challenge to cope with the refugees problem. External hands were also
very much there to exploit ethnic, communal riot inside Afghanistan and with
in Pakistan. Religious fundamentalism was so much involved in Afghan war that
each and every minor or major incident was looked into the religious lenses.
Religious, cultural, traditional
and ethnic harmony was at high risk during the whole afghan war and the
government missionary was always under pressure to keep close eye on such
issues.
Children played unique role
in bringing culture harmony through varieties of ways. They themselves change the
war anthem to reconstruction and rehabilitation messages for their elders. They
established close network through, social, religious, traditional activies and
present an examples to their elders to follow.They started the activites for one
specific purposes but soon relized and adopt different approaches according to
the need of time.The network from bottom up and top down make the job easy for
any outsider to start their peace work at any stage and with any group.The child
to child group children join islami khadmathgar,groups on middle level and later youth welfare organization after their high school education.They soon
become member of the social welfare committee male /female and established
strong links with the local jirga and golden memories groups.
Young age children and old
aged male /female are the main sources for conflict or peace building.As old
aged people in each commuity commuincate information to young generation while
children and youth get it create hatered and negative immages in the struggle
between us and them.
Strong network exchange of
modern peace education through children and dissimenation of pre-war peace
stories make the job easy in any traditional set up if culturally adopted.
In the last twenty three
years refugees stay in Pakistan not a single conflict was reported so far,
regarding ethnic ,religious,conflict.Even though the war in Afghanistan is still
going on, on ethenic back ground.All of the refugees present unity in each
respect and accept any new idea implemented by the agencies with open heart and
fully utalized the benifit of it.The only change have been brought in any
western ideas was to make it according to the prevailing culture and
traditional,religious values.Such was the case in almost all the children
activities working for peace and harmoney.
Bibliography
· Caroe Olaf; The Pathans , Union Book Stall Karachi Pakistan,1980
· War Affected Children, Afghanistan and Rwanda Field Report, Women
commission for refugees women and children Colombia university, 2001
· Ahmad Mumtaz, Concept paper on working with urban Refugees, UNHCR
sub-office Peshawar Pakistan 2001
· Augsburger w David; Conflict Mediation Across cultures, Path way and
Pattern, Westminster/john Knox press 1992.
· Khattak Abdul Waheed, Social Welfare Cell, Afghan Refugees, Annual
Report, Peshawar Pakistan 2000.
· Grima Benedicte, The Performance of Emotion Among Paxtun Women. Oxford University Press Karachi 1993.
· Fry Pdouglas and Orkquist Bj Kaj, Culture variation in conflict
Resolution, alternative to violence, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates,1977
· Gohar Ali Street children, Afghan Refugee Children in Peshawar, Church
world service Pakistan 2001.
· Omidian A. Patricia, Depression, Research Report, Among Long-Time Slayers
In Afghan Refugee Camps; Political Implication and manipulation, Peshawar 1998.
· Korbin E. Jill; Child Abuse and Neglect, Cross Culture Perspectives.
University of California Press.1981.
Ali Gohar
Just Peace International Inc.
Copyright © 2002-2004
justpeaceint.cjb.net. All rights reserved. |
