Disabled Flock to Kabul Care Centre

Tucked away in the west of the capital, near the old Polytechnic of Social Sciences, sits the 77-year-old Kabul Assistance Centre. And for nearly all that time it has delivered a unique and desperately needed service to the city's most deprived community.

In a country where medical aid of any kind is in short supply and dedicated to urgent cases, care for people with disabilities is almost non-existent. Yet here almost 220 people, the physically handicapped and mentally ill and many of their families, have found a basic kind of refuge.

More importantly, the centre tries to teach its residents, and often their dependents, practical trades such as weaving and care for subsistence crops, so they can at least try to make a life for themselves beyond the refuge. But the process is long and resources are short.

Former army colonel Abdul Wahab lost both legs and an eye to a land mine while serving in the old national army under the Afghan communist regime. When that fell, the ensuing civil war and the rise of the Taleban left him without a pension and no means of supporting his wife and six children.

"After my privileges and pension were taken from me I became very poor," Wahab - who's been a resident here for four years - told IWPR. "Helpless, I had to come here. There's everything: mattresses, blankets, dishes, fuel for heating and soap. They also provide basic education for my children, and workshops for carpentry, carpet weaving, embroidery, even tailoring."

Thirteen-year-old Farzana tells a similar story. " My aunt says I was just one-year-old when a Russian shell hit our home and most of my family - my father, mother, sisters, brothers, even two guests - were martyred. I was left crippled and left alone." Both her legs are useless and she can only move with the help of crutches. She came to the centre six years ago and is now able to attend an ordinary school.

The centre is full to the brim of such cases, but it can only take in new people when residents move on. That means that at any one time there are hundreds of desperately needy families trying to find a place at the centre. Scores of them come daily to its gates to plead their case.

"I am totally helpless," said Sabera, who's trying to get her family into the centre. "My husband was killed in a bomb blast and left me with four daughters and a young son to support. After God I have no other protector. From morning till night I have to beg to feed my children. Sometimes there is nothing.

"I have been coming here for a month now but I cannot get a place. They say that when foreign aid comes you can be admitted. Just wait."

But there is no immediate sign of international assistance coming beyond the basic support provided by the Red Cross and Red Crescent. "Because the centre is the only one of its kind for the disabled and indigent, between100 to 200 people come here daily and regrettably we have to turn all of them away," said centre official Saifullah Saadat. "We only have one donor, the ICRC. No other country or organisation is helping us."

The irony is that for most of its life, the refuge, originally founded around 1925 as the Orphanage of Nadirya, has been wholly self-sufficient. It sits on about 700 acres of formerly lush farmland, and used to sustain itself through poultry and cattle breeding. It also produced honey on the side.

But years of war and deprivation have cleared the cattle stalls and chicken coops and the old beehives are smashed and useless. Of the farmland itself only about a third is in use, for want of a working well to irrigate the rest of the land. The centre management estimates that they need to raise 35,000 US dollars to pay for the cost of well digging, irrigation, renovation of farm buildings and equipment and reintroduction of its livestock.

Once that happens, they believe they can help many more of the needy. "The centre has been in touch with many countries seeking help," said Qara Baig Ezidya of the Red Crescent Society of Afghanistan. "Some, such as the Red Crescent of Saudi Arabia, have promised help. Inshallah (With God's will) that will be soon and we can help the people who come here."

Sultana Farkhanda is a journalist with the Bakhtar News Agency in Kabul.