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UMCOR Housing Project Brings Families Back Together in Bagram, AfghanistanDate: March 6, 2003 
UMCOR's housing project in the Bagram Province of Afghanistan is helping to bring families back together and to mend broken hearts. The 200 homes that UMCOR-Kabul committed to rebuild in Bagram are 90% complete.
"The Village Mullah [religious leader] of Rabat wants the United Methodist churches that contributed to this project to know that their generosity is profoundly appreciated," reports Henry Hamilton, UMCOR's Head of Mission in Kabul. "He says that everyone in Rabat has benefited directly or indirectly from the UMCOR project. Most important to him was having the opportunity to escape from the misery of exile and the separation of families."
For two years during the war, Mullah Basir of Rabat was not with his family. He had taken refuge in the north while his wife and children had fled to Pakistan. When the family was reunited, he learned that his eldest son had died during the family's separation. Not to have been able to support his wife or to bury his son in Rabat is a great source of grief to him still. The pain is now mitigated somewhat by seeing his community reunited, shelters reconstructed and water flowing onto wheat fields freed from landmines. "My broken heart is mending," he says, and "I am happy to be back home."
Integrated Community Rehabilitation ProjectUMCOR's $635,847 Integrated Community Rehabilitation Project applies a participative, integrated approach to a small area with a relatively small population in order to achieve an impact in a relatively short period of time. This approach is based on UMCOR's wide-ranging experience that demonstrates that high impact low geographic area interventions lead to true sustainability and has a spillover effect on surrounding areas.
In line with the needs expressed by the members of the targeted villages, UMCOR is in the process of: Rehabilitating water sources (wells and irrigation); Constructing shelters; Providing seed, pesticides, fertilizer; and Providing income opportunities through loans.
UMCOR's projects require community participation and contribution in the implementation. For example, villagers hand-dug 25% of their wells' depth, and built their homes themselves.
In cooperation with the local NGO Rural Rehabilitation Association of Afghanistan, UMCOR has targeted seven villages to make the living conditions more tolerable to the native population, sustaining those presently there, and encouraging others to return from Kabul and other areas.
To support this program, please write checks to UMCOR with "Global Peace Building and Reconciliation-Afghanistan," Advance # 982540 written on the memo line. Give through your local United Methodist church or mail contributions to: UMCOR, 475 Riverside Dr., Room 330, New York, NY 10115. Call 1-800-554-8583 to make a credit card donation. You can also donate online. Click here to make a secure online gift.
Photo: 1. In Rabat, Afghanistan, Amadi settles in to a new house partly built with materials from UMCOR. UMCOR has assisted several family members including Amadi's father, beneficiary of an irrigation well and recipient of wheat and fertilizer (2003). 2. Building a home in Bagram Province (2002). Credit: Henry Hamilton, UMCOR/Afghanistan.