AFGHANISTAN SCHOOLS GET A BOOST FROM NETAID:
NetAid, in partnership with the Aga Khan Foundation, recently announced a new Afghanistan initiative that will help reconstruct that country’s ailing educational system. [More]
RECONSTRUCTION
2002, July 26: BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom - The minister of information and culture, Dr Sayd Makhdum Rahin, has visited the current reconstruction work on the Babor Garden [in the Afghan capital, Kabul]. During the visit, he recalled that the Babor's Garden is one of the pleasantest places for the people of Kabul, and said that the garden contains the mausoleum of Babor Shah and Queen Qamar, as well as other monuments. Unfortunately, these have been damaged by the passage of
time, carelessness and continuous wars. Dr Rahin said that the Agha Khan institution, the friendly country of Germany and some American organizations have taken an interest and begun large-scale activities to reconstruct Babor's Garden. [Source: Radio Voice of Mojahed web site in Pashto 1630 gmt 26 Jul 02 - BBC Monitoring]
AFGHANISTAN: NEW BRIDGES TO PROVIDE VITAL FOOD ACCESS:br> Thu 25 Jul 2002 - ISLAMABAD, - The construction of five new bridges by the Aga Khan Foundation between the remote northeastern Afghan province of Badakhshan and the southeastern Badakhshoni Khui province in Tajikistan, will help improve the food situation in extremely vulnerable areas, aid workers told IRIN on Thursday. Both provinces are very mountainous, difficult to reach and are geographically isolated in economic terms. [More]
WHITE DEATH' ENDURES IN THE LANDS OF CENTRAL ASIA
2002, July 20 Dawn/Gemini News Service: Locals say an intervention by the Aga Khan, leader of the Ismaili community, helped halt the downward spiral. The billionaire, who has been channelling aid to the region since the fall of the Soviet Union, made his help dependent on the halt of drug cultivation and trafficking. "And we know for a fact now that none of our farmers grow poppy," said Mirza Jahani, chief executive officer of the Aga Khan Foundation in Tajikistan. "We are involved in every community and we know what is going on." In exchange for turning their back on the lucrative drug trade, the Aga Khan promised to increase the number of development projects in the area and started sending humanitarian help to the Afghan communities settled across the Panj River. Within a few years, the level of drug consumption and trafficking plunged dramatically in Khorog and its surrounding areas. [More]
HUMANITARIAN AID TO AFGHANISTAN TO RESUME IN AUTUMN
2002, July 4 - Vecherniy Bishkek - Ahe third stage of the action by the international humanitarian coalition (IHC) to give food aid to
Northern Afghanistan is being postponed until the autumn.The chief engineer of the Badakhshonnakliyet (the main freight company) joint-stock company, Kudrat Davlyatenov, told a Vecherniy Bishkek correspondent this, quoting the organizers of the operation. He said that the drivers of the Osh [Kyrgyzstan] and Mountainous Badakhshon [Autonomous Region] (Tajikistan) transport enterprises that are involved in the delivery of humanitarian aid have been sent off on unpaid leave [More]
SPECIALISTS PLEDGE $7M TO HELP AFGHANS RECOVER LOST HERITAGE
2002, May 31 - FINANCIAL TIMES - ...Many hope that by returning Afghanistan to its multi-cultural roots, they may build a bulwark
against the return of Islamic extremism. "Having a living culture in a country is a way to support cultural pluralism rather than
sectarianism," said Stefano Bianca of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, which pledged $5m. [More]
AGA KHAN TO HELP REVITALIZE KABUL AREA
2002, April 30: KABUL: Aga Khan Cultural Services (Afghanistan), a newly established affiliate of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC), will lead the revitalisation of a significant but currently degraded urban area in central Kabul around the historic Timur Shah Mausoleum. [More from AKDN] [More from Dawn]
PUTIN, MUSLIM SPIRITUAL LEADER DISCUSS AFGHAN SETTLEMENT
2002, April 30: Interfax News Agency - Moscow, 30 April: Russian President Vladimir Putin and [spiritual] leader of the Shiite
Muslim [Ismaili] community Prince Karim Aga Khan IV discussed peace settlement in Afghanistan. [More from AKDN] [More from BBC]
FOCUS MOVES TO ASSIST QUAKE VICTIMES
Dushanbe, 3 April: Humanitarian organizations continue to provide aid in clearing up the aftermath of the earthquake in the Afghan town of Nahrin. The delivery of aid to the region is being complicated by the difficult accessibility of the regions, mines, poor sanitary conditions and changeable weather. After a meeting with the local authorities in Nahrin, which took place on 29 March, FOCUS Humanitarian Assistance, an affiliate of the Aga Khan Development Network, is also implementing an emergency programme to resolve the problems of drinking water and sanitation. [More from BBC] [Business Recorder]
AGA KHAN AND KARZAI SIGN AGREEMENT IN KABUL
March 23, 2002 - Kabul, Afghanistan - His Highness the Aga Khan, Imam (spiritual leader) of the Shia Ismaili Muslims and Mr. Hamid Karzai, Chairman of the Interim Authority of the Government of Afghanistan today signed an Agreement of Cooperation for Development that establishes an operating framework for the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) in Afghanistan. The Agreement, the first of its kind signed by the Interim Authority, enables the Network to move from the provision of humanitarian assistance to the establishment of long-term development programmes similar to those that have been successfully implemented in India, Pakistan, Tajikistan and other countries in Asia and Africa. In view of the importance of the Loya Jirga Commission's mandate in helping to create a future representative government for Afghanistan, the Aga Khan also announced a grant of US$2 million to enable the Commission to complete its work. [Press Release]
AFGHAN GIRLS RETURN TO SCHOOL AFTER FIVE YEARS
March 23, 2002 - AFT. - KABUL: Afghan girls went back to school for the first time in five years Saturday, elated and emotional at the end of the draconian ban on female education imposed by the now ousted Taliban regime. Interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai and the UN's special envoy for Afghanistan Lakhdar Brahimi led a ceremony to celebrate the start of the new school year at the capital's Amani High School. Some 500 officials and pupils attended the ceremony, including Interior Minister Yunus Qanooni, Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, the Agha Khan and UNICEF chief executive Carol Bellamy. [The Times of India] [Photo AP]
[Iranian News]
[Dawn] [LA Times] [Gulf News] [BBC]
[Southam News] [Photo US Dept]
TAJIKISTAN BUILDING BRIDGE ACROSS RIVER TO AFGHANISTAN
March 15, 2002 - Tajik news agency Asia-Plus - Dushanbe, Tajikistan: The construction of a bridge across the river Panj to Afghanistan has been started in the Tem microdistrict in Khorugh [in Tajikistan's eastern Mountainous Badakhshon Autonomous Region, MBAR]. The head of road building department No 8, Usmon Yormamadov, told Asia-Plus that the construction project had been submitted by the Rahkinkraft [transliterated] production association. The project costs 385,000 dollars, which have been allocated by the
AgaKhan foundation's MSDSP [the Mountain Societies Development and Support Programme]. The bridge will be 135 metres long, 3.5 metres wide and have a load-bearing capacity of 25 tonnes. [More] [InfoTaj.com]
AGA KHAN TO SETUP BANK IN AFGHANISTAN
March 12, 2002: The Dawn News from Karachi writes: "Prince Karim Aga Khan has said he was considering to open a micro finance bank, and take part in other welfare activities in Afghanistan to help alleviate poverty from that country. Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of first Micro Finance Bank, set up by the Aga Khan foundation in Pakistan, he said here on Monday that a similar bank would be established in Afghanistan owing to growing poverty and other economic problems being faced by the Afghan government. [More]
AGA KHAN ANNOUNCES US$75 MILLION FOR AFGHANISTAN
January 21, 2002 - Tokyo, Japan: His Highness the Aga Khan, Imam (spiritual leader) of the Shia Ismaili Muslims today announced, at the International Conference on Reconstruction Assistance to Afghanistan, a multiyear commitment of US$75 million by the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) to help re-build Afghanistan [Press-release] [Statement by the Aga Khan]
LBC INTERVIEW
Aga Khan: I think that unfortunately, the civilised world has not been able to change the social, ethical, human norms that the Taliban movement tried to impose on Afghanistan. And here I want to be clear: everyone who tried to change this, Muslim and non-Muslim, they all failed. We cannot say that it is a unilateral failure of a Muslim World or of a Christian World. It is the civilised world, as I understand, which did not succeed in changing that situation. Today, one has to ask this question: "What do we wish for Afghanistan?" One has to ask what this conflict situation will bear. And that is where I have engaged myself, and I engage myself everyday, to try to contribute to the visualisation of a pacified, pluralist, modern and stable Afghanistan and where the original demographics, the demography preceding the conflict, can be re-established. And there are four million refugees that have to be repatriated. So if you want, the problem that I ponder is that the military situation is there, but the most important point is how do we rebuild Afghanistan? If we had to go through that tragedy, and come to that situation where the Afghan population are presently, what can we wish? What can we pray for, for this population? And that is where I think, if you want, that the Ummah can come to a consensus and should contribute to that visualisation. [Complete Interview]
UN IMAM DES SHIITES ISMAELIENS APPELLE A EMPECHER LA FAMINE EN AFGHANISTAN
October 31, 2001 - LE MONDE - Selon Karim Agha Khan, imam des chiites ismaéliens, "il faut d'abord empêcher que des gens meurent de faim en Afghanistan, puis reconstruire une société civile". [Complete Interview in French by Henri Tincq]
AGA KHAN SAYS U.N. SHOULD MOULD FUTURE AFGHANISTAN
October 31, 2001 - PARIS - Reuters News Agency - Story Filed: The Aga Khan, spiritual leader of the Shia Ismaili Muslim community, said in a French newspaper interview on Wednesday that the United Nations should steer the reconstruction of a pluralist civil society in Afghanistan. [More]
AFGHANISTAN'S BIGGEST PROBLEM - POVERTY - CAN BE SOLVED
October 16, 2001 - WASHINGTON (The Christian Science Monitor via COMTEX). "Can mountain poverty really be alleviated? Or is economic and social development under such onerous conditions a quixotic dream? A 20-year project in Pakistan's northern Karakorum Mountains adjoining Afghanistan provides living proof that sustainable development is possible, even under the most daunting physical circumstances. There, the Aga Khan Development Network has worked at the most local level to enable people to feed themselves, set up their own small businesses, establish communal institutions, and build schools. What was once a hotbed of drug trafficking and conflict is now a peaceful and developing region. " Writes Frederick Starr of the Christian Science Monitor. [More]
SUPPORTING INNOVATION IN AFGHANISTAN - THE EXPERIENCE OF THE AKDN
2002, September: Synergos.org. The fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan opened up myriad opportunities to redevelop the social and physical infrastructure of this devastated country. A major player in its rehabilitation is the Aga Khan Development Network, an entity so large, multifaceted and influential that in some countries it has its own embassy and diplomatic status. Its mission is straightforward: "To develop and promote creative solutions to problems that impede social development, primarily in Asia and East Africa." Headquartered in Gouvieux, France, and comprising a set of specialized developmental agencies, the AKDN has branches and independent affiliates in 12 countries. AKDN is headed byPrince Karim Aga Khan, one of the world's most prominent philanthropists. In 1956, when he was just 20, he became the leader of the 15 million Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims who live in 25 countries in East Africa and Central and South Asia.[More]