On Thought Leaders and Global Citizens | www.jimluce.dailykos.com
Several weeks ago Brian Williams profiled the children of the Afghan Child Education and Care Organization (AFCECO) and its founder Andeisha Farid in Kabul, Afghanistan for NBC Nightly News’ segment Making a Difference (video).
Children of the Afghan Child Education and Care Organization in Kabul.
I was so excited to see Andeisha and her kids featured by Brian, and receiving desperately needed funds through CharityHelp, that I interviewed Brian about this last week in HuffPo.
I knew immediately that Brian’s focus would have an enormous impact on her good work in Afghanistan.
NBC listeners responded very generously by sending contributions over the Internet. The bridge used to connect these children with child sponsors was CharityHelp International (CHI), which I profiled in the Huffington Post last spring.
I had also interviewed the orphanage’s founder, Andeisha Farid of Kabul. Last month, here in New York, we had coffee below Grand Central Station. I have followed her progress carefully.
As founder of Orphans International Worldwide, I am familiar with running homes for children around the world – and the difficult task of raising the fund necessary to do so.
I am also familiar with how essential CharityHelp is, as this is the bridge over which we send funds to our own orphans from Haiti to Indonesia. And over the years I have come to have a great respect for CHI’s founder, visionary Paul Stevers.
CharityHelp International, under Paul’s guidance, uses the power of communication technologies and the Internet to assist individuals and organizations in the most challenging of developing nations. Like Afghanistan.
This organization has been on the ground -- supporting children and economic development -- since 2004. It presently has 526 sponsors supporting 298 children.
CharityHelp cooperates with Andeisha’s orphanage outside Kabul. All the children there have survived poverty. Some have overcome forced child labor, homelessness, and prostitution. They come from backgrounds defined by decades of war and Taliban rule.
This orphanage must teach the children the most rudimentary skills, such as how to use an indoor bathroom. The program provides food, clothing, life skills, education, and most importantly a dream and hope for a new life in an environment of gender equality, peace, and safety.
The youth there in Kabul are learning many skills including life skills, computer skills, and English. They are benefiting from the cross-cultural exchange with their sponsors.
The AFCECO orphanage supports more than 200 youth. The program is helping to raise the next generation of potential Afghan leaders in every sector of society. This is crucial to the future of Afghanistan.
"When you help a child, you help an entire family. That family, in turn, inspires a whole village. That village affects a whole society; and a changed society impacts the world," Andeisha had told me.
As CEO of a major child scholarship organization, Orphans International Worldwide, I am frequently asked, "Is my sponsorship real?" For us, it is. For CHI, it is.
Sadly, for many other organizations, it is an illusion. The funds are pooled and only about 70% of the funding actually reaches the children.
The children in CHI’s Afghani program are greatly benefiting from the cross-cultural exchange with their sponsors.
Like Brian, Williams, a number of CHI sponsors have visited the AFCECO facilities and have been impressed by the love, care, and compassion.
Brian Williams received individualized cards from each of the children in Kabul.
Brian had told me last week, "The cultural differences and similarities in the orphanage were enormous. Little girls are little girls anywhere in the world.
"Thank God I have parented two children, so it was the most natural of moments. Switching glasses with them, seeing them draw stars and hearts... The children were so tactile, kind, loving, affectionate, and gracious.
"I saw a picture of Paul Stevers there on the wall, the founder of CharityHelp International in the U.S. that provides a bridge between child sponsors and the children there.
"The kids had a politeness, and order, a discipline – not like in Annie, but an attitude of accepting real responsibility – the way I was raised. It was so real," Brian told me.
Brian Williams meets the children AFCECO’s orphanage in Kabul funded through CharityHelp.
In recognition for his humanitarian work, thought leader and global citizen Paul Stevers was presented with a humanitarian award by Prince Albert II of Monaco.
Supporters for CharityHelp International come from around the world including U.S., Canada, Europe and Australia. The organization’s video which introduces the exciting potential of combining new technologies may be viewed here.
