HOPE in changing landscapes
End of 2014 marks turning point for Afghanistan and its neighbors
Tajik students walk the road home following a day at Vanqala School.
The past two years has brought dramatically increased Taliban activity in northeastern Afghanistan’ s Badakhshan province, putting pressure on Central Asia Institute-supported projects in this once-peaceful mountain region.
“ Just an hour ago a roadside bomb exploded on Warduj Road near to Yardar School, only 500 meters from our house,” CAI’ s manager for this area, Janagha Jaheed, said in early September.“ I was working and my mother and my wife came running, crying and shouting,‘ Janagha, where are you? Are you alive?’
“ When I said,‘ I am here and safe. Please don’ t shout,” they looked over at the road and my wife saw a big cloud of smoke coming from the school and shouted,‘ Oh my God, the school is exploded. Oh, the innocent children.’ When my mother saw the cloud, she could not say anything because one of my sisters is a teacher there and my relative’ s children go to that school,” Jaheed said.
He called his sister, who said an Afghan National Army vehicle had exploded, and everyone was safe, but the Saripul students were scared.
Police and soldiers set up roadblocks, creating panic among parents from nearby villages who had come to check on their children, he said. In piecing together what had happened, army investigators found five dead people, and human body parts spread across the area, including“ a head by the river,” he said.
Just the night before,“ around 9 o’ clock, Taliban
FA L L 2 0 1 4 Journey of Hope | 17