MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN JUNE 2006
Greetings to all our supporters! We would like to thank you all for your generosity in the past and report our latest news.
Riots in Kabul
The past year has been largely successful and mainly trouble-free from
our point of view. Of
course, the recent rioting in Kabul, although we were personally not
affected, did nothing to improve overall confidence.
We remain, however, optimistic despite the continuing problems
of insurgency, poverty and deprivation in Afghanistan.
Here is what our granddaughter Charlotte, 11, had to say about the riots in her e-mail from Kabul:
"Dear Micky, (Michaela Gall, her aunt)
At school we were playing PE and then the PE teacher said to go inside the building because demonstrations were taking place and then we heard gunshots so we had to go upstairs and stay in the upstairs classrooms. When the driver came to pick us up we went to our friends' house nearby and then Dad came to pick us up in a convoy from the French Embassy. When we arrived at the Embassy we stayed there about 2 hours and we cooked our army rations on the Embassy verandah. Then Dad decided to take us to the French ISAF base near the airport for the night. We had to wear flak jackets and helmets and we rode in an APC. When we got there we signed in and we ate some snacks and then went to bed in special mosquito net cots in a huge tent. We had a really delicious breakfast with cereal, croissants, yoghurts and hot chocolate and the cooks gave us 3 chocolate Easter eggs. Love Charlotte."
Record Number of Patients
We treated a record number of patients in 2005, many of them children
suffering from a variety of diseases, particularly polio.
Perhaps our most heart-rending recent case is that of a teenage
boy, Malik, yet another mine victim.
His story is, alas, still all too common.
On his first day working in a new, UN-sponsored bakery near his
home in Kabul, he went outside into a nearby field and trod on a mine,
seriously injuring a leg.
As he struggled to get up, he stepped on another mine and
injured the other leg. Two
men, alerted by the explosions, threw him a long scarf with which they
pulled him to safety. Both
Malik's legs had to be amputated above the knee.
Back to School
I happened to be in Kabul last September when he came in for
treatment. He now has a
wheelchair and a pair of prostheses (artificial legs) and is
determined to go back to school and complete his education, despite
suffering a lot of pain. SGAA
is paying for a private tutor as he comes from a poor family and was
the only one with a job. His
father, a former mujahid who fought against the Russians, was recently
demobilised and is now unemployed.
Moral Support from Ashmatullah
Malik has received advice and moral support from one of our best-known
patients, Ashmatullah, whose picture is on the front of our brochure.
Ashmatullah is something of a role model since he is also a
double amputee and works as a receptionist at the clinic Malik
attends. This enables him
to support his mother and four sisters, his father having been killed
in the mine accident in which he lost both his legs.
Merger with Swedish Committee
The most significant development of the year from SGAA's
internal point of view, however, is a planned merger with the Swedish
Committee for Afghanistan (SCA), an old-established and highly
regarded charity funded partly by the Swedish Government.
Under the terms of the merger, planned to take effect this
year, SGAA will continue to be responsible for funding the programme
during 2006 while SCA gradually takes over the management.
Our name will be retained as RAD/SGAA (Rehabilitation of Afghan
Disabled/Sandy Gall's Afghanistan Appeal).
Long-Term Goal
The merger will enable SGAA to carry on its activities under the
umbrella of a larger, well-funded agency with the same long-term goal
of improving the lives of the disabled in Afghanistan.
The Swedish Committee for their part, will inherit a
well-trained, professional orthopaedic Afghan staff that have many
years' experience of helping mine and polio victims.
We hope that the services we have both worked so hard to create and expand over the past 20 years will eventually be absorbed by the Afghan Ministry of Public Health and local government services when the reconstruction of the country has been achieved. This, however, is some way off and Afghanistan will continue to need expert advice and generous financial assistance for the foreseeable future.
Last September SGAA organised a second 'Up the Panjshir' walk with 18 sponsored walkers trekking up the Khawak and Anjuman Passes - see 'Up the Panjshir 2' September 2005 item on this website.
Charity Golf Day at Rye
Our next fund-raising event is a charity day at Rye Golf Club on
Wednesday, 26th July, 2006.
We now have a full complement of 22 teams who will compete in a
foursomes tournament for the best four-man team score, best individual
pair, Nearest the Pin at the 5th and 14th and
Longest Drive. The
eighty-eight competitors will then have an excellent Rye lunch with
complimentary (any offers?) wine and auction, which will include one
case of excellent port,
ditto claret, two lots of salmon fishing - on the Derwent and Spey -
a beautiful holiday house in Mallorca, tickets for the new
Evita, a day for four at the International Show Jumping Championship
of the Year at Hickstead, Dinner for four at Langans and a very fine
Afghan rug. A few more
exciting raffle prizes would be hugely welcome!
We hope that everyone will have a really enjoyable day and that we will raise a lot of money for the disabled of Afghanistan who still need our help.