Business School Dean Reports on Peace through Commerce in Pakistan and Afghanistan

On July 27, 2009, Carolyn Y. Woo, Martin J. Gillen dean of the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame arrived in Islamabad, Pakistan as part of a 10-day journey to observe the work of Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Being from a business school that supports the idea that the creation of commerce leads to peace, Dr. Woo traveled from major cities to remote villages in the two countries to witness the first-hand efforts aimed at improving education, agriculture, water resources, and other significant humanitarian needs.

July 31, 2009
Afghanistan

Everything is extreme here in Afghanistan. The roads are precarious and climb to as high as 10,000 feet on the Bayan Pass. The environs are an infinite rock-scape. Today we visited the poorest district of the poorest province (Ghor). The decades of war and conflicts have left this former capital of fruit and nut production as a barren and eroded land. Sometimes it feels like being in the Old Testament when goat herds, camels, and cows move along with shepherds. We stayed in mud houses with roofs propped up by poplar logs.

As always on these trips, the hospitality of people who have little is truly astounding. This morning, we visited a very large village with 900 households—a village that was devastated by a seven-year drought. CRS aided with water management, irrigation, and road construction to enable agricultural production and connection to other villages and markets for trade. To show appreciation, the village head offered us bread baked that morning from the wheat grown in the village, fresh hot milk, hard-boiled eggs from chickens, and other items. It was a virtual feast. The experience taught me to leave food untouched that I don’t want—as someone can use it later.

CRS is much respected because its staff members truly listen to the villagers. The group does assessments, identifies critical needs based on the people’s input, and provides sustainable solutions that work better and cost less. The water projects are amazing and include repairing the sources of water (broken dams, blocked access), building underground pipes to transport the water, preventing soil erosion, and enabling water conservation through plantings. CRS introduces “smart” planting practices, such as crops that are robust and can generate revenues. Other than agricultural needs, CRS also provides water pumps for daily use, as well as instruction on sanitation and hygiene. The health and well-being of the village has been raised to a level of quality and safety that will significantly improve lives.

In a gathering of the village council (of men), we talked about the benefits of water being available in the village. With undiluted enthusiasm, and in unison, the group cited water as its most precious asset and pledged all efforts to safeguard its availability. To prepare for the winter, they will check the pipes for the potential of freezing and construct a little shelter to protect the tap stand. The village elders also formed a water council comprised of four people that will attend to technical issues and four that will take on social disputes.

When asked about the benefits of having water, they gave 19 points recorded on their “brainstorming sheets” tacked to the wall. These benefits included:

• Significant reduction in intestinal distresses
• Time (approximately five hours) for women to do other things, such as attend literacy classes
• Prevention of injury incurred on the water-fetching journeys
• Ending conflicts among villages at streams
• Freeing up donkeys to do other tasks
• Cultivating gardens made from the overflow from the village reservoir
• Enabling people to wash better prior to prayer

We also visited with several women enterprise groups (20 members in each, from 18 years of age and up) which have started their own businesses under the guidance of a CRS staff member, Suzanne. One business was a bakery and another was related to home décor (curtains, drapes, and matching cushion covers). I had a great time. And, both businesses are very successful. The bakery achieved its three-month planned volume in one week and the home décor entity in one month. The bakery is run by a woman who lost a 5-year-old son to starvation and others who have children that suffer from the developmental consequences of malnutrition. Both enterprises have plans. The bakery can see the need for an additional oven. The home décor entity wants to open a retail store rather than solely supplying existing businesses. They also are studying new pattern books to expand their offerings. They want more accounting and marketing training and some are taking literacy classes. They want food and education for their children. They are receiving respect from their husbands.

I was so proud of them and my heart swells to see the “attitude” they have cultivated. They know that there is a future; they know that they can make it happen—for themselves, their children, and their community.

I must say, there is no idle woman. These ladies clean house in the morning, walk up mountains to collect fuel (sticks and branches) for the winter, sew and bake in the afternoon, cook dinner and sew and cook some more (sometimes through the night).

July 31, 2009
Pakistan

In Pakistan, the fighting in the Swat Valley between the Pakistan military and the Taliban displaced three million people. Many fled to the Mardan District in the Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan. Two million of the three million were taken in by relatives. As this is a farming area, space is not an issue and people just camp on their relatives’ land. One farmer we visited hosted nine families (the average size of a family is approximately seven people). Witnessing this gave me a profound sense of what family and hospitality truly mean.

Our relief work here is to provide dwelling and latrines within the hosts’ compound. The standard approach is to buy tents. The tents cost between 400–600 USD and can become sold out during large displacements. This leads to low-quality tents. The tents also cannot be reused. The tents are also relatively small. Since the women cannot come out into the public, they stay in these tents with temperatures reaching 100–115 degrees F. CRS is working to make these conditions better with the development of a prototype of a straw hut. The hut is 18 x 14 feet and has a pitched roof that rises to eight feet and has a height of six feet at its lowest point. After seeking input from the people, some modifications were made to the hut.

These modifications included:

• Moving the plastic sheet for insulation and rain protection under the thatch roof rather than over it
• Using a piece of fabric, draped inside the shelter, for additional privacy
• Creating a drainage system around the shelter to re-direct rain

Currently, each straw hut costs 300 USD in materials and can be constructed within 1–3 days. The owners and community all pitched in to assemble the huts. The huts are very comfortable and can accommodate a family of seven. I went into quite a few of them and saw how each family has made it a home in its own way. The huts could be useful for a host of families even after their relatives return home.

In addition to the huts, CRS also constructed latrines and bathing houses to accommodate the refugee guests. These are very well-designed, clean, functional, and private. A host family actually built permanent brick walls around some of these facilities. In the U.S., we talk about fences making good neighbors; well, sanitation facilities make good guests.

August 3, 2009

We visited the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, with the deputy ambassador and assorted staff, to describe the CRS approach and thank them for their support and flexibility. Tomorrow, I will leave Kabul and return to the United States. It will be hard to describe what it was like to be in war zone with armed guards everywhere—including in every restaurant for expatriates. For instance, during the nine days, there were two sets of bomb explosions in Herat and Kabul.

Yet, despite the violence, I have met some incredible people, including four nuns from Germany, Switzerland, Japan, and France. One of which has stayed in the region for over 50 years and two who have been here for 37 years. They take care of each other. They work in the hospital and exude joy, laughter, humor, all while dedicating themselves to their faith and a sense of community.

I am very proud of the CRS teams in this region, as well as the international, Pakistani, and Afghan staff members who have chosen to work with us. Our U.S. staff members are young—mostly in their 30s. And, they all have master’s degrees from great institutions. But, they choose to be here without security guards, going into the villages and working shoulder-to-shoulder with the locals. They know how to get along in highly stressful situations and enjoy doing great work. Matt McGarry and Joseph Kelly, country representative and head of programming in Afghanistan, are both Notre Dame University alums.

I looked out into our compound garden in Ghor. Beyond the gates are rocks and more rocks. Within the gates, a luscious garden of vegetables, ornamental flowers, the sweetest tomatoes, and a greenhouse where CRS staff are experimenting with multiple plantings before rolling them out to the locals. It looks green and luscious; it is in the friendships and working partnerships with each other, with the Pakistanis and the Afghans. They already look less different, more like people who care about the same things—a better life, peace for cultivating fruit trees, and a road that allows mothers and wives to be taken to hospitals during problematic childbirths.

From the work of CRS and all our partners, I have learned more deeply:

• How people can really serve the “discarded”
• How when everything seems up in the air, people can truly have faith in their beliefs
• How joy is possible in the saddest of situations

P.S. Policemen and donuts is a universal phenomenon. A CRS project with local women that created businesses includes a bakery that now has a huge contract to provide cakes and biscuits to local policemen. The business broke even in four weeks.