By Eva Kintu, Regional Manager UNDP – Urban Development Group (UDG), North
To many Afghans finding any kind of odd job is a privilege regardless of your profession. The first time I met a former university professor who is now working as a project driver I was humbled. For him what matters the most is being able to earn money to look after his family.
Now if finding a job for a university professor can be a desperate situation how much more is it for Ghulam who happens to be one of the majority non-literates, with no qualifications and no cash to pay for bribes. Ghulam wakes in the wee hours every morning to walk to the city centre and stand by the road side waiting in hope that he will be picked up by employers for a daily wage of three dollars a day. This is Gulham’s story:
Not everyday do you get to find work, you can be lucky if you are employed two days in a week. You can stand there for almost six hours every day, be it in the hot blazing sun or grim freezing winter after waking up before seven o’clock during summer and five o’clock in winter time, and still walk back home with nothing.
Usually if I don’t get work by 11 o’clock then I have to return home where my family is anxiously waiting for me to return with some food which is usually bread and vegetables only – because they are the cheapest one can afford. And when I don’t find work I dislike going home – to see my sad and hungry children. Many times I have been forced to pick up nan (bread) at the baker’s on credit. I know that many other men have it worse than I because my family is of six while many have more than ten to support.
One day I needed cash and yet I had debts amounting to $548, I had promised my 6 years old daughter and 7 years old son that I would buy them books and uniforms so they would start attending school that term. But for two weeks my daughter was very sad that I still had not fulfilled my promise to her, and yet the whole time she had been seeing her friends go to school every day. I could not bring myself to tell her the truth. I had sleepless nights just worrying about how I would be able to pay my debts since work was not forthcoming for over two weeks. I had lost hope because I knew I had no special skills that an employer would pick me out of the hundreds of job seekers who lined the streets with me every morning. I started wondering how my family would survive through the winter. It was one of my worst times, ever.
That week on Wednesday afternoon my destiny turned round; when I came back to my house cold and hungry, I was seated when I heard Wakile guzar (local community leader) call from outside, slowly I stood up and went to meet him and what he told me sounded like a dream. He told me to report to the Shadian road for some work the following week. Though it sounded far for my pressing needs I had no choice but to hope. No sooner had Wakile guzar left than I went and picked up my daughter and told her she would soon get some books and join school.
Gulham, 42 years old, is an ex-combatant who has been employed to work as an unskilled labourer for the construction of the first vegetable market, as a permanent structure, in Mazar-e-sharif. The vegetable market has been constructed under joint supervision of staff from the Municipality of Mazar, Directorate of Urban Development and UNDP’s Regional Initiative for Sustainable Economy (RISE).
In the past year, UNDP’s Regional Initiative for Sustainable Economy (RISE) contributed to improve the economic situation of Balkh, Kandahar and Nangahar Provinces with funding from Japan. RISE provides temporary employment as well as construction skills to local populations involved in the rehabilitation of urban infrastructure. In Balkh Province, over 490 persons from vulnerable groups including ex-combatants, returnees, one poor woman and at least five people with disabilities benefited from this opportunity.
In Balkh Province, UNDP, in partnership with local authorities, supported the construction of water channels on Shadian road, an Access Centre for people with disabilities, a Resource Centre for women, and three public toilets in Mazar city. In partnership with FAO, RISE worked with four farming communities to construct irrigation canals, culverts, gravelled roads and a public latrine for composting manure.
This is March 2007 almost at the end of his “dreaded winter” and Ghulam is proud to say:
UNDP has provided me with the badly needed cash through the six months I have worked and I have been able to pay my debts and I acquired skills from the skilled mason who we have worked with and now I feel a little like a skilled person. I am now able to use the level and the odolite.
The good thing I have experienced in working with UNDP is that they pay without cheating; I was able to feed my family through the winter time; I bought books for my children. The other thing about working on UNDP project is that we have guidelines to go by and the work is fair, labourers are not exploited unlike with the other employers.
I plan to look for similar work so I can become better and from the few savings that I made I will buy one tool for construction and maybe with time I will be able to afford more and perhaps become a skilled mason. The skills I have gained will help me to secure their future through their education. I want them to live a better life than we are living at the moment. These are my dreams.
The market that Ghulam participated in constructing will provide a much more organised business place for farmers to be able to sell their products and safer for children, women and men to be able to buy without having a fear of being knocked down by speeding cars on the roads as it has been in the past.
