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Security officials have urged Kabul residents to avoid busy areas and stay indoors, while hundreds of soldiers and police have started patrols, conducting body searches and vehicle inspections along the way. It is all part of a pre-election “public holiday” that went into effect on June 10 and will last until the Afghan presidential election is over. But, despite the threat of violence, few seem to be heeding the authorities’ warnings. More>>>

When Afghan taxi driver Sara Bahai has male passengers in her cab, she takes the chance to lobby them on female rights — and she hopes the country’s next president will also listen to her arguments. Bahai has been driving the streets of Mazar-i-Sharif city for 10 years She says the new president must push ahead with reforms.  “Sometimes I argue with male passengers all the journey to convince them a woman driving a taxi isn’t a bad or un-Islamic thing,” Bahai says.  More>>>

State of the World’s Midwifery 2014 report was released recently. The report is a response to Millennium Development Goal 5 and provides an evidence base for the state of midwifery in 73 low- and middle-income countries. Based on the available data for Afghanistan, the report shows that maternal and newborn health workforce is able to meet only 23% of the need in Afghanistan and ◦this could decline to a shocking 8% by 2030.  Download the Report>>>

Every two hours, a woman in Afghanistan dies from complications of pregnancy or childbirth. For those lucky enough, making it to this hospital in Afghanistan’s Khost province can mean surviving childbirth in a country where many women don’t.  The maternity hospital run by Doctors Without Borders.  See the Video>>>

Afghanistan’s national wheelchair basketball team is only four years old, and up to now had never played outside Afghanistan. But recently the team embarked on their first ever international tour – meeting the Italian champions. Many of the players suffered permanent injuries during Afghanistan’s long conflict, and to travel abroad, representing their country, was a dream come true.  Meet some of the team on Video Here>>>

The English Writer Kabul

 An English writer and editor is available for a wide variety of your English writing needs. The writer has extensive experience in Afghanistan and in writing proposals, applications, reports and media releases, etc., for both foreign and local organisations.  Training in these activities can also be offered to your staff members. Charges are low. Contact details:englishwriterkabul@gmail.com
or 079 943 1087

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Afghan Palm Weavers
Hope to Build Industry

In the shade of a tree in front of his house, 55-year-old Qasem told his children to be quiet while he took a nap. A pillow under his head, he made himself comfortable on a bed made out of the palm leaves used to make a range of household items in the Khost province of southeast Afghanistan. Making things out of the leaves of the Mazari palm tree has long been a speciality of this province, where the plant grows wild in the mountainous terrain. However, producers and sellers believe the government should help create an export market for their handicrafts.  More>>>

At least half the once-thriving fruit and nut orchards in Khost in southeast Afghanistan have been destroyed, and the rest have fallen into disuse through neglect, according to residents of the province. Fruit and nut plantations planted during the three-decade-long rule of Afghanistan’s last king, Mohammad Zaher Shah, survived until the civil war of the early 1990s. Thereafter, the disintegration of any kind of organised government led to years of neglect of these large-scale state ventures.More>>>

In Afghanistan, some 7.6 million people are food-insecure and experience high levels of under-nutrition due to poverty, conflict-induced displacement, poor quality basic services, weak institutional capacities and fluctuating food prices. Recurring natural hazards and disasters such as seasonal stresses and severe climatic shocks affect some 250,000 people and constrain their food security.Read this Report from the World Food Programme>>>

Afghanistan’s aid-reliant economy is on the edge of a precipice as the war winds down and political transition looms. The country’s banks are at risk of being put on an international blacklist if parliament fails to pass a money laundering bill — with potentially devastating consequences for the fragile economy. Economic growth fell this year, touching a low of 3% from around 14% in 2012, with aid and investment in the war-ravaged country decreasing. More>>>

In the city of Jalalabad, women aren’t allowed to hire videos – a bit of a handicap for a filmmaker devoted to getting his work to the community. So Gittoes, an Australian, hatched his own solution to the DVD rental freeze.”The ice-cream boys are my Trojan Horse,” Gittoes tells AAP, “Mum sends the kids out to buy an ice-cream, they say, `Hey mum, there are some DVDs’. She can come out because it’s just outside a gate with her burqa on and buy them.” More>>>

The original Russian “House of Societ Science and Culture” in Kabul was destroyed after fighting broke out in the 1990s after the fall of the socialist government.  Recently Russia has held a competition was held by the russian federation for a renovation of the 1982 construction. “A.Len” architects, based in St Petersburg, submitted the successful, award winning design. The design respects the existing ruined edifice, the local culture, climate and location. See Design Photographs Here>>>

60 officers of Crime Investigation Departments (CID) from three different Police Districts (PD) in Kabul received gender and human rights training organised by EUPOL and delivered under Afghan ownership. The two-day training course covered theoretical and practical topics of gender concepts which are applicable in Afghanistan; it also included lectures on important legal documents on human rights, torture, elimination of violence against women and practical exercise in terms of dealing with victims, witnesses and suspects of domestic violence cases.More>>>

Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are a constant threat in Afghanistan, and it takes skilled explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) teams to combat them. Recruits from the EOD training school in Mazar-e Sharif are stepping up to the task.  Since the fall of the Taliban in 2001 home-made bombs have claimed more lives in Afghanistan than any other weaponry. As coalition troops shrink in number, Afghan forces are increasingly taking on the role of EOD technicians, learning how to defeat the IED threat. More>>>

June 2014 Edition: This month’s update highlights children and armed conflict concerns and provides recommendations for the protection of children in the situations of Afghanistan, Central African Republic (CAR), Mali, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen. In particular, the update provides recommendations on preparations for MINUSCA, which will be fully deployed by 15 September 2014. Download the June Edition (PDF)>>>

Recently a workshop was launched in Herat province with the theme: “Mobilizing Communities and Involving Partners” through the Stability in Key Areas (SIKA) program of the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD). In this five-day-long workshop over 27 district community workers and managers participated from Farah, Badghis, Herat and Ghor. They learned about efficient techniques for mobilizing, monitoring and evaluating community led development. More>>>

KABUL (AFP) – Afghanistan’s air force is already woefully short of planes and skilled pilots – and US plans to scale back supportive air strikes will leave it without crucial back-up as it battles a resilient Taliban. For the past 13 years a vast fleet of US fighter jets, attack helicopters, unmanned drones and transport aircraft have supported ground troops in operations against the insurgency. But with the vast majority of the 51,000 foreign troops set to pull out by December, the fledgling Afghan Air Force (AAF) will have to make do without much of this help. More>>>