|
|
|
|
 |
| Quick Links
|
|
Bare Root Trees ProjectSpring 2010:
The Bare Roots Group planted and distributed over 3,500 new trees in communities outside of and in Kabul during their March trip. In addition they visited Istalif, a village north of Kabul, to see the many fruit trees they had planted there in 2005. Here below a local gardener shows Asma Eschen the apricot trees: 
If you are interested in supporting this re-greening project, please write to: info@afghans4tomorrow.com.
Spring 2009:
The Bare Roots Group has returned from traveling at their own expense to Afghanistan to plant and distribute over 5,800 fruit trees with Afghan partners in Kabul and nearby villages.
 One of the returnees of Sharaqui Noween, a new town about 20 miles north of Kabul, is ready to plant bare root Mulberry trees.
See last year's report BELOW.
For information on our agriculture projects before 2008, please see CLICK HERE.
Bare Roots Group 2008
Afghanistan Tree Planting Summary
by Asma Eschen
Editor`s note: Asma Eschen, A4T Board Member, led this nine-member delegation from the San Francisco Bay Area for the third time since 2005. Each of the delegates participated in one or more of the past delegations.
`During our April 2008 tree-planting trip in Afghanistan, the Bare Roots Group focused on developing relationships with three communities in and near Kabul. We provided fruit trees for the inside of household compounds and shade trees for outside.
We established relationships with the communities by meeting with their Shura (council of elders) to learn what they wanted. We said we could provide trees for each housing compound in the community if the people living there would commit to water and care for the trees. At the end of each meeting, members of the Shura signed a document including their request for trees and this above commitment.
After meeting with the Shuras, we found a beautiful and inexpensive nursery in Kabul where healthy two-year-old tree saplings were about six feet high. The fruit trees were about $2 each and the shade trees were $1 each.
The first community we visited was Sharaqui Noween, a new town about 20 miles north of Kabul. Returning Afghan refugees from camps in Pakistan and Iran were living in mud brick houses in a barren area that had no paved streets, electricity, sewers, or running water. About 500 families got their water from a few wells drilled by the government.
For two days the entire community helped plant 2,500 trees (two apple trees and a pear tree to each household`s interior yard and two shade trees for the exterior). Many of the shade trees now line what will someday be a street.
A few days after the tree planting, we returned to the community to distribute clothes that had been donated to Afghans4Tomorrow in the United States and sent to our office in Kabul. The relationships we established with the elders were critical to assuring an orderly and successful distribution.
The second community, Sahar Hill, was on the outskirts of Kabul where there is a steep rocky graveyard with houses on both sides. The Shura requested pine trees to border the cemetery and to line the road where a new mosque is being built. Elders, children, and Bare Roots members planted the trees together.
The third community of Cementkhana was at the base of Tapa Marinjann hill in central Kabul. The Shura elders distributed three trees to each family. In addition, we worked with the residents to plant pine trees on either side of a mosque.
A total of 5,105 trees were planted or distributed by our group.
The hospitality and kindness of the the Afghans was deeply moving. We felt privileged to be invited into their homes, and honored to work side by side with them planting trees. As our initial meeting with each Shura ended, an elder in each community said: `If you bring us but one tree, we will be thankful.`
Such grace is reflective of the Afghan people.'
Note: The Bare Roots Project, was co-founded in the S.F. Bay Area by Asma Eschen and Ash Wood to plant trees in rural and urban Afghanistan with the participation of the local community. Each delegate has participated at his/her own expense.
The group has been supported by the members of the First Presbyterian Church of San Anselmo (from Christmas Faire donations for trees and individual donations for supplies, i.e. gloves and hoses for Afghan gardeners) and the Watershed Foundation.
For further information, or to make a donation to A4T's Agriculture projects, please contact: info@afghans4tomorrow.com .
Please see the Quick Links on the right for more information and photos of the Bare Roots delegations.
In above photo:
In 2008, Kathy is happy to see the pine trees getting larger on Tapa Marinjann hill. They were one foot tall when planted there by the Bare Roots group in 2005. The Afghan gardeners, hired by the delegation, have watered and well cared for these trees.
|
|
Donate
