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Hello from the Canadian Engineers for the Reconstruction of Afghanistan ( theCERA ) December 2002: Adam Lenskyj visited Kabul City in Afghanistan and stayed with friends in order to do a reality-check against the perceived assumptions that had shaped his thinking during the previous year. During the stay it became clear that suspending those assumptions was a useful technique for dialogue to occur and for reality to reshape that thinking. (For pictures and slides of the visit to Kabul City please click here). Part of the reality-check was to see whether the research done in the Paghman district by Assadullah Oriakhel in 1998 was still relevant and whether it was usable in a proposal called the Integrated Program for Afghanistan Development (IPAD) that was being drafted in 2002. In 1998 Assadullah Oriakhel and colleagues from the Bureau of Rural Rehabilitation (BRR) had canvassed the people in Paghman using participatory community empowerment and needs assessment methodologies. In order to explain the work done in 1998, Assadullah Oriakhel developed two PowerPoint presentations in 2002. These two MS PowerPoint presentations explain the use of the participatory planning process, community empowerment techniques and the results from that work. (If you do not have the viewer already installed, please download the free PowerPoint Viewer from Microsoft). As an aside, in the presentation on the planning for empowerment process,
Assadullah Oriakhel describes interesting equations that lead the process
to produce positive change, confusion, anxiety, gradual change, frustration
and/ or false starts. For example:
Many people in Kabul City helped to change preconceived perceptions to a view of reality of daily life in that city. There were the 450 people with picks and shovels who were rehabilitating the irrigation canals on the Shomali Plain, the staff of the Bureau of Rural Rehabilitation (BRR), the people at the Welfare & Relief Organization for Reconstruction (WROR), the doctors at Jomhuriyyat Hospital, the more than 500 people that were at the weekly Thursday meetings in different homes, the shopkeepers on Flower Street and the boys playing soccer and marbles in Shahr-e-Naw Park. Last but not least were the friendly men and women passengers in the Kabul City Bus who were all smiles when the only male foreigner exited the bus via the front door. Tashakur!
Members in attendance were: Najib Omary (Team lead of the AAO - RDCA Training Team), Basir Mohsini (Chair of the RDCA), Adam Lenskyj, Mohammad Yusuf Afrooz, Noor Ahmad Kaurran, Assadullah Oriakhel, Hasib Karini,Tawab Alcozai, Nizammuddin, Feriadoon Kabairzad. The meeting opened with Najib Omary introducing the guest lecturer Najib Siddiqui. He thanked the AAO members for their active participation in this initiative of furthering the goal of the AAO - RDCA in assisting in the reconstruction programs in Afghanistan. Najib Siddiqui opened his presentation with an overview of the various stakeholders in the design and operation of roads in Ontario. He stressed the concerns regarding safety, issues in environmental assessments and in the good practices of requiring aesthetic implementations. Najib Siddiqui pointed out that the prescriptive Codes of the past were no longer the norm. The Codes were now in the form of Performance Standards. The discussions and questions were aimed at the refresher training needs of Afghan practitioners in Ontario and in Afghanistan. The audience asked questions regarding the past and present state of the major roads in Afghanistan. The approaches to the Salang tunnel were discussed. Najib Siddiqui explained the importance of good drainage design and maintenance in keeping roads safe for use and in avoiding failures in the road surfaces. Najib Omary thanked the featured speaker and closed the meeting at 12:30 p.m. to the appreciative applause from the members. August
29, 2002, 6:00 p.m. at Afghan
Association of Ontario, Canada
Having been back from Kabul for a short time, Qaseem Naimi was to depart Toronto on Saturday, August 31, 2002 for his return flight to Kabul. The former co-chair of the Canadian Engineers for the Reconstruction of Afghanistan, Qaseem Naimi briefed those attending with details of daily life in Kabul. To break up the somber parts of the discussion, he illustrated the restaurant scene and the rush hour traffic jams in this city of some two million people. In attendance were: Qaseem Naimi, Mohan Rao, Assadullah Oriakhel, Adam Lenskyj, Basir Mohsini, Abdul Shukoori and Fazy Abbassi. July 8, 2002
In his email of July 8, 2002 to the mailing list he admitted: "... that I am a bit harsher in my articles than I should have been ... (however) ... I hope and expect it ( the Loya Jirga) will have positive consequences over the long run." June 4, 2002
Saturday, May 25, 2002:
May 12, 2002: Hundreds sign up to help in rebuilding war-weary Afghanistan By Maureen Murray Staff Reporter The Toronto Star Sunday, May 12, 2002 page A9 theStar.com Afghan Association of Ontario May 7, 2002: Discussion
Paper Measure Twice Cut Once by Mohan Rao.
Mohan Rao
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