Documentary Films: Witness of the Real
Promoting literacy in Afghanistan through the NGO, Afghanistan Centre at Kabul University.
2:30 a.m. I am jolted awake with a muscle spasm in my calve. I am off my exercise routine of daily running and weight lifting. Like a packed mule, I lug over 60 pounds of camera equipment, but the exercise is not the same. I move between cramped car to a shoot, scrambling to capture the story, and then settle back into a cramped car for an hour and then pounce again.
Continue reading “Afghan Chronicles: Day Four, Navigating a War Zone”
We drive to Charikar today in Parwan Province. It’s about a 90-minute drive outside Kabul. I promised my family I would never leave Kabul, oops. Continue reading “Afghan Chronicles: Day Six, Charikar”
I am told to empty the contents of my camera bags on the ground for the German Shepard to sniff. Leila, Nazir and I are ushered to another room. We are searched and walk through a metal detector. They tell us to go outside where the dog sniffs us for explosives.
Continue reading “Afghan Chronicles: Day Seven, The Palace”
I’m on the plane, heading to Dehli. N’Shallah.
At the airport, within 10 yards of each other, I pass three checkpoints where I am told to open my luggage.
One police officer would not let me advance to the ticket counter until I showed him “my International I.D.” International I.D.?! I never heard of one. He said everyone had one and I needed to call someone at ACKU to bring me one. If I didn’t produce one I couldn’t leave the country. Continue reading “Afghan Chronicles: Day Nine, Delhi in Less Than 10 Hours”
Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, Leader of the Democratic Opposition Party in Afghanistan, spoke with us on his party’s strategy.
The informal press conference was held at in New York City. It was held after Time Magazine’s, Joe Klein interview with Abdullah Abdullah
Dr. Abdullah Abdullah was invited three months ago by a group of non-governmental organizations, to participate in talks in Washington and New York.
Media reports say he was snubbed after the White House’s warm embrace of President Karzai’s visit a couple of weeks ago. It was rumored that two mid-level administration representatives did meet with him. It was not confirmed who they were.
Continue reading “Dr. Abdullah Abdullah on his Opposition Strategy”
U.S. Representative for Afghanistan for her extraordinary work toward improving the lives of the Afghan people. For more than 50 years Dupree has dedicated he life to promoting literacy, education and information sharing for the Afghan population.
Billions of dollars are poured into Afghanistan each year to ostensibly bring stability to the war-ravaged country.
A lack of shared national or international vision or strategy, no security, rampant corruption, Afghanistan is a place most do not want to dwell. International donors, wanting a quick fix and an end to the Afghan war, throw millions of dollars at short-sighted projects that add little or no value to the Afghan community it vows to support. Continue reading “Afghanistan’s Great Donor Scandal: Higher Education”
ACKU architect Sebastian May gives a tour of the site for the new library and resource center.
Check out the picture of the new library here.
Experts – Hassina Sherjan, Chris Alexander, Royce Wiles, Dr. Ashraf Ghani, Mstafa Naiz, Anders Fange, Tamim Samee, Leila Jazayery – discuss rebuilding Afghanistan.
You can help rebuild Afghanistan one book at a time.
In 2006 Nancy Hatch Dupree founded the ACKU from the over 45,000 documents she began collecting in the 1970’s, with her late husband, Louis.
We spent a week documenting some of the programs Nancy and her ACKU team undertake to educate their fellow Afghan citizens. On this day Nancy leads the ACKU to a school one hour from Kabul center. It is the first time the school of 8,000 students will have a library.