Project Help Afghanistan

Afghan local workers were very happy with their new shoes!!

October 12, 2009

Today, we distributed running shoes to 45 local Afghan workers. Most of them worked for us for over a year, but I noticed a lot of them could not afford a decent pair of shoes; flip-flops were all they wore, so we decided to give them a pair of used running shoes we were donated.

Some people are working in constructions, some people are working in carpentry, some others are working in the janitorial department, etc… I noticed their poor living situations for long time and wanted to help, but we just did not have enough of shoes for them.

When Diane Bekel sent us 300 pairs of shoes, Dr. Rafi, Asad, and I, all agreed in helping them.

Last night we spent couple hours and sorted out shoes according to the sizes of local workers.

At 4 pm today, the local workers have gathered in front of our Pashto classroom; Dr. Rafi called one person at a time, and I hand them the shoes according to their sizes. Some were happy with their shoes, and some were not. Some came back and complaint that their shoes were either too big or too small. Well, I was afraid this might happen, thus, we asked each person his specific size. But I guess nothing is perfect.

9 of them came back and wanted their sizes changed; we promised to sort out the problem on Tuesday and sent them home. Tomorrow, Monday, they have given a day off due to a wedding ceremony of a worker. They were all invited to the wedding.

Other than this, everyone was happy they finally had a decent pair of shoes; we had them promise to wear the shoes to work from now on to protect their feet.

They all thanked us many times and left, and we were thrilled that we were able to help them. Great work, Dr. Rafi and Asad! 

Most of all, Thanks to all the generous supporters from the bottom of our hearts!