Director Message

AidTrends is playing an important role in the empowerment of vulnerable and marginalized people. There are still several challenges and the imprints of war are soo deep. Long term commitments and strategies can bring about a radical change.

More than 35 years of Soviet Occupation and civil war has wrought so many havocs with this country’s economy, development and progress which has rendered this country hapless against all the challenges being posed to this country due to internal and external threats. Therefore, a violent culture emerged out of this mayhem that split the country on religious and ethnic lines. The budget that was supposed to be assigned for the country’s development and progress have been squandered on fighting the insurgency which has slowed down the progress and economic development in the country. Furthermore, the high unemployment rate has also added insult to the injury by forcing the youth to either join the insurgents or the large number of addicts in the country not to mention the bulk of youths leaving the country for Europe and Turkey as economic refugees. The lack of employment opportunities for women who constitute half sect of the Afghan Society and the aforementioned factors have joined their hands for preventing the country’s development and progress from taking place. Hence, Afghanistan suffer from the lack of security, high unemployment rate, insurgency, lack of sufficient skilled labor, rampant corruption and increasing brain drain. Notwithstanding this, the presence of irresponsible armed bandits has also caused security problems for the people particularly traders in some provinces like Kunduz that the former use extortion to finance their banditry acts. Low literacy rate in the rural areas is also considered to be another obstacle hindering the progress and development in the country. In the meanwhile, constitution and democracy have remained complicated terms for most of the grass-root people beyond their comprehension who believe that Democracy and Constitution stand in opposition to their religious beliefs. Therefore, their understanding and concept of democracy and constitution are thwarted and they do not have any idea about their legitimate rights as citizens in the country as prescribed in the country’s constitution. Altogether, these factors play a significant role in hindering the progress and development of Afghanistan for whose addressing, community mobilization and advocacy efforts are to be made by all the civil society activists and organizations. The people are required to be engaged practically in advocacy efforts to bring positive changes to their lives and they should be given a complete share in decision-making processes. Furthermore, constitution has also remained secret from the people and the people are not aware of their due and legitimate rights whatsoever. Therefore, the civil society activists are obliged to raise public awareness about their constitutional rights as citizens of this country. Based on their constitutional rights, citizens come to understand the mutual obligation of government towards the people and vice versa and they hold government accountable to act responsibly and transparently. For this approach to take root, community people and civil society activists must work together to foster a forum for positive changes in their lives. Civil Society activists and media must work together to hold government accountable to curb the menace of corruption that has resulted in so many other problems including deterioration of security situation, human trafficking, drug trafficking, prostitution, extortion, rubbery, banditry and other social problems plaguing the country’s progress and development. Their roles for bringing positive changes are important that cannot be taken for granted. Hence, any negligence by them worsens the situation and the corrupt system continue to take many more victims unceasingly by keeping the people in the dark on important issues that shape the destiny and lives of community people. CSOs are also required to reach out to large number of people through electronic, publications and social media pages to inform the community people of their legitimate constitutional rights and the importance of their advocacy efforts for bringing positive modifications to their lives and destiny.