Encouraging news from Afghanistan

Experience tells me that optimism is way overrated, but I am purposefully nurturing a rosy glow about a bleak part of the world, Afghanistan.

I want to believe focused efforts to build schools and train teachers in the poorest, least-educated province in Afghanistan stir hope for a better outcome for the whole country.

My dram of confidence comes from recent e-mail correspondence with Suzanne Griffin, a transplanted Seattleite who has worked in Afghanistan since 2002.

Nothing quite attracts attention like bad news, and lately all eyes have returned to Afghanistan. The United States rousted the Taliban government in late 2001 and almost immediately was distracted by the war in Iraq. Over time, troops and money were shifted to the Middle East. U.S. assistance to the country dropped 30 percent this past year.

NATO took over military responsibilities and is trying to build the capacity of Afghan forces, but is losing soldiers and enthusiasm in the face of a deadly Taliban-led insurgency.

Pakistan announced it would plant mines and build fences along its 1,500-mile border with Afghanistan. In Kabul, President Hamid Karzai is livid, but his popularly elected government is largely impotent beyond the city limits.

I last exchanged notes with Griffin in March, and discovered she has a new job and employer, Save the Children USA. Her work with another humanitarian agency was going to send her roving around Central Asia, and she was not ready to leave Afghanistan.

She is managing a four-year, U.S.-funded effort to improve the quality of education from kindergarten through ninth grade, with an emphasis on improving the skills and capacity of school managers, viewed as key to successful classroom instruction.

Griffin relocated from Kabul to Shiberghan, a distant provincial city of 150,000 in the northwest. She oversees 12 demonstration schools, six in Jawzjan Province and six located four hours away by road in Sar-i Pul Province, rated by the World Food Program among the poorest.

Behind all the glum headlines, Griffin finds a lot to be optimistic about. Here is some of what I cribbed from her e-mails. Although only 50 percent of Afghan school-age children are attending school, it is the largest percentage in the past 25 years.

In the midst of two years of bad press about deteriorating security conditions, more roads have been paved and repaired. Consortiums of national aid groups provide better access to health care in rural areas than at any time in the country's history.

Everything sounds headed in the right direction, but my inner pessimist is tweaked by Griffin's detail and candor. She feels comfortable traveling in her new district, but it is in unmarked vehicles — no more proud displays of foreign-aid logos and such — and with Afghani colleagues.

Kabul was bigger with more diversions, but Shiberghan has the luxury of 24-hour electricity and clean air without the endless drone of a city on generators. Nights are quiet and clear up north. An evening out in Kabul ends with a curfew for foreigners, likely gathered at places with armed guards.

Griffin downplays personal security, but readily acknowledges humanitarian efforts and military concerns are interdependent. A secure environment is fundamental to Afghanistan's successful development.

Creation of a safer and secure environment on the way to and from school and in the classroom is part of the strategy to boost school enrollment, especially for girls. A push for community-based schools speaks to the fears of parents who do not want daughters too far from home, or out on the roads with bandits.

Safer learning environments include sanitary latrines and clean water. These are key Save the Children initiatives with government schools. Another helps teachers understand how to run their classrooms without use of corporal punishment.

Griffin is mindful of her surroundings and utterly positive about the accomplishments and potential: "Those of us who have been here since 2002 see enormous gains in the past four years, despite the current security concerns."

Information about donations targeted to the Save the Children program in one of Afghanistan's neediest regions, Sar-i-Pul Province, is available at www.savethechildren.org or 1-800-SAVETHECHILDREN.

A commitment combined with results worthy of support. The roots of optimism.

Lance Dickie's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. His e-mail address is ldickie@seattletimes.com