The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

This report is the result of research conducted by The Senlis Council in response to the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). As a reaction to our reports demonstrating that the work of CIDA was not visible in Kandahar, we were invited to verify their work for ourselves. The suffering of the Afghan people in Kandahar not only neglects our humanitarian obligations to our allies in Kandahar, it creates a climate that fuels the insurgency and undermines the already dangerous work of Canada’s military in this hostile war zone.

The Good News

The work of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has put a pharmacy in place in Kandahar’s hospital, supplying medicines free of charge to in-patients. The ICRC has also funded a rotating clinical position: a surgeon who is helping to develop a triage system for incoming patients. Also, the ICRC clinical position will include an Obstetrician to help train staff at Kandahar’s Mirwais Hospital in contemporary obstetrical care. ICRC is building capacity within the hospital’s senior management and planning to make repairs to the roof of Mirwais Hospital. ICRC staff are experienced and committed to helping the Ministry of Public Health in the restoration of Mirwais Hospital in Kandahar.

The bad news:

Mirwais Hospital: We could not find evidence of CIDA work or CIDA funded work at Kandahar Hospital that matched the information given to us by CIDA. We were not able to find the Maternal Waiting Home project at Kandahar Hospital listed by CIDA as one of their projects there, not did we see evidence that the funds CIDA states have been given to hospital had reached the hospital. The situation at the hospital remains desperate:

• the ward for starving children not only still exists but is horribly over-crowded (there were 28 children sharing eight beds in one of the ward’s rooms during our visits in August)
• The hospital needs still urgently needs basic medical equipment, basic housekeeping operations
• the staff are repeatedly asking more equipment, more training, and more assistance overall
• there is no air-conditioning, heating, or ventilation in place
• there is no monitoring equipment in any of the wards – particularly the critical care areas (the Emergency Department, the Intensive Care Units, and the Postanaesthetic Recovery Room) and no plans to provide training to nurses and doctors to be able to use such equipment

The hospital continues to receive victims from the fighting, including victims of NATO bombing raids on villages in all of southern Afghanistan not only Kandahar province. It is not properly equipped to deal with the numbers or the types of patients it is receiving.

Food Aid: CIDA stated that through their funded partners on the ground in Kandahar, they have distributed thousands of tons of food to starving people throughout Kandahar. We were not able to obtain information on any specific food distribution points so as to validate this claim.

Infrastructure development: CIDA stated that they have given 18.5 Million Canadian dollars towards Kandahar infrastructure development. We found evidence of 5 Million Canadian dollars having been transferred to Kandahar. During the period of this research we were able to visit one CIDA-funded project in this category: CIDA is funding the construction of a new bridge in Kandahar. Construction on the bridge began earlier this year and is expected to continue for just over two years. This is a potential example of important development progress that puts local Afghans to work. According to workers interviewed at the site however, there is no accident or medical insurance included for the workers so that if they are injured on the job, they are replaced without compensation. Also, children were seen as part of the construction work force.

Civilian Casualties of War: We did not find any CIDA program in place to assist civilian casualties of war.

We were told that the Canadian military has established an informal program to assist those civilian casualties that arrive at the military base as best they can. Getting to the military base from a distant village means using one’s own resources and travelling for many hours or days without stabilization on the way. For the most part civilians living in village that are caught in the fighting or bombing have no assistance from the international community. There is a UN Convention that states “the wounded and sick shall be collected and cared for”.

Refugees and Displaced Persons: We had previously raised deep concerns and questions with regard to the large numbers of Afghans living in informal conditions through Kandahar province who had fled fighting, bombing, drought and crop eradication.

It was confirmed that the largest refugees settlement in Kandahar province has not received food aid since March 2006. We were unable to find comprehensive programs for these groups of people.

CIDA uses at least five different bureaucratic categories for hungry or starving people in Kandahar and if Afghans are unfortunate enough to fall into the wrong category, they go without aid. As stated above we were not able to validate any widespread CIDA food aid program in Kandahar.