Chrenkoff

"Widespread allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse of Congolese women, boys and girls have been made against U.N. personnel who were sent to help and protect them — despite a so-called zero tolerance policy touted by the United Nations toward such behavior.

"The range of sexual abuse includes reported rapes of young Congolese girls by U.N. troops; an Internet pedophile ring run from Congo by Didier Bourguet, a senior U.N. official from France; a colonel from South Africa accused of molesting his teenage male translators; and estimates of hundreds of underage girls having babies fathered by U.N. soldiers who have been able to simply leave their children and their crimes behind."

"His dislike of flying is holding him back. He said the 15-hour flight was just too long."

"There's a lot of sharks and snakes and creepy things down in Australia as well."

"Detainee lawyers likened the tactics to Nazis shaving the beards of orthodox Jews or artists dunking a crucifix in urine to shock Christians. 'They're exploiting religious beliefs to break them down, to destroy them,' said Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents several dozen detainees. 'What they're doing, it reminds me of a pornographic Web site -- it's like the fantasy of all these S&M clubs'."

"He was known to drink at the B-Bar in Kennedy Street, though not heavily, and regularly went with embassy staff for a pizza at La Capanna, a haunt that is also popular with politicians.

If he were a spy, he certainly did not stand out from the crowd, though some have described him as an extrovert."

"Staff at Kingston's local bars and restaurants were generally surprised to find a spy may have been in their midst."

"One staffer at La Capanna said she recalled meeting Mr Lati and commented on the name on his credit card because of its resemblance to latte."

" 'Honey? Are you watching TV before finishing your homework!'

" 'No, mom, I'm participating in subversion of the dominant paradigm!'

" 'What? Who told you that?'

" 'Arthur Chrenkoff, mom.'

" 'Oh, he writes for the Wall Street Journal! Keep participating, honey.'

" 'Sweet!'

"Darnit, where were you when I was a kid."

"Accustomed to living on charity, [the Zubaidis] were not surprised when, 10 days before the election, two men arrived saying they were from the local Sunni mosque and wanted to help Amar. Ms Zubaidi was overjoyed.

" 'They said they would organise a sickness pension from the new government, that they were arranging with the Red Crescent for a block of land on which we might build a house, and they gave me $300 for stock for the shop.

" 'They said that they would take Amar to a special school, and each day they collected him and drove away. They gave him sweets and clothes and cigarettes - he loved them. Sunnis had helped us before, so I didn't think it strange'."

"Female soldiers stripped to their skivvies for a mud-wrestling bout, and sergeants allegedly were lending their rooms to G.I.s for sex last year at the Army's Camp Bucca prison in Iraq.

"Photos of a wild Oct. 30 party at the camp show women soldiers baring their breasts to male onlookers, and other female G.I.s clad only in bras and panties wrestling and cavorting in a mud-filled plastic pool as men cheer, leer and snap pictures."

"When the Taliban were in power, Murad said, some of its leaders grew so frustrated by the drought they randomly rounded up dozens of people, drove them into the desert and demanded they pray for rain. It didn't come. 'You can't force people to pray,' Murad said. 'They should have gone out in the desert themselves.'

"Murad said his father told him this is the most rain he has seen in more than 30 years."

"Once a journalism hot spot, Afghanistan was all but left behind when the media's spotlight turned to the conflict in Iraq. In June/July 2003, [the "American Journalism Review"] reported that only a handful of reporters remained in the struggling country on a full-time basis, while other news organizations floated correspondents in and out when time and resources permitted.

"A year and a half later, Afghanistan has become even more of an afterthought. Only two news organizations--Newsweek and the Washington Post--have full-time reporters stationed in Kabul, the capital. Other major newspapers, such as the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, rely on stringers in Afghanistan and correspondents based in New Delhi, India, to cover the region, a stark contrast to the hundreds of reporters pouring into Iraq since the war began. The New York Times uses a stringer, albeit a full-time one. Television networks have nearly disappeared."

"As George Bush was sworn in as President for a second term yesterday, Shah Mohammed was spending the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha at home in Kabul with his family. Eid is a time to take stock, reflect on the past and consider the future, and the Afghan businessman was counting his blessings like all good Muslims on the holy festival.

"Since the fall of the Taliban who jailed him and persecuted his country, Kabul's economy has boomed, reconstruction is well in hand, and security is better than it was although nobody ever feels completely safe these days. 'Things are definitely better,' he said. 'Construction workers are making six times as much money and people have cash to spend. To give you an example, I have sold 2,500 copies of the collected works of Shakespeare in Persian in the last three years, compared to only 250 in 15 years before that'."

"The presidential election were held successfully and in a fair manner. The Afghan people participated and carried their first presidential election so successfully that it was described as unprecedented at the national and international level and the war-stricken peoples of the world had been urged to follow the Afghans in order to implement democracy in their countries. We can be very proud of this.

"The Afghan people should emerge triumphant from the forthcoming parliamentary elections too."

"- Completed rehabilitation of the Balkh provincial appeals court and a new courthouse in Ghorband district. In total, fifteen judicial facilities have been rehabilitated or constructed, eleven more are underway.

"- Started two English literacy training courses for Legislative Drafting Department staff at the Ministry of Justice, enabling them to conduct better comparative research in the course of their legislative drafting work and to work directly on English versions of the draft laws.

"- Prepared 1,100 sets of the Constitution and are currently distributing them to judicial personnel around the country. These are also available on a searchable CD-ROM."

"UNHCR supports the reintegration of returnees through a number of programmes. With its assistance together with its partners, more than 170,000 homes across Afghanistan have been rebuilt since 2002 and some 8,000 wells or water points have been established in areas of high return.

"In places where the return of significant numbers of returnees has created tensions or disputes UNHCR has launched coexistence initiatives which promote dialogue, inclusion and mutual understanding."

"Higher education in Afghanistan is expected to be revamped with international funding of $250 million after donors meet with the Ministry [of Higher Education]...

"[The Minister] Dr Hasanyar said the number of university students had increased by ten fold from the 4000 enrolled in the system during the time of the Taliban. It was conceivable that this number would go up to 1 million in ten years with the enrollment of 4 million in schools. To meet this demand the Ministry would have to increase the number of teachers from 2000 to 5000...

"In the first year the ministry will focus on reviewing the curriculum, launching administrative reforms and reconstruction. Its plan for the next five years includes construction of buildings, establishing laboratories and libraries, teaching and recruiting qualified professors and entering into agreements with international universities and expansion of provincial universities in Nangarhar, Balkh, Herat and Kandahar are among the priorities."

"Today, close to 300 publications are registered with the ministry of culture. With a large chunk operating from Kabul, most Afghan cities and towns have their own modest publications often in the form of magazines...

"Afghanistan is still steeped in a radio culture as the majority of the population, particularly in the remote rural regions, depend on radio for news and information... In addition to the projected 45 Internews community stations, the state- run Radio Afghanistan has 17 stations. Owned and managed by the business savvy young Australian-Afghan Mohsini brothers, Arman FM is the country's most successful commercial pop station. Starting in late 2003, the station soon captured the imagination of Kabul's four million people. Attracting around 80 per cent of the city's listenership, it's still the most popular station in the capital...

"By contrast, the development of television in Afghanistan has been slow. According to most estimates, only one- third of the Afghan population has access to television, while all attempts at reforming the state-owned Afghan television have been abandoned. Many in the ministry of culture and information now believe that privatisation might be the last resort for white elephants such as Afghan TV and the Bakhtar news agency, another subsidiary of the information ministry. With USAID funding, Arman FM has started Afghanistan's first independent commercial TV channel, Tolo TV, in early October, although its success has yet to be ascertained."

"Kabul's chaotic roads are used to plodding camel-carts, smoke-belching lorries, and four-by-fours packed with armed men threatening road rage. Now they have a new, and for Afghan motorists, truly exotic sight: women drivers.

"A few brave females have shed their burqas to venture into the driving seat - for decades here the ultimate preserve of the macho Afghan male - thanks to the tuition of a mechanic-turned-instructor who has opened the city's first driving school for women. Delawar Mamozai struck upon the revolutionary idea of teaching women to drive several years ago, and after teaching just one woman in the first five years of his venture he has had a flood of students in the past few months."

"From the outside, there's no hint that what lies beyond the glass door is anything other than what the red sign out front indicates: a beauty salon.

"But inside, there is not only a modern salon for haircuts, makeup and nails, used most often by brides and their attendants, but also Afghanistan's first fitness club for women of all ages, single and married, to get in shape...

"Since the fall of the Taleban, young women in Afghanistan have been gaining opportunities to get involved in sports. Since mid 2003, 62 clubs, representing 14 different types of sport, have opened across the country -11 in the provinces of Balkh, Herat, Kandahar, Kunduz, Baghlan and Parwan and the rest in Kabul.

"But the sport clubs, which include karate, judo, track, football, handball, tennis, volleyball, basketball, ping-pong, kick-boxing, and tennis, have been attended largely by single girls interested in joining a local team or evening making sports their career.

"Now, at this new fitness club in Kabul - the only one of its kind in the country - married women with no interest and no real opportunity to join a sports team have a chance to exercise for health and beauty reasons."

"The discovery of Marina Gulbahari, 14, who has become the star of a major international film, reads like the script of a Hollywood movie. Marina, then 11, was begging outside a hotel in Kabul when she was spotted by Afghan film director Sediq Barmak...

Marina went on to star in 'Osama', a film in which she portrays a 12-year-old girl forced to masquerade as a boy called Osama, in order to work to save her widowed mother and grandmother from starvation, when women under the Taleban were banned from working and even appearing outside their home unless accompanied by a male member of the family.

"The film went on to win numerous international awards in 2003, including three at the Cannes Film Festival and a Golden Globe as the best foreign-language entry. Osama's success also meant that Marina can afford to pay for her education and support her family."

"September 11 was a defining event for millions of people. The US decided to come to Afghanistan and to Iraq, and because I serve on a lot of European boards - British Telecom, ABB, Sulzer, Electrolux - I witnessed first-hand the conflict the Europeans were having with their old friends the Americans.

"Why were we doing this? Was this the right thing? Was it necessary? I was convinced it was, but having spent 14 or 15 years in Europe I could understand why the Europeans were raising the questions they were raising. Then in the autumn of 2003 I got a call out of the blue from the White House. At the time I had been considering pursuing a CEO role again after taking a pause for a couple of years for personal reasons. Some of my friends could not understand why I was even contemplating a move to Afghanistan. I had a comfortable life with a wife and two children, a number of homes and wonderful (executive) boards and a very nice lifestyle. Why would I give all that up to live in a hooch and eat cafeteria food for a year? The answer is simple: it was to make a difference."

"Afghanistan's economy has performed strongly in the past two and half years with non-drug GDP reaching US$4.6 billion in 2003-04 (corresponding to a GDP per capita of about US$200 per year), an increase of almost 50 percent, albeit from a very low base. This is mainly attributable to the recovery of agriculture from the drought, revival of economic activities after major conflict ended, and the commencement of reconstruction efforts. This solid performance has been supported by the government's sound macroeconomic polices-a highly successful currency reform in late 2002, a prudent no overdraft policy prohibiting domestic financing of the budget deficit, conservative monetary policy, and good management of the exchange rate."

"The International Monetary Fund said... Afghanistan had successfully implemented a one-year IMF-monitored program that expires in March and had kept its commitments for fiscal discipline and management. Such an endorsement by the international lender bodes well for the country's credibility among investors in the donor community, which funds Afghanistan's budget as it recovers from 20 years of civil war...

"Overall, the IMF said the Afghan government had made progress in rebuilding the economy, despite a challenging security environment... The IMF forecast economic growth of 8 percent in 2005, off the high levels of 29 percent that followed the ousting of the former Taliban rulers by U.S.-led forces in 2001."

"562 canals and irrigation structures constructed; 310,500 hectares of farmland rehabilitated; 186 km of farm to market roads constructed; 138 market centers constructed; 8,400 loans distributed (73% to women); 3,679,222 livestock vaccinated; 482 km of Kabul-Kandahar highway operational

"40,000 radios distributed to vulnerable populations (including rural women); 400 legal personnel trained; 8,000,000 Afghans voted in first presidential election (40% women); 6,000 business licenses issued; $9,700,000 in domestic revenue generation collected

"169,716 students in 17 provinces enrolled in Accelerated Learning Programs (55%women); 16,200,000 textbooks printed and distributed; 6,819 teachers trained in Accelerated Learning Program; 80 schools constructed; 4,800,000 Afghan children enrolled in school

"4,700,000 people have access to basic health care; 1,971 MOH and NGO health care workers trained; 9,900,000 children under the age of 5 vaccinated against polio; 159 water wells constructed or refurbished; $697,000 in pharmaceuticals and commodities distributed."

"Clear and just land titling help market reforms promote sustainable economic growth, and protect the rights of the poor and improve livelihoods. To help develop and support land titling in Afghanistan, our programs strengthen property registration, simplify land-titling procedures, and standardize and clarify the legal framework. Recent progress include:

"- Reorganization of property records in Kabul, Mazar-i-Sharif, Kunduz, and Parwan provinces. Property records have been catalogued more efficiently, reducing access time from two-three months to just fifteen minutes. Reorganization of Ghazni and Takhar provincial records are starting this week.

"- Afghans were hired and trained to electronically input deed information into a database system using digital cameras rather than traditional scanners, allowing more efficient and accurate access to records."

"As outlined in the Government of Afghanistan's National Development Program, one of the objectives is to dissolve State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) in order to stimulate economic growth in the private sector. This reporting period, USAID programs accomplished the following:

"- Two SOEs were sold to a foreign agro-industrial group; six other negotiations are underway.

"- A Social Safety Net program is currently completed in draft, aimed at assisting SOE workers with retraining or assistance with new employment or retirement.

"- Surveys of excess SOE land underway. Estimates show that 70% of all SOE assets are in excess land, translating into significant growth potential for the private sector."

"The Asian Development Bank (ADB)... had approved a 750,000-dollar grant to develop solar energy technology for use in isolated rural areas in Afghanistan. The grant, financed by the British government, would demonstrate how solar energy could enhance the quality of life in poor, remote villages which could not be connected to wider power grids...

"Most of Afghanistan's population have no access to modern energy sources like electricity and gas and are forced to rely on traditional fuels like firewood... However, the country has a great potential for solar power since the sun shines for about 300 days a year in Afghanistan...

"The grant would be used to provide solar systems to communities on a pilot basis and to train 10 people from different ethnic groups as solar technicians at a training centre in India. Upon returning to Afghanistan, they would train 10 additional people from their communities."

"The presidents of Iran and Afghanistan will officially inaugurate a 132-kilowatt power transmission line from Torbat-e Jam in northeastern Iran to the western Afghan city of Herat... once the power line becomes operational Iran's power exports to Afghanistan would increase ten- fold... The total cost of the project [was put] at 13.8 million dollars... The amount spent to install the transmission line was part of the financial commitment made by the Islamic Republic of Iran for reconstruction of Afghanistan. Last March, Iran opened a 150-kilometer, 20-kilowatt power transmission line to the western Afghan city. The project cost Tehran some 2.3 million dollars."

"Just a few years ago, Kamela Sediqi had to hide her blossoming tile business from the Taliban. She used a false name, worked from home and had to smuggle material under her burqa.

"Now she and 14 other Afghan women are participating in a special program to help them expand or build businesses in their struggling nation - a kind of refresher course on capitalism.

" 'Afghan women are fearless. These women are totally fearless and they are ready to move on,' said Mina Sherzoy, director of Afghanistan's Women's Entrepreneurship Development program.

"A businesswoman herself who returned to Afghanistan from San Francisco in 2002, Sherzoy accompanied the women from Kabul to this Phoenix suburb for the program at Thunderbird, the Garvin School of International Management.

"The two-week training, which ends next weekend, is a business school overview, covering everything from marketing to accounting and will culminate with the development of business plans. The women have been paired with mentors, who will continue to help them over the next several years."

"This month a truck will leave from the Bishop's Central Storehouse of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Colton, loaded with humanitarian supplies destined for Afghanistan.

"The supplies represent the culmination of the work of hundreds of women representing 10 churches, who worked all year to better the lives of women in need half a world away.

"The members of Women of Faith of Redlands have spent an estimated 34,075 hours sewing, painting, tying, cutting, gathering, assembling and praying in preparation for sending a shipment of 15 pallets and 11,660 pounds of goods valued at more than $133,000 to Afghanistan.

"Men, youth and children have also taken part in the effort, including Girl Scouts, Brownies, Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts."

"Not often does a playwright's work bring tangible, life-saving changes. But William Mastrosimone's The Afghan Women is helping to provide housing, food, education and health care for orphans and women in a dangerous country struggling toward democracy."

"While continuing small-scale projects, the command is committed to initiating what [Army Col. Gary] Cheek called 'capacity-building projects' -- creating road networks, revitalizing downtown areas, establishing irrigation and water systems, and bolstering economic infrastructure. 'We are working with each of our provincial governors to develop five-year reconstruction plans that will set a course for reconstruction in each province,' he said. 'We will also continue to equip and train Afghan police forces to improve the security posture across the region.'

"Since June, Cheek said, eight provincial reconstruction teams within Regional Command East have spent more than $24.8 million on reconstruction projects. These projects have focused on education, water and sanitation, healthcare and governance, he said. They included full renovation of the Ghazni Public Health Directorate Civil Hospital, which serves an estimated 1.5 million people, and the nearly completed Matun electric grid project in Khost province, Cheek said. By late February, the Matun project will provide electricity to some 85,000 residents.

"Other successes included purchasing 110 police vehicles and 7,260 police uniforms, facilitating the first meeting of the Ghazni Women's Council, and progress in promoting winter wheat and other crops in lieu of poppies."

" A team of 11 Army medics treated more than 1,500 people and 2,100 animals in the Farah Province Jan. 15 through 18.

" 'It is important that we treat the animals for the villagers because it improves their health and economic status,' said Col. Steve Johnson, Task Force Victory surgeon. Eighty percent of the population owns animals, and by treating the herd their value is increased by 10 percent, according to Johnson."

"The first is to provide schoolchildren in southern Afghanistan with basic school supplies.

"Next is the renovation of schools, which is not as simple as it may seem. In a land where only 5 million of the nation's 28 million people can read, Schmidt noted that some teachers have their work cut out for them. In some cases, they use rocks to scrawl lesson plans on the walls of their mud-brick classrooms.

" 'These kids have nothing,' said Cipponeri, a soldier who has played a major role in helping Schmidt. 'All these children have smiles on their faces and wear rags for clothes. When you help them, it opens a new part of you in your heart.'

"Ultimately, Schmidt would like to establish an exchange program between Afghan teachers and institutions in the United States. He said talks with the University of Nebraska and Denver University are in their infancy, but already the latter is interested in sending doctoral candidates to Afghanistan."

"One day early last year, Joshua Walters was a high school girls soccer coach in Tallahassee, Fla., preparing his team for a regional playoff game.

"Just a couple of months later, in April, he was stationed in Afghanistan as a first lieutenant in the Florida National Guard, watching a girl die in his arms.

" 'It pushed me,' said Walters, 27. 'I went to my boss and said 'I've got to do something. I know soccer and that's where I thought I could relate with them.'

"He has related, effectively using the world's most popular game as a way to bridge cultural gaps by heading an effort to have playing fields made, conducting coaching courses for the Afghanistan youth and setting up adult games between locals and coalition forces."

"The personnel of the First Mountain Artillery Regiment of the 'Taurinensea' Alpine Brigade have distributed health material, clothing and food to some centres of the Afghan capital. Among the structures that have benefited from the aid is the Alberto Cairo health centre, that for years has been operating in Kabul in the field of rehabilitation for the many victims of mines still spread over most of Afghanistan. The clinic has been given 11 wheelchairs, 400 kg of food products and eight tons of clothes. This aid, arrived in Afghanistan thanks to the contribution of many sections of the National Alpine Association of Piedmont and Ligura, Tuscany and Veneto, besides the Nastro Azzurro Association and that of the Order of St John of Jerusalem. A hospital in the capital has however been given operating tables, hospital beds, cots and other furniture donated by the Hospital of Acqui Terme and by the Centre for the gathering of hospital material in Parma. Then there is also 200,000 euro's worth of medicines, donated by a Milan pharmaceutical company and distributed to many health institutes and the Kabul Military Hospital. There concluded finally yesterday the phase of infrastructural works by 'Paktiakot School', the school that the Italian contingent in Afghanistan is building also thanks to a Fossano credit institute. The personnel of the army's civil-military cooperation unit, which has looked after the project, is now awaiting furnishings, orders, and craftsmen from Kabul in the intention to contribute to their economic position and to help the city's growth."

"A taxi stops near the front gate of Camp Phoenix on the outskirts of Kabul. Within seconds a short, stocky man wielding a pipe starts to approach the vehicle. The man with the lead stick means business. 'Move the car,' he demands in a language anyone could understand. The occupant hastily pays his fare, and the taxi driver wastes no time backing away. With the way clear, the Afghan man U.S. soldiers call 'Rambo' returns to his post just inside the gate to resume his vigil."

"That commitment to his country prompted him to return to Kabul. Because Jamal Ud Din had sold his apartment, the only logical place to go, he figured, was his old workplace. His bosses didn't have a driver's job open, so they assigned him to the front gate - and he's been there ever since...

"In June 2003, when U.S. forces first rolled up to the front gate of what was then a Russian-Afghan transport company, Rambo was waiting. He hasn't left."

"A cache turned in by Afghan citizens near Ghazni yielded 89 cases of 14.5 mm and 12.7 mm rounds. The Afghans said the ammunition had been there since the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation of the country. Another cache turned in by an Afghan citizen near Spin Buldak yielded three 82 mm rockets.

"Coalition forces found another cache near Kabul. That cache consisted of 100 107 mm rockets, 100 anti-personnel rockets and assorted smaller munitions. Coalition forces patrolling near Qalat found a cache containing 500 7.62 mm rounds, 120 cases of 14.5 mm rounds, 66 cases of 12.7 rounds, 144 mm mortar fuses, 22 82 mm mortar rounds, seven 60 mm mortar rounds and six 75 mm recoilless rifle rounds.

"Another weapons cache was discovered near Gereshk by coalition forces. The cache contained three 122 mm rounds, 27 82 mm recoilless rockets, 12 82 mm mortars, two 107 mm rockets and two hand grenades."

"Between the majestic snow-capped mountains of the Band-e Baba Range and the historic city of Herat in western Afghanistan looms a powerful menace of man's making...

"[Mark] Holroyd, an explosive ordnance technician for Ronco Consulting Corp., calls it 'the biggest open-air arms cache in the world.' There are about 8,000 tons of explosives - an estimate he characterizes as conservative - on the ground and under 24-hour guard. Much more was here, and much more is expected to arrive in the coming months.

"The cache is the result of a United Nations program, with U.S. military assistance, to disarm the warring militias in western Afghanistan. Dubbed Task Force Saber, the effort began in August and by October tons of ammunition started being consolidated in a field east of Herat."

"Nangarhar, the eastern province which is probably the country's greatest opium producer -- where once the fields were a picture of pink and white poppies -- now offers a scene of barren earth... The provincial authorities of Nangarhar said this month that 95% of the poppy fields in the province had been destroyed.

"Whilst there have been many reports of drug-eradication raids and extensive poppy destruction, the extent of the programs has in the past often failed to match the publicity. But when Pajhwok Afghan News visited leading poppy-producing districts, its reporter found that the claims about poppy destruction appear to be correct."

"The poppy fields that once crowded every scrap of farmland in this fertile corner of eastern Afghanistan have been supplanted by wheat. Farmers are slashing their cultivation of opium, government and foreign officials say, in a bright start for President Hamid Karzai's US-sponsored campaign against the world's largest illegal narcotics industry.

"Nationwide, officials forecast a drop of between 30 per cent to 70 per cent in this year's crop. In crucial growing areas such as eastern Nangarhar province and southern Helmand, it could be down more than three-quarters, they say, though reliable statistics are not yet available."

"As part of the larger counter-narcotics initiative, the Alternative Income Project (AIP) in Helmand province delivers a strong message to communities that the Government of Afghanistan and donors will assist them through emergency programs that will lead to sustainable development. AIP provides immediate cash distributions to communities through labor-intensive activities and uses this economic growth as a foundation for future viable alternatives to poppy. Since early December, AIP has been organizing cash-for-work activities in central and lower Helmand. The project currently employs 5,600 workers and has generated over 100,000 labor-days in drainage and canal rehabilitation projects. AIP workers have cleared more than 100 km of catchdrains to date. AIP is planning activities in upper Helmand and is working closely with Sher Mohammad, governor of Helmand province, who has been helpful in community consultations and resolution of security issues. Also, since arrival in Lashkar Gah, the AIP team has provided local NGOs with grants for community enterprise and social activities reaching vulnerable groups."