Coming Home

By Ritu Upadhyay
Reported by Michael Ware/Kabul

The dusty roads to Afghanistan are swelling with colorful buses, horse-drawn buggies and people staggering under armloads of clothes. Trucks piled with belongings—ratty old bicycles, brand-new bed frames, bright quilts—inch their way along the winding, rocky paths. These travelers come from many directions, but they share a single goal: getting home.

Shafiqa, a 14-year-old Afghan girl, stands in front of her home in the village of Estalef.

Since the U.S. helped topple the Taliban—Afghanistan’s strict Islamic government—last November, Afghanis have been flocking home in record numbers. According to the United Nations, 1.6 million Afghanis have returned to rebuild their country and their lives. They left for their own safety. Now, they return filled with hope. "The kids in Afghanistan smile more than any group I have ever come across," says Sarah Telford, who works for the United Nations. "Most of these kids have never set foot in Afghanistan before, because their parents fled so many years ago, but somehow they felt as if they were home."

Shamim Hariwa spent those years hidden away in her home in Kabul. She could not go outside without wearing a head-to-toe robe, or burka. Now, life is different. Within days of the Taliban’s fall, Hariwa tore off her burka. Today, she works for the national airline. "I am myself now; I will not hide," she says.

Clearly, the country is in no shape to welcome waves of returning refugees. Many people around the world are working to help. Afghanis mostly depend on international aid for food, medicine and clothing.

This month, the United Nations announced that Afghanistan will need an additional $300 million to help with reconstruction. Last week, President Bush pledged $80 million to help rebuild Afghanistan’s roads. Without proper roads, aid groups cannot get building supplies and food to remote villages. As the harsh winter season sets in, temperatures will fall below freezing. If refugees don’t have proper food and shelter, they will not survive.

There have also been threats against the temporary government set up last December. In the northern rural territories, local warlords still rule. President Hamid Karzai escaped an assassination attempt this month. After so many years of strict rule, not all Afghanis are ready to embrace the new leadership.

But local government ministers are working to try and find ways for Afghanistan’s people to live together peacefully. Creating jobs and reviving the economy is the first important step. "Hundreds of thousands of jobs have to be created to enable impoverished Afghanis to earn a living and climb out of debt," said Lakdhar Brahimi, an Afghan representative to the United Nations.

In the meantime, many who have returned take pleasure in the simplest things. Ahmad Mureed, 7, attends class at a school that has just been rebuilt with the help of soldiers from England and Turkey. "I have 47 classmates, and we all learn at once!" he says. The classroom has only a teacher’s desk at the front and a worn red rug for the children to sit on. Nasima Yousuzfai, a teacher at the Nozoana School, says it doesn’t matter that they have so few school supplies: "At least we’re here."