Please help me help kids in Afghanistan

[Major Robert Dump]

A lot of the kids here know me by name. Many of them call me uncle, big brother and wahanda shahi (funny monkey). The children of Afghanistan, particularly the little girls, have had a profound impact on me and the soldiers in my unit. By virtue of my position and the nature of our unit, we have far more dealings with them than the average military people. The little girls here are the most beautiful I have ever seen.

I have always thought that “for the children!” was one of the most overused, ridiculous and cheesy battle cries for many a cause. But that applies to developed countries, where children are spoiled, where the world is their oyster and where they are not at threat of dying from things that you and I have never even had to think about. So far be it from me to actually sound that call here, for the children of Afghanistan.

Now is the time for all of you at Total.org to put your money where your mouth is. Whether you support the war or not, whether you think NATO is evil and Taliban is wholesome or vice versa, none of that matters for what I am about to ask of you.

Since being in country, I have spent more than $3000 of my own money on things to hand out to the children on the Paktya Province. According to the rules, I am not supposed to do that. According to those same rules, I am not supposed to solicit people for material donations either, which is what I am about to do. Oh well.

I currently am receiving much stuff for the kids from family, churches and charities back home. Of course, the military provides me with a lot of stuff as well, like school supplies and hand crank radios, but those only go so far and if I only relied on the Army I would always be out of stuff. The Army tends to provide me incredibly large amounts of the same stuff in increments of 1-2 months, whereas the things I get from CONUS typically arrive 4-8 small bozes per week.

The babies here like toys, pens, pencils, crayons, pretty much anything a little kid would like. Except you have to remember the kids here have nothing. The little girls here all wear makeup and have facial piercings, and they like to jingle out their dresses with noise makers and doo-dads. So I would also like kiddie cosmetics, hair berets and bows, and toy jewelry. One of my biggest hits so far has been strands of beads I order from a Mardi gras store online, you can get like 700 for $40. The girls wear them as necklaces and bracelets. I also need very small shoes and sandals, and things like little stuffed animals and beanie babies.

One flat rate box for $12.99 is all it takes. The stuff doesn’t even need to be new. I get a lot of used stuff, even Happy Meal toys, and it is better than what the kids already have. Things as simple and common as a bottle of bubbles and a blower, a package of party noise makers, or some used crayons will make a desolate child’s day.
I truly, honestly, prefer things geared towards little girls.

This is a boy’s land, and the girls get very little. In addition to that, most of the boys here, minus the very small ones who are still under the care of their sisters, become very unmanageable, greedy and violent when it comes to passing things out. I typically try to control the situation and give stuff to all the kids, but it always devolves into a mob scene due to the actions of the alpha males, who refuse to allow the girls and little ones to have anything, no matter how much the alphas already have. So every time I back into a control point – someone’s home, a compound, a gate – and I only let the girls in, where I fit them with toys, snacks, shoes, girly stuff. Then we tell them to run home as fast as they can so the boys don’t steal their things, and we escort them out of the gate and through the mob.

Sometimes, unfortunately, we have to be rough with the boys because they will assault the girls to get what they have. On more than one occasion, we have created a human wall so the boys could not get past in order to chase the girls home. On several occasions, I have pulled a boy off of a girl and held him until she could get away. My interpreter says this is why they call me Big Brother.

This is the chance for most of you to do your good deed for the year. Get off your butts and for one day stop playing armchair general, political pundit, know-it-all, holier-than-thou, drunken buffoon and jerk face. Send me things for the kids. And don’t, under any circumstances, send stuff for “the soldiers.” We don’t need anything, we have plenty. In fact, most of the stuff for the soldiers, like toothpaste and snacks, I loot from various sources and give to the kids as well.

It takes about 2-3 weeks to ship here. I will alert the .Org when I will no longer be around to receive the stuff; however, I am training my replacement of the finer points of “goodies procurement” and would like to leave plenty for him when he arrives, so he doesn’t have the 3 week dry spell like I did. I am setting August 20 as the preferred send date for me to receive the stuff, as it is likely we will be finishing up our missions with kids towards the end of September, although we will be here for a good time after that.

I was going to post this request earlier, but until now I have not been running short of things. Then, some pretty big issues like floods and missing seabies came up, and a lot of my plans changed so for a few weeks I have not been able to interact with the children like I planned.

Rest assured that anything I don’t get a chance to take out will be stored and used properly, and anything that arrives after my departure will also be put to good use. And there is always a strong possibility that I may voluntarily come right back, because the follow on units have already asked me to stay, the USDA is trying to recruit me, and a couple of NGOs dedicated to women and children have caught my eye.

I can’t believe I am giving you hooligans my name. I will not post it in the thread.

If you want to send something, contact Lemur, he will give you my info



Unfortunately, I will not be able to post a journal or pictures until I am CONUS. Aside from not really having the time, the posts will need to require careful editing as there are things I should not post for security reasons. Furthermore, putting certain adventures into context may require me to say unflattering things about people, places and things that could get me into hot water. Once I am home and out of this theater, I can be a little more forthcoming with my experiences, which is the way I prefer it.


Your questions or comments are welcome.

[Husar]

I think this is a great idea, I don't have any toys for children though, if you set up a Paypal donation though, I'd donate some money so you can order more things.
Wish you all the best with that endeavour. :bow:

[Fragony]

Set it and I'm in, can spare a little

[Lemur]

A note for U.S.A. Orgahs -- if you use the USPS Flat Rate boxes (https://www.prioritymail.com/flatrates.asp), getting things to the 'Stan is quite reasonable.

[drone]

I find it somewhat humorous that I could go to the store, purchase most of the stuff you are asking for, box it up, and ship it halfway around the world, when the majority of it was probably made a few thousand miles away from your location in China and shipped here to the US. Hopefully sans lead.

I gather the best way to ship with the flat-rate boxes is to remove the extraneous store packaging so more stuff fits?

[Major Robert Dump]

I don't think a paypal account would be a good idea.

First, I don't like the idea of you guys sending me money.

Second, my paypal account got a security hold on it about 7 months ago, and they want an absurd amount of personal material from me to re-open it. Stuff like utility bills. I don't exactly have that stuff here.

And third, places like Walmart.com deliver to APO military addresses. In fact, that's where I have ordered most of my stationary, pens and little girl makeup from. If you have a bank card to put money into paypal, then you should also be able to order stuff online.

I will see about setting up a new paypal with my other bank account, so it may take a day or two.

DRONE, it is entirely up to you. Things in packaging and with the tags still on actually give the little ones something to read, as many of them know basic english. It also makes them feel more special I'm sure because they think if its packaged it is new, and nothing over here comes packaged except for junk food. Use your best judgement.

Toys and clothes from Thrift stores. Dollar General. Anything helps.

[Ja'chyra]

I'm in the UK and the last time I tried to ship something over to Stan for a US serviceman it didn't arrive. It was only a CD but I wouldn't want to send anything unless it is going to arrive.

That being said if any of the long time US Org members are sending anything I am happy to send a few £'s over via paypal to add to the haul.

[Hosakawa Tito]

You're a good man, Bobby Dump.:bow:

I ordered from a website that my late 1st wife, elementary school teacher, used to order stuff for the kids in her class. Oriental Trading (http://www.orientaltrading.com/ui/browse/processRequest.do?requestURI=getHomePageCR&BP=5281&tabId=Home&cm_mmc=Email-_-CSEmails-_-ShipConfirm-_-Home).

You'll be getting Jingle Bell Necklaces (http://www.orientaltrading.com/ui/browse/processRequest.do?demandPrefix=12&sku=4/699&mode=Searching&erec=1&D=jingle+bell+necklace&Ntx=mode%2bmatchallpartial&Ntk=all&requestURI=processProductsCatalog&N=0&y=20&Ntt=jingle+bell+necklace&Dx=mode%2bmatchallpartial&x=22&sd=Jingle+Bell+Necklaces), Deluxe Pencils (http://www.orientaltrading.com/ui/browse/processRequest.do?demandPrefix=12&sku=5/86&mode=Searching&erec=0&D=deluxe+pencil+assortment&Ntx=mode%2bmatchallpartial&Ntk=all&requestURI=processProductsCatalog&N=0&y=19&Ntt=deluxe+pencil+assortment&Dx=mode%2bmatchallpartial&x=27&sd=Deluxe+Pencil+Assortment), and whatever I can scrounge from my Mother's craft shop supply warehouse and stuff in that box. :jumping: Can that flate rate box really hold 70lbs.? We're gonna find out...

[Fragony]

Why not just accept the money, if you buy things locally you are helping twice.

[Andres]

I'm in the UK and the last time I tried to ship something over to Stan for a US serviceman it didn't arrive. It was only a CD but I wouldn't want to send anything unless it is going to arrive.

That being said if any of the long time US Org members are sending anything I am happy to send a few £'s over via paypal to add to the haul.

That sounds like an excellent plan.

If there's a US Orgah sending something to MRD and if there's still room in that flat rate box of yours', please PM.

:bow:

[Fragony]

Ya where do euros send it to not going to bother sending it to the US first. I'll slip in some Belgium beer, just because you got enough doesn't mean it's the same thing; try not to shoot any innocents it kinda has a kick.

[ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88]

Well, I always respected the troops and any nation like the afghans, that appreciates our help, so I'll be more then happy to send something. Set me up!

:balloon2::balloon2:

[ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88]

Can I send a teddy bear for a afghan girl by the way?

[Major Robert Dump]

As stated in the beginning, I hardly deal with the boys anymore because they are out of control, and become abusive towards females at quite a young age. So anything you send will be given to girls. I strongly suggest using flat rate shipping, so size and weight is not an issue.

[drone]

Will crayons survive the trip, or will they end up as modern art wax puddles? And what age group/size are we talking about here?

[Fragony]

As stated in the beginning, I hardly deal with the boys anymore because they are out of control, and become abusive towards females at quite a young age. So anything you send will be given to girls. I strongly suggest using flat rate shipping, so size and weight is not an issue.

Might want to do 50/50, don't know if it's so smart to be so openly pro-girl in boy-land, locals could see it as a breach of their culture. You are a soldier of the USA army, only there for the girls? Being neutral is better I think.

[Major Robert Dump]

Drone: Crayons will survive the trip, and are quite popular.

Fragony: While I appreciate your concern, this issue has been thought on and debated and the boys will have to deal with it. I do not blanket ignore the boys, I make exceptions based on age, location and behavior. Not trying to be a jerk, but you are not seeing what I see.

I simply cannot deal with most of the boys. They beat the crap out of each other over the smallest item. Despite me having bags and bags of stuff, and telling htem there is plenty for everyone, 10% of the boys -- the biggest, fastest ones -- will end up with everything while the rest have nothing. If I give out 500 coloring books to a group of 100 boys, inevitably a few will be running around with armfuls of them, and all of the smaller boys will have nothing, who then turn on the girls for what they have. It is almost impossible to get kids to line up and come forward one at a time, and in the rare event it happens, the larger boys just lurk in the back and wait for a kid to leave the line.

We are talking a 10 to 1 ratio of boys to girls. me and my soldiers cannot manage a mob of boys to ensure that they are behaving. The girls, meanwhile, rarely fight, will form a line, will say thank you, and will listen to our advice on how to hide the stuff on in their clothes so the boys don't see it to take it, and the girls outright request we protect them from the boys

The boys are also the ones who will outright steal from us. Things off the trucks, things from our trailers, thhings from our pockets. Whats amazing is that a kid will still a duffel bag of toys from right in front of me, then hide the bag in his man-dress and get back into the mob and expect me to give him more. They will steal from other kids and stuff all the stuff in their pockets and ask for more. Sometimes I take pictures of the kids that I printed out from my previous visit -- the boys will even still those. They are not even pictures of themselves and they know it. The boys here behave like animals after about age 6. They will steal the magazine from your rifle when you are occupied, which is why the vast majority of soldiers in this country will not let boys anywhere near them. Even after you tell them to get out of your pockets, they will make a cute face, say something like "but I am poor" and then try to reach back into your pocket.

They will pretend to "help" you when really they are just waiting for a chance to steal, like the time I delivered 50 duffel bags of school supplies and radios to a girls school in Chamkani. As I carried the bags a few at a time up to the gate, a couple of boys volunteered to help me. Then they tried to make a run with 4 of the bags once they realized there were radios in them.

And don't get me started on the grown men. They are worse than the little boys. Sometimes, they mob me when they wee I have stuffed animals and clothes, and get all grabby and handsy worse than the boys. Maybe some of them have kids, and maybe some of them plan on turning around and selling the stuff in the market, as I see my "gifts" turn up in the bazaar all the time. And yes, it is my stuff, as the things I give away here are not exactly common.

Just the other day, I let some little girls onto one of the government compounds and would nopt let the boys in. I started giving away toys and food. The men who worked at that compound -- grownmen with jobs -- were all over me worse than the girls. At one point, they threw all the girls out, for no reason. I asked WTF because the girls were behaving, and my interp said that the men said the girls were being too loud. Well guess what? The men were being louder than the girls, and after the girls were gone they swarmed me and started telling me to hand over my stuff to them. They threw the little ghetto girls out so they could get my toys. I packed up, told them they should be ashamed of themselves, then left the compound to go outside and brave themob of 200 little boys. I found a local family who allowed me to use their qalat, and I only let girls and small boys in and continued to distribute my stuff.

What is shocking about that compound is that we have been there a dozen times, and I always -- ALWAYS -- take stuff for the men to give to their kids, usually books and pens and pencils. This time was no different. But this time, they wanted more, probably because it was Ramadan and they wanted more stuff to give their kids.

The way I see it, nothing I do will make things any worse for the girls. When I give them things, we ensure they make it back to their home to stash the goodies before coming back for more. This is a common practice in Afghanistan, kids run homewith their stash ASAP so other kids don't gank them.

Do I ignore all boys? No. I have some things that I use to distract boys. I have other things -- like coloring books -- that I have so many of I will pass them out to anyone and I don't care who gets them. I will deal with very small boys, and I will deal with boys who are polite (the rural mountain kids are well behaved) and I will deal with boys who defend their siblings and do crowd control. When I have something like jewelry and dresses that are obviously just for girls, sometimes there are brothers who will control the other boys to ensure the girls get what I am passing out. I reward those boys as well. But for the most part, boys are not the recipients of what I have with the exception of the coloring books. I always test the water with the coloring books. If they can't behave with those, I know damn well bad things will happen when the toys, radios and clothing comes out.

And. as I stated in the first post, I always try initially to manage the mob with both boys and girls, and it never never works. SO I inform the boys that they suck, and that because they act like savages that I will only deal with the ladies and the little boys.

I really don't know what else to say. Maybe a video would help you guys understand.

This has actually been a point of contetion between my commander and I because he prefers me to just hand the bags over to adults, since it keeps mobs from occurring and it "puts an afghan face" on the act, something that is integral to COIN. Well, first off, if we hand them over to adults, the adults will just take all the stuff to their kids or sell it at the bazaar. We have already caught several teachers who were taking school supplis home instead of giving them to the students. And second, I will do COIN, put-an-afghan-face blah blah only with stuff that the army provides me. If I spend $500 of girls kicker sandals, you are damnskippy that I will be passing those out to who "I want when I want, and not giving to some adult male who may or may not get them to the intended target. I will burn eveything I bought before I hand it over to an Afghan man.

And as far as this comment goes: You are a soldier of the USA army, only there for the girls?
Thats a bit of overgeneralization. Never mind the retaining walls we just built, the cool storage units we just built, and farming tools we just trained 400 male farmers to use and the poultry and livestock education we just gave to half the villagers, and nevermind the people we employed in the process of doing all the previous. If they don't like me only giving things to the little girls, then they can deal with it everytime they use their cool storage unit and their crop doesn't flood.

[Fragony]

Interesting stuff, what a harsh deal for women and the younger boys. Friend of mine describes the boys as the little monsters you do, but he found the grown men to be very polite.

[Major Robert Dump]

Many of the grown men are polite, but sometimes even the most polite ones turn aggressive when they see I have toys. Even the ANA and ANP. I have had ANA officers steal a bag of bead necklaces from me when I was not looking. In the rare events that I give bags of stuff for ANA or ANP to pass out to local kids, I have to diligently track the materials, find out who they allegedly gave the stuff to, then check with the alleged recipients to make sure it didn't end up at the ANA guys home. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.

Rest assured the stuff I give to Afghans to distribute themselves is only stuff the army provides.

We are down to about 7-14 days before I will not likely receive the stuff in time to pass out myself. I was hoping for more responses. Perhaps I will have to post some pictures of beautiful babies.

[Fragony]

Post some pics anyway I'd love too see them. Going to send you some stuff monday, some Teddybears candy that sort of thing. Gonna scourge my grandma's attic tomorrow, hope the lego is still there. Also should be a world receiver and a microscope.

[ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88]

Many of the grown men are polite, but sometimes even the most polite ones turn aggressive when they see I have toys. Even the ANA and ANP. I have had ANA officers steal a bag of bead necklaces from me when I was not looking. In the rare events that I give bags of stuff for ANA or ANP to pass out to local kids, I have to diligently track the materials, find out who they allegedly gave the stuff to, then check with the alleged recipients to make sure it didn't end up at the ANA guys home. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.

Rest assured the stuff I give to Afghans to distribute themselves is only stuff the army provides.

We are down to about 7-14 days before I will not likely receive the stuff in time to pass out myself. I was hoping for more responses. Perhaps I will have to post some pictures of beautiful babies.

Once my teddy bears arrive in my possession from ebay, I'll send them to you asap!

:yes::yes::2thumbsup::2thumbsup:

[Hosakawa Tito]

Many of the grown men are polite, but sometimes even the most polite ones turn aggressive when they see I have toys. Even the ANA and ANP. I have had ANA officers steal a bag of bead necklaces from me when I was not looking. In the rare events that I give bags of stuff for ANA or ANP to pass out to local kids, I have to diligently track the materials, find out who they allegedly gave the stuff to, then check with the alleged recipients to make sure it didn't end up at the ANA guys home. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.

Rest assured the stuff I give to Afghans to distribute themselves is only stuff the army provides.

We are down to about 7-14 days before I will not likely receive the stuff in time to pass out myself. I was hoping for more responses. Perhaps I will have to post some pictures of beautiful babies.

I just mailed out 3 flate-rate boxes. One with 10 dozen Jingle Bell Necklaces & 300 Deluxe Pencils *with smilie faces,daisies, hearts etc..*. The other two boxes contain 16 girls sweatshirts *medium size* that I picked up this morning from WalMart with money the Andres wired me. That comment you made in the FrontRoom "Happy Ramadan" thread about some of those girls wearing burlap really stuck in my craw.

My mother used to have a craft-shop business. She's retired now, but still has a building full of stuff. She wants to donate some of it to your cause. I'm taking her to the storage building tomorrow morning to fill some more boxes. I don't know really know what's there, beanie babies, beads, yarns, ribbons,etc...? I'll pick out some appropriate stuff.

[Major Robert Dump]

Very awesome.

It's funny, today we briefed for an upcoming mission in building X in village Y for a big finale of an ongoing project. Later, under the pretense that I needed to coordinate some atmospherics and contact the appropriate afghan media, I asked the boss if building X was the same one we went to back in June for another event, and he interrupted me and said "Don't worry, it's just down the street from the district center, all those kids that follow your truck around town will find you there in no time."

I guess they see right through me

[Hosakawa Tito]

Hehehe, whodda thunk Santa's helpers wore camo, but then it is a war zone.:san_wink:

[Fragony]

Sorry, can't do it, not because I don't want to, nothing is send there. US peeps PM me to forward a donation

[Major Robert Dump]

got 8 boxes today, a nice surprise for the kids

[Hosakawa Tito]

That's good news MRD :jumping:. I'm gathering more stuff for another shipment that will go out in a couple of weeks, after I return from a trip.

[JAG]

I would be very, very willing to send stuff. Could someone just simply put in a post the best way for me - in the UK - to send stuff to MRD. It hasn't been brilliantly laid out thus far.

[Major Robert Dump]

Brilliantly laid out? You put my name and address on a box and mail it. Lemur has my mailing address. Said this in the thread.

If your country does not mail to Afghanistan, then you ill have to sort it our amongst yourselves. I would imagine the UK mails here, considering I can't throw a stone without hitting a british national. Not many UK soldiers here at this base, but lots here working for ASAP, USAID, AWAT etc, why are so many of you named IAN?

In 7 days the window of opportunity ill be closed, and anything you mail I will not be here to recieve, although I am leaving instructions with my replacements that boxes sent to me are to be opened and given to the kids.

So far have receieved boxes from Hosa, Drone, AntiarManCake88 and one other person, in addition to boxes from my regular regimen of sources. I must say, the socks and little girly sweaters went over very well with the Kuchi nomads.

And I bet most of you didn't even kno afghanistan has a quarter million nomads. Just like a lot of you think this place is a desert (it is not) and that afghans are arabs (nope)

[Hosakawa Tito]

To give credit where it's due, those girly sweaters were bought with money Andres sent me. I'm happy they liked them, and I bet Andres is too. I have more to send, and am waiting on donations from a few more people. It's too bad you won't be there to receive my next shipment, but the important thing is that these kids get this stuff.

[Major Robert Dump]

I will probably be here, I just may not get to hand the stuff out myself. Due to the size of my unit, e have to fend for ourselves to go home and will likely trickle out, making us mission ineffective our final 30 days

[Beskar]

Why are so many of you named IAN?

I only know of one Ian, so I can't comment on that. Many David's, Daniel's, John's, Steven's, that I know of though.

[drone]

Ian is a (Scottish?) Gaelic version of John, same with Sean (Irish?). So it's pretty common.

[Beskar]

Ian is a (Scottish?) Gaelic version of John, same with Sean (Irish?). So it's pretty common.

May be popular in Scotland. (Sean is definitely popular in Ireland)

[ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88]

Brilliantly laid out? You put my name and address on a box and mail it. Lemur has my mailing address. Said this in the thread.

If your country does not mail to Afghanistan, then you ill have to sort it our amongst yourselves. I would imagine the UK mails here, considering I can't throw a stone without hitting a british national. Not many UK soldiers here at this base, but lots here working for ASAP, USAID, AWAT etc, why are so many of you named IAN?

In 7 days the window of opportunity ill be closed, and anything you mail I will not be here to recieve, although I am leaving instructions with my replacements that boxes sent to me are to be opened and given to the kids.

So far have receieved boxes from Hosa, Drone, AntiarManCake88 and one other person, in addition to boxes from my regular regimen of sources. I must say, the socks and little girly sweaters went over very well with the Kuchi nomads.

And I bet most of you didn't even kno afghanistan has a quarter million nomads. Just like a lot of you think this place is a desert (it is not) and that afghans are arabs (nope)

Good you got my box, but you misspelled my username.

:laugh:


Glad I was able to help. Hope the kiddies like those little bears I sent.

:bow:

[Seamus Fermanagh]

MRD has now returned from his Afghani "jaunt."

To all those who helped in his request through this thread, thank you.

This thread will now be closed, and we look forward to MRD's contributions in threads to come.

Thank you all.