Promoting Peace

Peace in Afghanistan is a difficult thing to contemplate, yet we try every day to bring the country a little bit closer to experiencing it. The government is doing their part, we are doing ours, but the hurdles are significant. 

On this beautiful sunny day we had the opportunity to meet and talk with a number of local and national government representatives as we looked for avenues towards peace. The gathering included local governance figures, village elders and religious leaders who were all proactively seeking peace.

The meeting was replete with speeches, good food, music, and genuine conversation about the direction of Afghanistan and how to bring the country together. We spoke of programs in place, the transition in 2014 and even how education of the Afghan children will be one of the most important things the Afghan people do in the coming decades.

Voting was also a topic on the minds of many as the laws of Afghanistan have called for local elections to start in 2005 and municipal elections in 2010, but neither has materialized.

War has been in this country for over three decades and has suffered for centuries before that. The Great Game between Russia and Great Britain, the influences of Pakistan and Iran, and the influences of religious zealotry. Challenges abound, but it will take decades more to know if the positive changes we are attempting today will have any staying power.