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Relief and Development

The Road to Tea, Sugar and Chickens

We met Halema Yeah, wearing her traditional Afghan scarf, sitting on a patio at her house. Halema is 58 years old and had lost her husband more than quarter of a century ago during the Afghan internal fighting. She had no brother and no son, but one daughter who had got married years ago and is now living in a different district. Halema has to try to support herself, not an easy task for a widow in rural parts of Afghanistan, while she is using a relative’s house for shelter. That is why she was selected by the local community elders to receive an additional cash grant within the road reconstruction project implemented by People in Need.


Rehabilitation of the road connecting the Marghzar area´s entrance village of Baiza with all the other thirteen villages was one component of the Food Facility project implemented by People in Need in the mountainous parts of Northern Afghanistan. The European Union funded project focuses on the long-term improvement of agricultural sector productivity and the introduction of alternative income generation activities. It also, however, includes several smaller “cash for work” projects, like the road in Marghzar, intended for temporary employment of local population during the “hunger gap” of the lean period and for rehabilitation of the local infrastructure at the same time.

There were 185 people working on the road in Marghzar, each for 44 days and each making close to 200 dollars for this period. This is big money in Marghzar, where an average family of ten people would have a yearly monetary income of some 900 dollars. Most, as they say, will use it to buy things they do not cultivate in their own fields or on things that will generate further income – tea, sugar, vegetables and maybe an additional sheep for milk and wool.

But apart from those working directly on the road reconstruction, People in Need cannot forget the most vulnerable members of the communities, such as widows, orphans and old people, who have no support from their families and cannot take part in the work. The idea of the cash redistributions stands on the premise that all vulnerable members of the community have an equal right to take part in the project and should share the sense of building their community. Thus, an additional forty people, such as Halema, were selected as beneficiaries of the Marghzar road project to receive the same pay as the workers.

“I know the road is being rehabilitated since my neighbor works there,” Halema told us as we sat down on the patio with her. “But I didn´t realize I will also get some money, since I am an old widow and I cannot work,” she added. As we explain again, she starts to smile. “Really? 8800 Afghani?,” she asks repeatedly and almost immediately prepares a plan what to do for her good with the money. “I will buy some chickens and will keep them. With eggs I can make some income and support myself for a long time,” she says of her intentions, and she thanks us for bringing the good news.

As we say goodbye to Halema and leave her house, we soon come back on the now leveled, but still dusty road of Marghzar. It is still quite bumpy for the not very frequent cars passing by. But certainly a good road to tea, sugar and chickens for Halema and others.

Ehsanullah Aseer