From Radio Reporter to Relief Worker, Sarah Chayes Wanted to Make a Difference
Rebuilding Afghanistan
From Radio Reporter to Relief Worker, Sarah Chayes Wanted to Make a Difference
Dec. 5 — For Sarah Chayes, being a radio reporter in Afghanistan wasn't enough. When her assignment was over, she decided to become a relief worker.
"My parents have always been oriented toward public service," said Chayes, whose parents are successful government officials. "There was always the notion that 'do whatever you want to do, Sarah, so long as it is constructive.' "
Chayes' idea of doing something constructive was to rebuild a small village in southern Afghanistan called Akokolacha, which was heavily bombed by the United States at the beginning of the Afghan war because it was occupied by Taliban and al Qaeda.
"It looked kind of like the moon after a bombing had happened on it," she said. "The landscape looked just like the moon, very parched with craggy rocks and mountains sticking up."
It was, as someone else observed, like cleaning up after a nuclear disaster with a toothbrush. It was quite a change from being a radio reporter.
Chayes became a relief worker rather suddenly. She had met President Hamid Karzai's uncle at a dinner in Afghanistan. "He said, 'Wouldn't you come back and help us?' and it was like a signal," she said. "It was really incredible."
Chayes lives with other relief workers in a compound, where she grows her own vegetables. She also has two cows, which means fresh milk. She even has a generator, which means a hot shower — when it works.
She is now the field director at Afghans for a Civil Society and was profiled in a film made by an American, Brian Knappenberger, to raise awareness about Afghan society. The filmmaker showed Chayes during a typical day, trying to convince some local officials that she needed foundation stone to rebuild houses.
When the Taliban were driven out of this region almost two years ago, the United Nations and various relief agencies came in to help, but it is a struggle. There is no government to speak of in many towns and provincial warlords cause further destruction as they fight each other.
Rebuilding Homes
Afghans for Civil Society could only begin to rebuild homes once Chayes and others raised money. She received $18,000 from contributors in Massachusetts alone.
The villagers said they would do the actual work, but no one showed up for work the first day. And then the villagers wanted bigger, more elaborate houses than they had before.
The foundation stone was a big issue because the local governor, who is also the local warlord, wanted all of it for his own cement business.
"He is using his governmental power to protect that monopoly," Chayes said, waving her hand in frustration. So she went to visit the governor.
"Here I am, you know, getting into a tussle with a warlord governor of some kind of wild province in the south of Afghanistan. It's sort of like living in a movie," said Chayes. She got the stone.
‘A Traumatized Country’
Chayes says sometimes life is frustrating. There's not enough food to go around. The sorrow runs deep in Afghanistan. Most Afghans have lost a loved one in the last 25 years of intermittent warfare.
"This is traumatized country this is basically a country that is living collectively in post-traumatic stress disorder," said Chayes.
But there have been some changes. Chayes says it is somewhat better for women in some places.
"There are girls' schools open," she said. "You can see the traffic police holding up trucks full of gunmen so that the little girls can go to school and women are teachers, are able to join the work force in some small numbers."
In Akokolacha, life has improved. Afghans for Civil Society is now teaching literacy.The village has a visiting nurse and the local mosque and the houses have been rebuilt.
Chayes said people here, however, lack faith that there will be any lasting support for them.
They have "no sense of a future, no ability to make long-term relationships," she said. "That's all present in Afghanistan as a society."
Because she's an American, Chayes said, Afghans tend to see dollar signs when they see her. She hopes that in time they will see Americans as people who care — and that Americans are not on one side and Muslims on the other.
"One of my main inspirations is my father, who once said that he didn't see anything wrong with holding the United States up to its own highest standards," said Chayes. "And I think that view of the best in what America can be in terms of being a global citizen is a lot of what has inspired me in my life, I think."
And so Sarah Chayes is World News Tonight's Person of the Week.
