Sharing

Dear friend and contributor of our Sharing Campaign,

We extend our heartfelt gratitude to you once again for your invaluable support during these challenging times in Afghanistan. Your contribution continues to play a vital role in making a difference, and we encourage you to help in any way possible, even by only spreading the word. As highlighted by the Representative of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in the country, Fran Equiza, roughly 90 percent of the population in Afghanistan is on the brink of poverty “and children bear the brunt of it” (UN News).

Prioritizing Girls: Given the current circumstances and the specific challenges faced by girls, we have intensified our efforts to prioritize their needs and provide them with the necessary support. We are in the process of developing new activities such as "Home Circus" to overcome their logistical challenges and are actively working on creating local facilities based on our available resources and local possibilities. We are also planning additional initiatives like Girls' Week. As the funds from the Sharing Campaign are limited, our local managing team has made the decision to ensure that at least 70 percent of the food resources are dedicated to the girls. We acknowledge the challenging situation and have had to make various compromises, such as canceling a large Mother's Day celebration due to the authorities' unattainable permissions. The event was planned for all the mothers of our 300+ children to witness their performances.

Herat Center: Presently, we have approximately 200 girls and 110 boys attending our daily programs at the Herat Center. Due to limited funds and inflationary pressures, we can only provide lunch for around 100 children each day. Our management team has implemented a system to prioritize the most vulnerable children, ensuring that they receive lunch on different days and in different shifts. Parents are informed about the schedule, enabling them to plan accordingly. We genuinely wish we could do much more for all these children. However, it's important to note that there is no shortage of fun and joy for any of our girls and boys. The center serves as an oasis of enjoyment, providing them with the best moments of their lives.

27 Social Circus Teams: We now have 27 Social Circus teams, including our Herat Center, operating across 12 provinces in Afghanistan. Each team comprises numerous children, and the youth leaders are actively training them while organizing public performances and workshops for other children as well. To learn more about the 27 teams, please visit www.mmccglobal.org/acn, and if you would like to support their initiatives, please visit www.globalgiving.org/projects/backtolife.

Upcoming Distribution: As we prepare for our next food distribution to the most underprivileged children and families at the end of this month (during the Eid celebration), we kindly request you to share the following link with your network of friends and acquaintances, informing them about how they can participate in and support our Sharing Campaign: www.globalgiving.org/projects/sharing.

Once again, we extend our deepest appreciation for your support and dedication to our cause. Together, we can bring hope and positive change to the lives of the children and families in Afghanistan.

With profound gratitude,

Dear Friend,

We apologize for the delay in updating you about the progress in our work in Afghanistan. We have been busy with additional work of adjusting ourselves to the new situation and developing the most effective way of continuing and expanding our work in Afghanistan. The good news is that now we are active in 22 locations in 9 provinces with various social, educational, and entertaining activities for hundreds of children implemented mostly by our youth team leaders.

MMCC´s Herat Center: Our Herat center has become a source of hope and fun for hundreds of children, especially girls. The kitchen in this center, with your financial support, keeps preparing food and creating a beautiful, joyful, productive, and healing environment for the children, especially girls. Here you can see some photos and read a newly published article from Charlie Faulkner, of “The Times” who visited our Herat center: Circus School Gives Afghan Girls Laughter In Dark Times: https://mmccglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Times-scaled.jpg During the Eid Celebration, we provided food presents for all the 300 girls and boys in our center to bring to their families. We always try our best to add different social, festive, and human values to the plain traditional food distribution where the only focus is on food material to survive.

Youth Network: Besides the very successful Herat center´s activities, we now facilitate, supervise, and support 21 super active youth team leaders in 9 provinces who are running weekly social circus activities for almost 1000 children. The 9 provinces are Kabul, Nangarhar, Bamyan, Khost, Herat, Laghman, Balkh, Ghor, and Konar. The activities include various social circus and social games as well as different arts and social skills. The 21 team leaders independently work closely in and with their own local communities and are supervised and mentored by our higher management.

Winter on the way: We will be soon preparing for the winter by providing and distributing winterization packages which include food and warm clothes as well. We are so grateful for all the sponsors in particular those monthly donors who make it possible for us to plan ahead with confidence. We hope more people join our “Sharing” campaign, especially as monthly donors to help many more children and families in this coming winter.

We hope to bring more food and fun to many more children and families with your help in spreading the word and sharing this report and this link: www.globalgiving.org/projects/Sharing in your network and on your social media.

Thanks for your support and your generosity especially in these difficult times. 

Dear Friend,

We highly appreciate your support, especially as this time it is not only educational entertainment but also providing food for underprivileged families suffering the starvation in Afghanistan. The United Nations, Save the Children, and IRC in separate reports this week confirmed that nearly 20 million people in Afghanistan, almost half the population, are facing acute hunger. Almost 10 million children are going hungry in Afghanistan now.

Lunches in MMCC´s Herat Center:

We keep running the kitchen in our Herat Center in the western province of the country, 5 days per week. Our center provides activities such as social games and social circus as well as different school subject classes for boys and girls separately in morning and afternoon shifts. A number of up to over 200 girls and boys per day have been attending the activities and enjoying the nutritious hot meal.

Distribution of Happy food presents in different provinces:

In the last 3 weeks, MMCC has distributed 1000 happy food presents for children which included some children´s favorite items such as dates and cookies as well. These packages have been distributed in 6 provinces (Kabul, Herat, Nangarhar, Khost, Bamyan, and Ghor), in a total of 11 locations. We identified the underprivileged families to receive these presents for example in some of the IDP camps. The distributions were organized and managed by our youth team leaders, and supervised and monitored by MMCC staff in Kabul and the provinces. Usually, the adults receive any distribution items but this time the happy kids themselves received the presents and proudly brought them home. The distribution events had entertaining social games and social circus activities which made it all more like a celebration.

Performances & Competitions:

In the last 5 months, over 20 bigger Social Circus events and competitions for hundreds of children and youth in 6 provinces were organized. These competitions were conceptualized, developed, and managed by the youth team leaders and have had various forms and subjects such as juggling, funny balloon games, talent show, poetical contest, acrobatics, and tug of war (rope pulling).

We hope to bring more food and fun to many more children and families with your help in spreading the word and sharing this report and this link: www.globalgiving.org/projects/Sharing in your network and on your social media.