MaximsNewsNetwork: AFGHANISTAN INTERNATIONAL PEACE DAY: KHALED HOSSEINI, UNHCR AMBASSADOR

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MaximsNewsNetwork
September 20, 2009

MaximsNewsNetwork: 19 September 2009 - UNAMA: In what aims to be the most ambitious peace campaign Afghanistan has seen, UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador and acclaimed author Khaled Hosseini (The Kite Runner) takes part in a kite-flying event near Kabul, while a polio drive aims to immunize millions of children in Afghanistan's most dangerous areas. 21 September is the International Day of Peace.
This years month-long campaign for the International Day of Peace (21 September) in Afghanistan comes at a time of heightened conflict but aims nonetheless to be the most ambitious and determined peace effort that Afghanistan has seen.

As part of the campaign, hundreds of children and adults, many of them returned refugees, took part in a kite-flying event in Kabul to draw attention to the continuing need for peace.

Among the participants: Acclaimed author and goodwill envoy for the UN refugee agency, Khaled Hosseini, on a five-day visit to Afghanistan to highlight the need for peace to enable the safe and sustainable return of displaced Afghans from Iran and Pakistan.

Over 4.3 million Afghans have returned home with UNHCRs assistance since 2002. But this year, the annual figure has only recently passed 52,000.

SOUNDBITE (English) Khaled Hossaini, Author and UNHCR Goodwill/Peace Ambassador:
You know these people are some of the most vulnerable people in Afghanistan; theyre faceless, theyre voiceless, they feel lost in the bigger story of whats going on in Afghanistan, and they dont feel like anybody speaks about them. So my hope is that I can go back to the West and raise awareness and keep the plight of Afghan returnees on the public consciousness and on the radar.

The author of The Kite Runner left Afghanistan as a boy and was resettled in the United States. This was Hossainis second visit since being appointed as UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador in 2006.

SOUNDBITE (English) Khaled Hossaini, Author and UNHCR Goodwill/Peace Ambassador:
I dont believe that we can bring security back to Afghanistan purely by engaging the insurgents on the battlefield. We have to engage them in the civil sector, and win that war of propaganda as it were. We have to convince the Afghan people by we I mean the international community that theres genuinely something at stake for them in this conflict, that there is a better day ahead, and that the end, the outcome of this conflict is that there will be roads, that there will be hospitals, there will be schools and that there will be jobs and livelihoods and opportunity. Were fighting a war against poverty as much as were fighting.

UNHCR produced over 2,500 kites and dispatched them to its offices around the country as part of its contribution to Peace Day.

SOUNDBITE (English) Khaled Hossaini, Author and UNHCR Goodwill/Peace Ambassador:
The World Peace Day has resulted last year in a 70 percent drop in security incidents; over the last two years, World Peace Day has led to the vaccination of I think something like three million children. And sometimes symbolic gestures are very powerful. It sends a powerful message, the message that there is a growing need, particularly at the very difficult time in Afghan history, that theres a growing need for peace. That is a relevant and important message and Im happy to be part of it.

This years peace campaign also featured a polio immunization drive aiming to reach millions of children in some of the most insecure areas in the country.

The immunization campaign comes shortly after Afghanistans health authorities reported a new case of the polio virus in the West of the country. It is part of an ongoing effort to eradicate polio in Afghanistan one of just four countries in the world still affected by the crippling disease.

SOUNDBITE (English) Catherine Mbengue, UNICEF Representative in Afghanistan:
We want to again, all the UN family, UNICEF, WHO, and the rest of the UN family, really want to appeal to all again to provide peace to the children of this country, to provide peace to all of us, so that we can really finish the job of polio eradication. Its possible; but we need peace.

More than 15,000 health workers were dispatched to travel house to house in eight provinces Ghor, Farah, Uruzgan, Helmand, Kandahar, Khost, Kunar and Nangarhar and vaccinate children under five years old.

In Ghur province, this is the seventh such immunization drive.

SOUNDBITE (Dari) Dr. Nabi Yagana, Head of Public Health-Ghur Province:
In every campaign we vaccinate around 160,000 children by house-to-house visit.

Afghanistans peace campaigns have become annual events since their launch in 2007. The campaigns are entirely apolitical and open to involvement by any individual or organization. They serve to promote openings for reconciliation and humanitarian access.

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