1682 transcript:

Interview:

Man in Blue: Translation - As I told you, the water department of ICRC has planned to drill a deep well in this area to support water for district 15, which 350 – 400,000 people have left, because they have a problem with accessing water. In this case, we’d like to drill another deep well.

Scene with women and children:

Teachers: You - not just you but your whole family - should wash yourselves once a week with soap and you should take a shower because all the dirt on your body will then fall into a well and in that way, in addition to your bodies, you’ll be cleaning the streets and neighborhoods.

As you can see all this dirt goes under here down to this underground well.

Interview:

Woman in headscarf:  Translation - We have a project from ICRC all over district 8 and Kabul city – we’re working here to improve plumbing for people in every house, in order to clean the environment, and decrease diseases here.

Classroom:

Adult: See, he brings his sheep to eat here. That's good, isn't it?

Children: Yes, it’s good.

Adult: Do you see this kid going home? God forbid he touches this, because if he touches the mine it will explode and kill all of us.

Adult: Do you understand?

Children: Yes. Yes, sir.

Adult: If he touches it, he will have acted badly, won't he?

Children: Yes, he would be acting badly.

Interview with two children:

Child: They went to graze their sheep. Then a mine exploded, destroying their legs and hands.

Interview:

Woman in white: Translation - My name is Nadia, I’ve worked here about 8 months. I lost my leg – because of a mine.

Interview:

 Man in patterned jumper: Translation - That’s the tragedy that we have to face. Different ethnic groups were fighting each other, and laid mines for each other. They left the area, but they left their weapons – they remain in the area. Now who’s suffering? The small children. Who’s losing their lives? Small kids – who were completely unaware of this war.

Interview:

Red Cross Worker: Yeah, it’s our policy to try not only to give rehabilitation, but social reintegration. The best start is to train disabled people to become medical workers and rehabilitators – for this reason, all the physiotherapists, the nurses, orthopedic technicians, are all disabled themselves.

Interviewer: When do you see an end to the problem of mines in Afghanistan?

Red Cross Worker: It’s difficult to say, but it seems the mines are still very many. To put mines  there is easy – to remove them takes a lot of time, so I think for the next, at least 20, 30 years, there’ll still be mine accidents.

Interviewers: You’ve been working now for over 13 years. Is it a happy place, or a sad place to work?

Red Cross Worker: Oh no it’s not a sad place, it’s sad to see that so many people are disabled, so many children, women, men are disabled- that’s very sad. But it’s a place, we’ve tried to turn this into a place where people start a new life, so they start again - they start walking again, moving again, and then they start new jobs, education, vocational training – so it’s a place of hope, not sadness only.

Interview:

Interviewer: So you deal specifically with problems with the women, how are things now, are they easier now the Taliban have gone?

Female Red Cross Worker: Before, when the Taliban were here, access to women was almost impossible. Um, the way that we run the hygiene promotion programmes now in Afghanistan – we hire a group of women, hygiene promoters, that visit women and children in their own homes, and this never would have been possible before, during the Taliban times.

Interview:

Man in Blue: (In Farsi) According to the ICRC's plans, the water department of ICRC has planned to drill a deep well in this area to support water for district 15, which 350 – 400,000 people have left, because they have a problem with accessing water. In this case, we’d like to drill another deep well.

Interviewer: Can you explain to me briefly what you said in English please?

Man in Blue: As I told you, the water department of ICRC has planned to drill a deep well in this area to support water for district 15, which 350 – 400,000 people have left, because they have a problem with accessing water. In this case, we’d like to drill another deep well.

Interview:

Woman in headscarf: (in Farsi) We have a project from ICRC all over district 8 and Kabul city – we’re working here to improve hygiene for people in every house, in order to clean the environment, and decrease diseases here.

Interviewer: And briefly what you said in English?

Woman in headscarf: We have a project from ICRC all over district 8 and Kabul city – we’re working here to improve plumbing for people in every house, in order to clean the environment, and decrease diseases here.

Interview:

Woman in white: My name is Nadia, I’ve worked here about 8 months. I lost my leg – because of a mine.

Interviewer: Could she tell us in her own language – do you understand English? Could you tell us in your own language what happened for you to lose your leg.

Woman in white: (Speaking in Farsi)

Interviewer: Could she tell us in a longer sentence now, what happened that made you lose your leg?

Interpreter: (Speaking in Farsi)

Woman in white: (Speaking in Farsi)

Interpreter: When I was walking on the street, there was a mine – I didn’t realise, and I stepped on it, and lost my leg.

Interview:

Interviewer: …this morning, a room full of children being taught about mines. Can you explain to me the irony of teaching small children about such explosives that have been laid there by their own people effectively.

Man in patterned jumper: That’s the tragedy that we have to face. Different ethnic groups were fighting each other, and laid mines for each other. They left the area, but they left their weapons – they remain in the area. Now who’s suffering? The small children. Who’s losing their lives? Small kids – who are completely unaware of this war.

Interviewer: And again, briefly in Dari?

Man in patterned jumper: (Speaks in Farsi)

Classroom:

Teacher: These mines have a ring that many girls think are bracelets. Do you see that? Do you see that? These are bombs that have rings. You have to be careful.