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00:00:09:19-00:00:14:20 TITLE: This Is My Destiny
00:00:17:00 TEXT: Afghanistan produces 93 percent of the world’s opium and heroin. Profits from the trade are one of the main sources of funding for Taliban insurgents.
00:00:23:02 TEXT: While much of the deadly crop is exported, some 200,000 Afghans have now become addicts.
00:00:31:10 TEXT: During the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation and President Najibullah’s communist rule, the ultra-modern architecture of Kabul’s science and cultural centre stood as a monument to socialist progress.
00:00:38:15 TEXT: But the building became a fortress on the frontline of the bloody civil war of the 1990s. Its marble walls are now pock-marked with bullet holes and hundreds of drug addicts use its galleries to smoke and shoot up heroin.
00:00:59:14-00:01:06:22 Ekhtyar Gol [singing] There will be no words of compromise. I will be angry until judgement day.
00:01:07:23 TITLE Ekhtyar Gol
00:01:11:24-00:01:27:04 Ekhtyar Gol [singing] You shattered my pride. I didn’t know what you were. You vanished unharmed. You killed me with embarrassment.
00:01:28:24-00:01:55:06 Ekhtyar Gol Oh God, save us from this disaster. From this addiction…There was factional fighting here and this place was the frontline. It was the frontline and there was fighting. Do you see the hill? They were firing rockets from there.
00:02:19:05-00:02:32:00 Ekhtyar Gol It was a very beautiful place, a grand place, if you went there you enjoyed it. Good offices, beautiful sofas. A very luxurious place. It was a place of advisors and those people of a high rank.
00:02:56:24-00:03:08:04 Ekhtyar Gol There was fighting, shooting. One party was trying to capture the place. The next party didn’t let them. Due to the fighting this place changed to a ruin.
00:03:30:24 TITLE AsefOutreach workerZendagi Naween Drug Centre
00:03:35:18-00:03:43:00 Asef We are going in. I’m going to see my patients. I have lots of patients here. I have 700 patients here.
00:03:53:07-00:03:56:06 Addict The doctor has come. Get the syringe from him.
00:03:56:14-00:04:10:18 Asef Shooting up is the maximum hit. It means a person is killing himself. What is the need for this? Everyone comes asking me for a syringe. “Give me…” There is no need for this.
00:04:11:03 Addict I said this person made me stop shooting up. You have a clinic right?
00:04:15:01-00:04:28:14 Asef Yes, we have our own shelter, dormitory, DIC (drop in clinic), patients come in morning to study, take a bath, have a haircut, wash their clothes, take lessons, play billiards…
00:04:29:01-00:04:32:06 Addict Doctor, where should we register?
00:04:31:03-00:04:33:12 Asef Register in Zendagi Naween (treatment centre).
00:04:32:14-00:04:36:05 Addict I swear to God, I have waited in the queue three times but my turn hasn’t come.
00:04:35:11-00:04:47:14 Asef Well, I have around 6000 patients. For once just think: If you divide 6000 patients between 10 beds. How long will it take for a person’s turn to come? How could 10 beds be enough?
00:04:46:01-00:04:55:17 Addict 10 beds is nothing. There are 6000 patients and only 10 beds! What’s the point?
00:04:54:15-00:05:05:07 Asef Your problem is my problem. Our youths have many problems. Here we have a lot of young people. There is no one around 50 or 60.
00:05:14:00-00:05:24:09 Addict I became addicted in Gereshk (Helmand province). I was in the fields. The cultivation process makes you addicted.
00:05:30:08-00:05:55:24 Addict We have a lot of problems, because our country is the supplier, and another problem we have, the main smugglers who distribute the drugs…don’t get upset, but they are people from our places of authority. So the main thing the government should do is cut the roots.
00:05:56:07-00:06:17:19 Addict The government, instead of arresting those who sell, the wholesalers and the small traders, they pick on a couple of addicts. Many times I’ve seen that military people have come here and taken money from me. He took money. He took my wristwatch. What does this mean?
00:06:21:06-00:06:42:03 Addict If they don’t stop our generation, tomorrow the next generation, the ones at school now, will also be affected. I do believe this. In general, in fact, the life that I see here, doesn’t really count as life.
00:06:47:15-00:06:54:19 Asef What are you doing here my child?
Child Just watching
Asef What is there to watch? Who are these people here?
Child They are heroin addicts.
00:06:55:01-00:07:03:07 Asef Is it necessary for you to come here at your age? Look, most of them here shoot up drugs.
00:07:04:18-00:07:21:02 Asef You might pick up a needle and scratch your hands or elsewhere, and they can be infected with HIV, Hepatitis B & Hepatitis C. These can be the problems and illnesses amongst these patients. Alright my son? Don’t ever come here. Go quickly.
00:07:35:22-00:07:53:13 Ekhtyal Gol When I received a salary I lived the good life. I went to the bathroom and shaved every day. I’m not lying when I say girls looked at me saying: “What a handsome boy he is!”
00:07:57:15-00:08:18:01 Ekhtyal Gol I had a family and I was fine. I was working with the security department. I worked for the former president himself, Doctor Najibullah. God bless him. We were from the same province. I was his bodyguard too. I was promoted from Captain to Major.
00:08:18:06-00:08:44:06 EkhtyalGol Then the civil war started. At war I left the house to take the families to a safe place. Then my brother said I had pushed my luck by being daring. And he told me: “Dear brother, you have taken enough risks. The war is on. There is chaos. There are bullets everywhere, and the boys of the area might hit you.”
00:08:51:17-00:09:05:22 Ekhtyal Gol When I came out of my house a PK (machine gun) bullet hit me. It hit my head and it came out through my mouth, the power of the bullet threw me high in the air and then I fell back down again.
00:09:06:07-00:09:30:24 Ekhtyal Gol I bled at home for three days and nights during the fighting. There was fighting. The roads were blocked. My nephew was a doctor in the hospital for intelligence employees and for six months I couldn’t eat and was fed by a pipe with liquids. After that I could hardly sleep. A friend of mine cam to the hospital. “Take this opium and you will be able to sleep. Come and have a smoke of powder.”
00:09:31:00 Ekhtyal Gol I smoked and that was it. I could sleep and my pain disappeared. I didn’t understand that this stuff could ruin a human being.
00:09:45:16 TEXT Drug rehabilitation drop in centre
00:10:17:19-00:10:30:02 Doctor Ekhtyar Gol, look. How much have you decreased your drug since coming here?
EG Before I was smoking three times a day, now I only smoke at night.
00:10:30:08-00:10:49:16 Doctor The promises we have made to one another, if you honour them, we won’t betray them. We will stand by our promise…
EG You helped me a lot.
Nurse Register his attendance.
Doc It’s all good. There’s no problem. It’s all good, there’s no problem.
00:10:49:21-00:11:11:10 EG My family hasn’t tolerated me as much as you have. I pray that God rewards you.
Doc Okay. Bring him a cup of tea.
Nurse Sure.
Addict I’m sick. If there’s a doctor around, my blood pressure is low
00:11:29:0300:11:48:24 EG How are you? Thank you for this.
Doctor The film is also yours, get up and watch.
Addict It’s not.
Doctor Look at the film my son. There. This is it.
00:11:51:05-00:12:20:18 Addict No, I know my films. Give me my own films…
Doctor Do you like romantic films, war films?What kind of films do you like?
Addict War films
Doctor You like war films then?
Addict I was in the army for five and a half years.
Doctor Why not romantic films?
Addict I’ve done a lot of loving…
Doctor You’ve done a lot of loving…Now you’ve had enough of it…
00:12:38:14-00:12:47:22 Nurse [singing] Salt is salty, don’t rub it in my fresh wound. You killed me; don’t go spreading the word around town.
00:13:47:10-00:13:58:18 EG I wish to start a happy life, although I haven’t married yet I’d like to marry. I want to live happily and I want a life of honour and pride with my family.
00:14:02:13 TEXT 2 weeks later
00:14:07:02-00:14:27:05 EG Because I quit my addiction 3 to 4 times and then smoked again my family doesn’t trust me. So I came to the treatment centre, to Zendagi Naween. I came here, I had insomnia, I had convulsions for 3 to 4 nights, the doctors helped me very much, they gave me medicine.
00:14:27:17-00:15:05:24 EG Now, thank God, I am very healthy my state of addiction is over. I have a new and happy life. I am very happy. I will be careful not to get high again. I will start a new life and I will find a job somewhere.If there is a job, employment and a salary. Why choose addiction?
00:15:08:18-00:15:26:04 TEXT Three hours drive from the holy city of Mazar-e-Sharif, past farmland still littered with landmines from thirty years of war; and the mountain lairs of bandits and insurgents. Lies the village of Jangal Saseq. Once a green area encircled by small trees, years of drought have turned it into desert.
00:15:27:19-00:15:44:00 TEXT The people in the village are Turkmen, who make up 3 per cent of Afghanistan’s ethnic mosaic. The main thing that binds the villagers, beyond frequent illness, unemployment and suffering from high food prices, is opium.15 of the 16 families in the village are addicted.
00:16:29:10 TEXT Dagen Toordi
00:16:34:13-00:16:54:24 DT I take care of him to earn a reward from God. His father has to work. I take care of him until the father returns from work. This year the prices are high, it’s a tough year. I take care of him so he can go o work.
00:17:06:24 TEXT Murad
00:17:11:09-00:17:35:20 DT His mother died a year ago. I have been taking care of him for a couple of months. He can’t go with his father because he can’t walk. Who can take care of him? Someone has to.I give him this much opium. When he yawns I know to give him opium.
00:18:05:13-00:18:28:08 DT When he was a small baby his mother gave it to him so she could work. To be able to weave carpets. They would put him in the cradle and put a bit in his mouth, that’s how they could weave carpets, eat…If you give it to the baby, he calms down and rests. That’s how they get used to it.
00:18:35:18-00:18:58:04 DT I give him opium every day. If I don’t give him opium he will cry, sweat and get a runny nose. He loses control.
Interpreter Is he an addict?
DT He’s addicted. When the time comes if I don’t give it to him he cries and loses control.
00:19:08:05-00:19:12:07 DT I gave it to him a short while ago, it hasn’t taken effect yet.
00:19:21:03 Murad (baby) Grandma!
00:19:48:21-00:20:06:08 DT Is your ear aching? How old will you be when you walk?
Murad “Tokko” (chickpeas) “Tokko”
DT If there are chickpeas you start to walk fast then. How old will you be when you walk?
M “Tokko”
00:20:06:24-00:20:30:19 DT Will you be able to walk when you are 9?
M “Tokko”
DT Show me how old you are like this.
M “Tokko”
DT Show me like this.
M “Tokko”
DT Toghoz? (Turkmen for 9)
M Grandmother. “Tokko”
DT We will go get some for you.
00:20:48:01-00:21:04:13 DT See what opium does! See how lively he is!
Man (family member) She says: “Opium made him high” Now opium has had an affect on him.
00:21:06:13-00:21:16:00 DT Whenever we give him opium he becomes E. When the effects have worn off he lies there and can’t move. He has no strength left.
00:21:19:05-00:21:25:03 Interpreter Does the opium give him energy and strength? Does it make him happy?
DT Yes, opium gives him strength
00:21:35:03-00:21:55:03 DT There…It’s very close to you, catch it. Puff. You caught fire, blow it out! Puff! It came this way.
00:22:28:01-00:22:56:18 Interpreter Can you tell me how many people there are in her family?
(villager) There are 2
Interpreter Let her say it.
(villager) The daughter and the mother.
(woman) 7 people
Interpreter Which girl or boy eats opium?
(woman) [pointing] This one.
00:23:01:13-00:23:16:14 Interpreter Why do you give opium to your daughter?
(woman) She won’t let me weave this, if I can’t do this I can’t earn a living.
(villager) We can’t earn a living, we give opium to make carpets, but we know opium is bad.
00:23:39:18-00:23:45:10 DT I have no teeth now. When I had teeth I was very beautiful.
00:23:57:14-00:24:15:24 DT My husband gave it to me the first time. My children were young and I fell ill. Every time he gave it to me I gained the strength to make bread and tea. Because of that they gave it to me and it calmed down my pain.
00:24:16:00-00:24:26:04 DT That’s why he gave it to me. There were no doctors here to consult, there are no doctors here now.
00:24:29:18-00:24:47:11 DT There is no work here, if we find opium, we smoke it. Otherwise we just sit around. I spend my days playing with the boy you saw. There is no other work to do.
00:25:14:02-00:25:37:19 DT The boys that are working are my sons, but the soldiers don’t allow them to work. The soldiers have kicked them out of the work area. The soldiers told them not to collect scrap metal. There’s no other work here. If there is a job, first they buy flour for bread then they buy opium and bring it to me.
00:25:44:19-00:26:02:04 DT I don’t have money to smoke now. When I don’t have opium, I can’t do anything. What can you do? My heart explodes. My heart tells me to cast myself into fire and water.
00:26:33:21 TEXT Nazar Ghol
00:26:37:16-00:27:03:17 Interpreter Is the money you earn from carpet weaving enough to live on?
(man) Say: “It’s not”.
Interpreter Is the money you earn from carpet weaving enough to live on?
(woman) It’s not enough. We are in debt.
Int So you are in debt?
(woman) From last year until now, we’ve been in debt.
Int Why are you in debt?
(man) Say: “We need to buy things to eat”.
(woman) Because we buy things to eat. We buy flour, we buy rice, we buy oil… We need tea and matches to live.
00:27:03:23-00:27:30:11 Int How much are you in debt because of opium?
(man) No, she doesn’t understand about that. She just sits at home. How could she know?
(man) Turkmen people have the character of sheep. If you bring her something she cooks it and feeds it to you.
00:27:31:03-00:27:55:11 (man) If she was dying of hunger, she wouldn’t complain about not bringing her something to eat. She keeps her honour, she keeps my honour. I am telling you, around 35 to 40 years our life if she dies may God never permit it my life would be very bitter
00:27:56:05-00:28:18:09 (man) No girl or boy could take her place.
Interpreter Is it expensive to find a wife for your son here?
(man) If I have some money I will get him one.
(woman) I don’t have money to get him one.
00:28:26:13-00:29:00:20 (man) If you don’t give 400,000 or 450,000 Afs ($800USD), you can’t get a Turkmen girl. The other tradition is giving one sack wheat one sack rice you give 4 Ser (14kg) of oil 12 sets of clothes one robe you give them 10 or 20 sheep. It’s very difficult to marry here.
00:29:07:05-00:29:22:19 Interpreter For example, if someone asks for your daughter’s hand
(man) Yes
Interpreter And you realise the boy takes opium,
(man) Yes
Interpreter would you give your daughter to him?
(man) No
Interpreter Why?
(man) We…My daughter would not like him.
00:29:23:16-00:29:39:24 Interpreter Will you ask her opinion if someone asks for her hand?
(man) How could we not ask her? If you don’t ask her, when you take her to the judge, the judge couldn’t tie the knot.
00:29:41:16-00:30:07:13 Interpreter So it’s not forced then?
(man) No it’s not forced. He looks at the men and girls with the same eye the ruler of our country, God willing he might bring justice.
00:30:17:16-00:30:29:13 [song] I have laboured for 9 years. How long will you hang your head in sadness?
00:30:32:15-00:30:53:14 TEXT The Wakhan corridor is one of the most remote and inaccessible places on earth: its winters are long and harsh and cultivating the thin rocky soil is a constant struggle.Nearly one in five babies dies soon after they are born and their mothers are more likely to die giving birth to them than anywhere else in the world. For many, the nearest medical facility is several days walk away.
00:30:54:18-00:31:22:13 TEXT But the Wakhan’s long international borders mean it is still a major drug smuggling route and opium is still readily available.The ‘Omid’ (Hope) Centre is the only clinic for opium addicts in the Wakhan corridor. It uses a grassroots approach centring on community involvement and support.Over 800 addicts have been successfully treated so far.
00:31:38:05 TEXT Ghorban BeigumSocial Worker‘Omid’ (Hope) Drug Clinic
00:31:48:21 TEXT Khoshan
00:31:53:22 TEXT Shakila
00:31:56:16-00:32:21:22 Ghorban Beigum How old are you?
Khoshan I don’t know how old I am.
GB Why did you start smoking opium?
K I was pregnant with this daughter.
GB You got pregnant then…
K Then when she was born I felt very unwell.
GB You said: “Now I have decided to go to the Omid (Hope) Centre in Khandud to quit opium.”
00:32:22:08-00:32:33:11 GB When you go there, you will stay there for 12 days and you will stop opium. Then when you come back home, if you suffer from those pains and illnesses again what will you do?
00:33:15:10-00:33:31:07 Child All the livestock are in the land and have eaten the broadbeans. The bull and the calf are in the broadbean patch…
K All in the broadbean patch?
Child What now? They stamped on them.
K No, of course not.
00:33:39:05-00:34:06:15 K My husband is in the clinic in Khandud. It’s been many days. It’s been a week today. A week. I am a woman left here. There is nothing here. I have to ask the neighbours for bread. I have to ask for tea. Bowls, bowls…There are no bowls at home. Even borrowed them to come here and drink tea.
00:34:07:09-00:34:33:16 K This is my destiny. Son. Pass your uncle so you have space.
Son Come here.
K What is there to laugh about? The first thing that will help me is taking the opium out of my body.
00:34:37:11-00:34:56:08 K They should give me treatment in the clinic, medicine, injections, in the clinic. Lots of bread there. Tea there. Lots of oil there. Lots of things to eat. I go and put my feet up along with my baby daughter.
00:35:03:00-00:35:29:04 Interpreter Will you worry about the children left behind whilst you are in the clinic?
K No, no I worry about myself. For myself! Alright, alright…I get anxious.
Interpreter What makes you anxious?
K I will get worried: “There is no bread there, no tea there. There is nobody to give them bread.”
00:35:30:15-00:35:43:24 K My heart is in pieces. My heart. I’m telling you, if you smoke opium you will be full of anguish. I’m full of anguish.
00:37:13:00-00:37:36:23 K I smoked a lot. I smoked and smoked and my head feels heavy. If there is no opium and she doesn’t smoke she will cry all night long.
00:37:39:09-00:37:45:15 K She is an opium addict. Help my child.
00:38:02:09-00:38:22:22 K One and a half years ago my daughter died. My baby boy was 2 or 3 days old when he died. I was still breast feeding him. He didn’t suffer the pain. I don’t know what illness he had. There was no doctor. No medicine that year.
00:38:26:18-00:38:44:21 K My daughter gave a cry and died. One day she fell ill. One day she gave a cry gone. My heart is devastated. I got very upset over that daughter.
00:38:47:04-00:39:02:09 K I dug that daughter’s grave. From that day, my heart sank. People took me away. People said: “How could you?” My daughter was this big.
00:39:16:21-00:39:30:10 K She had a stomach pain so I thought opium would be helpful: “I should give her a puff to calm down her pain so she won’t die”
00:39:45:00-00:39:51:16 K I take the baby to the clinic too. So she will be free from this pain too.
00:40:05:09 TEXT Two days until the clinic.
00:40:12:14-00:40:33:16 K My hand is aching. Nothing but weakness. If there was opium I could get a puff. Then my legs wouldn’t be aching and neither would my stomach.
00:40:35:19-00:40:54:24 K I’ll soon be in the clinic. She’s pulling her ear. In my head I’m happy that the car might come and take me there.
00:41:05:18-00:41:25:12 K I’m laughing because I’m going to the clinic. My husband is also there.
GB Listen. Listen.
K I’ve been listening to you a lot. From the first day…
GB I’m telling you again. The things you have agreed to, from top to bottom, are all here.
K Yes.
00:41:35:01-00:41:41:23 K Hey brother! My daughter Stan Beigum is in your hands. At night Bakhmal will come.
GB Come this way…
00:41:54:19-00:42:12:13 K I’m with Ghorban Beigum. I came with her. She is putting me on the list. I’m drowning in my addiction. It’s for my own good.
00:42:19:16-00:42:48:05 [singing] We came to this house for happiness. Oh, you are the light of my eyes and vision. Your affection is in my heart. I yelled from mountain high: “I came to this house for happiness.” Be happy, we came for happiness. We came to this house for happiness. On the mountain high, two stars above: “I came to this house for happiness.”
00:43:00:24-00:43:29:23 [singing] Oh, God is giving us a new life: “I came to this house for happiness.” Be happy, we came for happiness. We came to this house for happiness.
Mahram Welcome our dear guests!
00:43:38:13-00:43:44:14 Nurse Sit right there.
GB This is a bed, every time you come in, you sleep on this
00:43:57:07-00:44:23:06 Male doctor What does this innocent baby understand? You made her an opium addict. Now you have come to the clinic, be aware and don’t give her opium again. If she has pain and you give her opium, she won’t feel pain. She will lie down unconscious but her pain will be prolonged. It will hurt her and slowly, day by day, she will become thin and malnourished.
00:44:31:12-00:44:37:03 Female doctor The opium that you smoke passes to your baby through your milk, you don’t really need to give her a puff as well.
00:44:45:17 Nurse (reading measurement) 38kg (6 stone)
00:44:59:01-00:45:20:08 Nurse So, what do you say, now you are here will your problem be sorted?
Village woman (Khoshan’s friend) Yes, God willing the problem will be sorted.
Nurse Will you quit opium?
(Khoshan’s friend) Yes, it’s enough of that.
Nurse You quit now, but when you go home…
(Khoshan’s friend) I may die if I smoke.
Nurse What will you do when the pain in your legs, guts and your shoulder starts to kick in again?
(Khoshan’s friend) In that state. If I die. It would be very good.
00:45:21:14-00:45:31:15 (Khoshan’s friend) It’s harmful for the soul. Harmful for your goods. It takes away your pride and grace. Your belongings disappear and you go door to door begging.
00:45:32:20-00:45:55:08 Nurse Now don’t cry. This is something that…you didn’t put enough thought into. If you were sick you should have gone to the doctor or hospital.
(Khoshan’s friend) There wasn’t… There wasn’t a doctor. My husband was in the army. I didn’t have a capable son. I had a brother in law but he didn’t take care of me.
00:46:02:06 TEXT (Men’s Ward)
00:46:12:10-00:46:36:21 Interpreter What’s your name?
Mahram Mahram
Interpreter Who are you to Khoshan?
Mahram She is my husband. (sniggering in the background) I’m her husband, she’s my wife. I was opium addict since childhood. My father was an opium addict. So was my grandfather. I became an opium addict.
00:46:37:15-00:47:07:12 Mahram Then when the clinic opened, I cam here to be admitted. When I first came here, I was very unwell. One day and one night, I wasn’t feeling myself. They gave me an injection. They gave me medicine. Slowly, slowly…Today is my eleventh day. Now, thank God, I’m better.
00:48:10:00-00:48:25:13 (Khoshan’s friend) My dear husband. My soul is leaving my body. I want to die beside you… I’m dying…My soul is leaving my body.
00:48:30:20-00:48:56:09 K My body is aching. My hand aches. Because of opium. My stomach is aching. Head.
00:49:02:09-00:49:14:20 K Because of opium. I was fine in the morning. Today I’m sick again.
00:49:34:08-00:49:41:20 K What?
Interpreter Aren’t you happy?
K I’m not. My heart is devastated.
00:49:45:09-00:50:07:09 TEXT After eleven days at the clinic, Khoshan and Shakila returned to their home and family.However the full process of recovery requires counselling and regular check-ups to prevent relapse.This can take up to two years.Ghorban Beigum and the team from the Omid Centre will be guiding Khoshan through this process…And perhaps helping her to rewrite her destiny.
00:50:09:10 TEXT The End
00:50:17:02 CREDITS
00:52:35:18 - -
00:00:09:19-00:00:14:20 TITLE: This Is My Destiny
00:00:17:00 TEXT: Afghanistan produces 93 percent of the world’s opium and heroin. Profits from the trade are one of the main sources of funding for Taliban insurgents.
00:00:23:02 TEXT: While much of the deadly crop is exported, some 200,000 Afghans have now become addicts.
00:00:31:10 TEXT: During the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation and President Najibullah’s communist rule, the ultra-modern architecture of Kabul’s science and cultural centre stood as a monument to socialist progress.
00:00:38:15 TEXT: But the building became a fortress on the frontline of the bloody civil war of the 1990s. Its marble walls are now pock-marked with bullet holes and hundreds of drug addicts use its galleries to smoke and shoot up heroin.
00:00:59:14-00:01:06:22 Ekhtyar Gol [singing] There will be no words of compromise. I will be angry until judgement day.
00:01:07:23 TITLE Ekhtyar Gol
00:01:11:24-00:01:27:04 Ekhtyar Gol [singing] You shattered my pride. I didn’t know what you were. You vanished unharmed. You killed me with embarrassment.
00:01:28:24-00:01:55:06 Ekhtyar Gol Oh God, save us from this disaster. From this addiction…There was factional fighting here and this place was the frontline. It was the frontline and there was fighting. Do you see the hill? They were firing rockets from there.
00:02:19:05-00:02:32:00 Ekhtyar Gol It was a very beautiful place, a grand place, if you went there you enjoyed it. Good offices, beautiful sofas. A very luxurious place. It was a place of advisors and those people of a high rank.
00:02:56:24-00:03:08:04 Ekhtyar Gol There was fighting, shooting. One party was trying to capture the place. The next party didn’t let them. Due to the fighting this place changed to a ruin.
00:03:30:24 TITLE AsefOutreach workerZendagi Naween Drug Centre
00:03:35:18-00:03:43:00 Asef We are going in. I’m going to see my patients. I have lots of patients here. I have 700 patients here.
00:03:53:07-00:03:56:06 Addict The doctor has come. Get the syringe from him.
00:03:56:14-00:04:10:18 Asef Shooting up is the maximum hit. It means a person is killing himself. What is the need for this? Everyone comes asking me for a syringe. “Give me…” There is no need for this.
00:04:11:03 Addict I said this person made me stop shooting up. You have a clinic right?
00:04:15:01-00:04:28:14 Asef Yes, we have our own shelter, dormitory, DIC (drop in clinic), patients come in morning to study, take a bath, have a haircut, wash their clothes, take lessons, play billiards…
00:04:29:01-00:04:32:06 Addict Doctor, where should we register?
00:04:31:03-00:04:33:12 Asef Register in Zendagi Naween (treatment centre).
00:04:32:14-00:04:36:05 Addict I swear to God, I have waited in the queue three times but my turn hasn’t come.
00:04:35:11-00:04:47:14 Asef Well, I have around 6000 patients. For once just think: If you divide 6000 patients between 10 beds. How long will it take for a person’s turn to come? How could 10 beds be enough?
00:04:46:01-00:04:55:17 Addict 10 beds is nothing. There are 6000 patients and only 10 beds! What’s the point?
00:04:54:15-00:05:05:07 Asef Your problem is my problem. Our youths have many problems. Here we have a lot of young people. There is no one around 50 or 60.
00:05:14:00-00:05:24:09 Addict I became addicted in Gereshk (Helmand province). I was in the fields. The cultivation process makes you addicted.
00:05:30:08-00:05:55:24 Addict We have a lot of problems, because our country is the supplier, and another problem we have, the main smugglers who distribute the drugs…don’t get upset, but they are people from our places of authority. So the main thing the government should do is cut the roots.
00:05:56:07-00:06:17:19 Addict The government, instead of arresting those who sell, the wholesalers and the small traders, they pick on a couple of addicts. Many times I’ve seen that military people have come here and taken money from me. He took money. He took my wristwatch. What does this mean?
00:06:21:06-00:06:42:03 Addict If they don’t stop our generation, tomorrow the next generation, the ones at school now, will also be affected. I do believe this. In general, in fact, the life that I see here, doesn’t really count as life.
00:06:47:15-00:06:54:19 Asef What are you doing here my child?
Child Just watching
Asef What is there to watch? Who are these people here?
Child They are heroin addicts.
00:06:55:01-00:07:03:07 Asef Is it necessary for you to come here at your age? Look, most of them here shoot up drugs.
00:07:04:18-00:07:21:02 Asef You might pick up a needle and scratch your hands or elsewhere, and they can be infected with HIV, Hepatitis B & Hepatitis C. These can be the problems and illnesses amongst these patients. Alright my son? Don’t ever come here. Go quickly.
00:07:35:22-00:07:53:13 Ekhtyal Gol When I received a salary I lived the good life. I went to the bathroom and shaved every day. I’m not lying when I say girls looked at me saying: “What a handsome boy he is!”
00:07:57:15-00:08:18:01 Ekhtyal Gol I had a family and I was fine. I was working with the security department. I worked for the former president himself, Doctor Najibullah. God bless him. We were from the same province. I was his bodyguard too. I was promoted from Captain to Major.
00:08:18:06-00:08:44:06 EkhtyalGol Then the civil war started. At war I left the house to take the families to a safe place. Then my brother said I had pushed my luck by being daring. And he told me: “Dear brother, you have taken enough risks. The war is on. There is chaos. There are bullets everywhere, and the boys of the area might hit you.”
00:08:51:17-00:09:05:22 Ekhtyal Gol When I came out of my house a PK (machine gun) bullet hit me. It hit my head and it came out through my mouth, the power of the bullet threw me high in the air and then I fell back down again.
00:09:06:07-00:09:30:24 Ekhtyal Gol I bled at home for three days and nights during the fighting. There was fighting. The roads were blocked. My nephew was a doctor in the hospital for intelligence employees and for six months I couldn’t eat and was fed by a pipe with liquids. After that I could hardly sleep. A friend of mine cam to the hospital. “Take this opium and you will be able to sleep. Come and have a smoke of powder.”
00:09:31:00 Ekhtyal Gol I smoked and that was it. I could sleep and my pain disappeared. I didn’t understand that this stuff could ruin a human being.
00:09:45:16 TEXT Drug rehabilitation drop in centre
00:10:17:19-00:10:30:02 Doctor Ekhtyar Gol, look. How much have you decreased your drug since coming here?
EG Before I was smoking three times a day, now I only smoke at night.
00:10:30:08-00:10:49:16 Doctor The promises we have made to one another, if you honour them, we won’t betray them. We will stand by our promise…
EG You helped me a lot.
Nurse Register his attendance.
Doc It’s all good. There’s no problem. It’s all good, there’s no problem.
00:10:49:21-00:11:11:10 EG My family hasn’t tolerated me as much as you have. I pray that God rewards you.
Doc Okay. Bring him a cup of tea.
Nurse Sure.
Addict I’m sick. If there’s a doctor around, my blood pressure is low
00:11:29:0300:11:48:24 EG How are you? Thank you for this.
Doctor The film is also yours, get up and watch.
Addict It’s not.
Doctor Look at the film my son. There. This is it.
00:11:51:05-00:12:20:18 Addict No, I know my films. Give me my own films…
Doctor Do you like romantic films, war films?What kind of films do you like?
Addict War films
Doctor You like war films then?
Addict I was in the army for five and a half years.
Doctor Why not romantic films?
Addict I’ve done a lot of loving…
Doctor You’ve done a lot of loving…Now you’ve had enough of it…
00:12:38:14-00:12:47:22 Nurse [singing] Salt is salty, don’t rub it in my fresh wound. You killed me; don’t go spreading the word around town.
00:13:47:10-00:13:58:18 EG I wish to start a happy life, although I haven’t married yet I’d like to marry. I want to live happily and I want a life of honour and pride with my family.
00:14:02:13 TEXT 2 weeks later
00:14:07:02-00:14:27:05 EG Because I quit my addiction 3 to 4 times and then smoked again my family doesn’t trust me. So I came to the treatment centre, to Zendagi Naween. I came here, I had insomnia, I had convulsions for 3 to 4 nights, the doctors helped me very much, they gave me medicine.
00:14:27:17-00:15:05:24 EG Now, thank God, I am very healthy my state of addiction is over. I have a new and happy life. I am very happy. I will be careful not to get high again. I will start a new life and I will find a job somewhere.If there is a job, employment and a salary. Why choose addiction?
00:15:08:18-00:15:26:04 TEXT Three hours drive from the holy city of Mazar-e-Sharif, past farmland still littered with landmines from thirty years of war; and the mountain lairs of bandits and insurgents. Lies the village of Jangal Saseq. Once a green area encircled by small trees, years of drought have turned it into desert.
00:15:27:19-00:15:44:00 TEXT The people in the village are Turkmen, who make up 3 per cent of Afghanistan’s ethnic mosaic. The main thing that binds the villagers, beyond frequent illness, unemployment and suffering from high food prices, is opium.15 of the 16 families in the village are addicted.
00:16:29:10 TEXT Dagen Toordi
00:16:34:13-00:16:54:24 DT I take care of him to earn a reward from God. His father has to work. I take care of him until the father returns from work. This year the prices are high, it’s a tough year. I take care of him so he can go o work.
00:17:06:24 TEXT Murad
00:17:11:09-00:17:35:20 DT His mother died a year ago. I have been taking care of him for a couple of months. He can’t go with his father because he can’t walk. Who can take care of him? Someone has to.I give him this much opium. When he yawns I know to give him opium.
00:18:05:13-00:18:28:08 DT When he was a small baby his mother gave it to him so she could work. To be able to weave carpets. They would put him in the cradle and put a bit in his mouth, that’s how they could weave carpets, eat…If you give it to the baby, he calms down and rests. That’s how they get used to it.
00:18:35:18-00:18:58:04 DT I give him opium every day. If I don’t give him opium he will cry, sweat and get a runny nose. He loses control.
Interpreter Is he an addict?
DT He’s addicted. When the time comes if I don’t give it to him he cries and loses control.
00:19:08:05-00:19:12:07 DT I gave it to him a short while ago, it hasn’t taken effect yet.
00:19:21:03 Murad (baby) Grandma!
00:19:48:21-00:20:06:08 DT Is your ear aching? How old will you be when you walk?
Murad “Tokko” (chickpeas) “Tokko”
DT If there are chickpeas you start to walk fast then. How old will you be when you walk?
M “Tokko”
00:20:06:24-00:20:30:19 DT Will you be able to walk when you are 9?
M “Tokko”
DT Show me how old you are like this.
M “Tokko”
DT Show me like this.
M “Tokko”
DT Toghoz? (Turkmen for 9)
M Grandmother. “Tokko”
DT We will go get some for you.
00:20:48:01-00:21:04:13 DT See what opium does! See how lively he is!
Man (family member) She says: “Opium made him high” Now opium has had an affect on him.
00:21:06:13-00:21:16:00 DT Whenever we give him opium he becomes E. When the effects have worn off he lies there and can’t move. He has no strength left.
00:21:19:05-00:21:25:03 Interpreter Does the opium give him energy and strength? Does it make him happy?
DT Yes, opium gives him strength
00:21:35:03-00:21:55:03 DT There…It’s very close to you, catch it. Puff. You caught fire, blow it out! Puff! It came this way.
00:22:28:01-00:22:56:18 Interpreter Can you tell me how many people there are in her family?
(villager) There are 2
Interpreter Let her say it.
(villager) The daughter and the mother.
(woman) 7 people
Interpreter Which girl or boy eats opium?
(woman) [pointing] This one.
00:23:01:13-00:23:16:14 Interpreter Why do you give opium to your daughter?
(woman) She won’t let me weave this, if I can’t do this I can’t earn a living.
(villager) We can’t earn a living, we give opium to make carpets, but we know opium is bad.
00:23:39:18-00:23:45:10 DT I have no teeth now. When I had teeth I was very beautiful.
00:23:57:14-00:24:15:24 DT My husband gave it to me the first time. My children were young and I fell ill. Every time he gave it to me I gained the strength to make bread and tea. Because of that they gave it to me and it calmed down my pain.
00:24:16:00-00:24:26:04 DT That’s why he gave it to me. There were no doctors here to consult, there are no doctors here now.
00:24:29:18-00:24:47:11 DT There is no work here, if we find opium, we smoke it. Otherwise we just sit around. I spend my days playing with the boy you saw. There is no other work to do.
00:25:14:02-00:25:37:19 DT The boys that are working are my sons, but the soldiers don’t allow them to work. The soldiers have kicked them out of the work area. The soldiers told them not to collect scrap metal. There’s no other work here. If there is a job, first they buy flour for bread then they buy opium and bring it to me.
00:25:44:19-00:26:02:04 DT I don’t have money to smoke now. When I don’t have opium, I can’t do anything. What can you do? My heart explodes. My heart tells me to cast myself into fire and water.
00:26:33:21 TEXT Nazar Ghol
00:26:37:16-00:27:03:17 Interpreter Is the money you earn from carpet weaving enough to live on?
(man) Say: “It’s not”.
Interpreter Is the money you earn from carpet weaving enough to live on?
(woman) It’s not enough. We are in debt.
Int So you are in debt?
(woman) From last year until now, we’ve been in debt.
Int Why are you in debt?
(man) Say: “We need to buy things to eat”.
(woman) Because we buy things to eat. We buy flour, we buy rice, we buy oil… We need tea and matches to live.
00:27:03:23-00:27:30:11 Int How much are you in debt because of opium?
(man) No, she doesn’t understand about that. She just sits at home. How could she know?
(man) Turkmen people have the character of sheep. If you bring her something she cooks it and feeds it to you.
00:27:31:03-00:27:55:11 (man) If she was dying of hunger, she wouldn’t complain about not bringing her something to eat. She keeps her honour, she keeps my honour. I am telling you, around 35 to 40 years our life if she dies may God never permit it my life would be very bitter
00:27:56:05-00:28:18:09 (man) No girl or boy could take her place.
Interpreter Is it expensive to find a wife for your son here?
(man) If I have some money I will get him one.
(woman) I don’t have money to get him one.
00:28:26:13-00:29:00:20 (man) If you don’t give 400,000 or 450,000 Afs ($800USD), you can’t get a Turkmen girl. The other tradition is giving one sack wheat one sack rice you give 4 Ser (14kg) of oil 12 sets of clothes one robe you give them 10 or 20 sheep. It’s very difficult to marry here.
00:29:07:05-00:29:22:19 Interpreter For example, if someone asks for your daughter’s hand
(man) Yes
Interpreter And you realise the boy takes opium,
(man) Yes
Interpreter would you give your daughter to him?
(man) No
Interpreter Why?
(man) We…My daughter would not like him.
00:29:23:16-00:29:39:24 Interpreter Will you ask her opinion if someone asks for her hand?
(man) How could we not ask her? If you don’t ask her, when you take her to the judge, the judge couldn’t tie the knot.
00:29:41:16-00:30:07:13 Interpreter So it’s not forced then?
(man) No it’s not forced. He looks at the men and girls with the same eye the ruler of our country, God willing he might bring justice.
00:30:17:16-00:30:29:13 [song] I have laboured for 9 years. How long will you hang your head in sadness?
00:30:32:15-00:30:53:14 TEXT The Wakhan corridor is one of the most remote and inaccessible places on earth: its winters are long and harsh and cultivating the thin rocky soil is a constant struggle.Nearly one in five babies dies soon after they are born and their mothers are more likely to die giving birth to them than anywhere else in the world. For many, the nearest medical facility is several days walk away.
00:30:54:18-00:31:22:13 TEXT But the Wakhan’s long international borders mean it is still a major drug smuggling route and opium is still readily available.The ‘Omid’ (Hope) Centre is the only clinic for opium addicts in the Wakhan corridor. It uses a grassroots approach centring on community involvement and support.Over 800 addicts have been successfully treated so far.
00:31:38:05 TEXT Ghorban BeigumSocial Worker‘Omid’ (Hope) Drug Clinic
00:31:48:21 TEXT Khoshan
00:31:53:22 TEXT Shakila
00:31:56:16-00:32:21:22 Ghorban Beigum How old are you?
Khoshan I don’t know how old I am.
GB Why did you start smoking opium?
K I was pregnant with this daughter.
GB You got pregnant then…
K Then when she was born I felt very unwell.
GB You said: “Now I have decided to go to the Omid (Hope) Centre in Khandud to quit opium.”
00:32:22:08-00:32:33:11 GB When you go there, you will stay there for 12 days and you will stop opium. Then when you come back home, if you suffer from those pains and illnesses again what will you do?
00:33:15:10-00:33:31:07 Child All the livestock are in the land and have eaten the broadbeans. The bull and the calf are in the broadbean patch…
K All in the broadbean patch?
Child What now? They stamped on them.
K No, of course not.
00:33:39:05-00:34:06:15 K My husband is in the clinic in Khandud. It’s been many days. It’s been a week today. A week. I am a woman left here. There is nothing here. I have to ask the neighbours for bread. I have to ask for tea. Bowls, bowls…There are no bowls at home. Even borrowed them to come here and drink tea.
00:34:07:09-00:34:33:16 K This is my destiny. Son. Pass your uncle so you have space.
Son Come here.
K What is there to laugh about? The first thing that will help me is taking the opium out of my body.
00:34:37:11-00:34:56:08 K They should give me treatment in the clinic, medicine, injections, in the clinic. Lots of bread there. Tea there. Lots of oil there. Lots of things to eat. I go and put my feet up along with my baby daughter.
00:35:03:00-00:35:29:04 Interpreter Will you worry about the children left behind whilst you are in the clinic?
K No, no I worry about myself. For myself! Alright, alright…I get anxious.
Interpreter What makes you anxious?
K I will get worried: “There is no bread there, no tea there. There is nobody to give them bread.”
00:35:30:15-00:35:43:24 K My heart is in pieces. My heart. I’m telling you, if you smoke opium you will be full of anguish. I’m full of anguish.
00:37:13:00-00:37:36:23 K I smoked a lot. I smoked and smoked and my head feels heavy. If there is no opium and she doesn’t smoke she will cry all night long.
00:37:39:09-00:37:45:15 K She is an opium addict. Help my child.
00:38:02:09-00:38:22:22 K One and a half years ago my daughter died. My baby boy was 2 or 3 days old when he died. I was still breast feeding him. He didn’t suffer the pain. I don’t know what illness he had. There was no doctor. No medicine that year.
00:38:26:18-00:38:44:21 K My daughter gave a cry and died. One day she fell ill. One day she gave a cry gone. My heart is devastated. I got very upset over that daughter.
00:38:47:04-00:39:02:09 K I dug that daughter’s grave. From that day, my heart sank. People took me away. People said: “How could you?” My daughter was this big.
00:39:16:21-00:39:30:10 K She had a stomach pain so I thought opium would be helpful: “I should give her a puff to calm down her pain so she won’t die”
00:39:45:00-00:39:51:16 K I take the baby to the clinic too. So she will be free from this pain too.
00:40:05:09 TEXT Two days until the clinic.
00:40:12:14-00:40:33:16 K My hand is aching. Nothing but weakness. If there was opium I could get a puff. Then my legs wouldn’t be aching and neither would my stomach.
00:40:35:19-00:40:54:24 K I’ll soon be in the clinic. She’s pulling her ear. In my head I’m happy that the car might come and take me there.
00:41:05:18-00:41:25:12 K I’m laughing because I’m going to the clinic. My husband is also there.
GB Listen. Listen.
K I’ve been listening to you a lot. From the first day…
GB I’m telling you again. The things you have agreed to, from top to bottom, are all here.
K Yes.
00:41:35:01-00:41:41:23 K Hey brother! My daughter Stan Beigum is in your hands. At night Bakhmal will come.
GB Come this way…
00:41:54:19-00:42:12:13 K I’m with Ghorban Beigum. I came with her. She is putting me on the list. I’m drowning in my addiction. It’s for my own good.
00:42:19:16-00:42:48:05 [singing] We came to this house for happiness. Oh, you are the light of my eyes and vision. Your affection is in my heart. I yelled from mountain high: “I came to this house for happiness.” Be happy, we came for happiness. We came to this house for happiness. On the mountain high, two stars above: “I came to this house for happiness.”
00:43:00:24-00:43:29:23 [singing] Oh, God is giving us a new life: “I came to this house for happiness.” Be happy, we came for happiness. We came to this house for happiness.
Mahram Welcome our dear guests!
00:43:38:13-00:43:44:14 Nurse Sit right there.
GB This is a bed, every time you come in, you sleep on this
00:43:57:07-00:44:23:06 Male doctor What does this innocent baby understand? You made her an opium addict. Now you have come to the clinic, be aware and don’t give her opium again. If she has pain and you give her opium, she won’t feel pain. She will lie down unconscious but her pain will be prolonged. It will hurt her and slowly, day by day, she will become thin and malnourished.
00:44:31:12-00:44:37:03 Female doctor The opium that you smoke passes to your baby through your milk, you don’t really need to give her a puff as well.
00:44:45:17 Nurse (reading measurement) 38kg (6 stone)
00:44:59:01-00:45:20:08 Nurse So, what do you say, now you are here will your problem be sorted?
Village woman (Khoshan’s friend) Yes, God willing the problem will be sorted.
Nurse Will you quit opium?
(Khoshan’s friend) Yes, it’s enough of that.
Nurse You quit now, but when you go home…
(Khoshan’s friend) I may die if I smoke.
Nurse What will you do when the pain in your legs, guts and your shoulder starts to kick in again?
(Khoshan’s friend) In that state. If I die. It would be very good.
00:45:21:14-00:45:31:15 (Khoshan’s friend) It’s harmful for the soul. Harmful for your goods. It takes away your pride and grace. Your belongings disappear and you go door to door begging.
00:45:32:20-00:45:55:08 Nurse Now don’t cry. This is something that…you didn’t put enough thought into. If you were sick you should have gone to the doctor or hospital.
(Khoshan’s friend) There wasn’t… There wasn’t a doctor. My husband was in the army. I didn’t have a capable son. I had a brother in law but he didn’t take care of me.
00:46:02:06 TEXT (Men’s Ward)
00:46:12:10-00:46:36:21 Interpreter What’s your name?
Mahram Mahram
Interpreter Who are you to Khoshan?
Mahram She is my husband. (sniggering in the background) I’m her husband, she’s my wife. I was opium addict since childhood. My father was an opium addict. So was my grandfather. I became an opium addict.
00:46:37:15-00:47:07:12 Mahram Then when the clinic opened, I cam here to be admitted. When I first came here, I was very unwell. One day and one night, I wasn’t feeling myself. They gave me an injection. They gave me medicine. Slowly, slowly…Today is my eleventh day. Now, thank God, I’m better.
00:48:10:00-00:48:25:13 (Khoshan’s friend) My dear husband. My soul is leaving my body. I want to die beside you… I’m dying…My soul is leaving my body.
00:48:30:20-00:48:56:09 K My body is aching. My hand aches. Because of opium. My stomach is aching. Head.
00:49:02:09-00:49:14:20 K Because of opium. I was fine in the morning. Today I’m sick again.
00:49:34:08-00:49:41:20 K What?
Interpreter Aren’t you happy?
K I’m not. My heart is devastated.
00:49:45:09-00:50:07:09 TEXT After eleven days at the clinic, Khoshan and Shakila returned to their home and family.However the full process of recovery requires counselling and regular check-ups to prevent relapse.This can take up to two years.Ghorban Beigum and the team from the Omid Centre will be guiding Khoshan through this process…And perhaps helping her to rewrite her destiny.
00:50:09:10 TEXT The End
00:50:17:02 CREDITS
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