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 Going the extra mile for Kabul's orphans
A Toronto-based firm, two Pakistanis and Canadian soldiers team up to give shoes to more than 900 Afghan children.
Rana Muhammad Ahmad Noon and Shuaib Ahmad travelled more than 1,200 kilometres through some of the most dangerous terrain in the world, from Lahore, Pakistan, to Kabul and back.They hitchhiked bandit-infested roads and hopped a ride on a cargo plane, journeying for days with no way to contact their worried friends and family back home.It was far from a typical business trip for the two white-collar corporate managers for Bata Pakistan, but their gift of 900 pairs of shoes to the children at the Allahuddin Orphanage in Kabul was hardly an ordinary delivery."It was something thrilling and it was for a cause," said Mr. Rana, advertising manager for Bata Pakistan, who had never travelled through Afghanistan before.
"It was a sort of adventure."The Canadian military handed out the shoes, donated by the Toronto-based company, just as the first flakes of snow fell upon the Afghan capital. It all started with Sergeant Gerry Beresford, a supply sergeant stationed in the largest Canadian Forces base in Afghanistan, Camp Julien, who visited the orphanage. He couldn't forget what he saw there. | 
Truck full of shoes for Allahuddin orphanage at Canadian camp Kabul.Seen in the picture are representatives from Bata Pakistan Mr.Shoib Ahmad Country Manager Afghanistan Business(centre) and Rana Muhammad Ahmad Advertising & Promotions Manager (right) |
| The children, who ranged from age 3 to 15, packed by the dozen into bedrooms no bigger than those that each of his two young sons back in Petawawa, Ont., savoured for themselves. They cooked over two open fires and shivered through the night, keeping warm with only a small, portable wood-burning stove."You have to see it firsthand to see how bad they have it," Sgt. Beresford said in a telephone interview yesterday from Camp Julien.
"They had next to nothing, I tell you."So Sgt. Beresford and a colleague, Corporal Matt Horner, adopted the orphanage as a personal mission, raising nearly $4,000 to buy blankets and other supplies. |
The Canadian Troops unloading the shoes at Canadian camp Kabul | But every day, Sgt. Beresford watched the snow creep further down the mountains.He wanted to do more to help the children, most of whom had nothing more than flimsy shoes or plastic sandals to ward off winter's cold weather.When he conveyed his concern to some superiors, one of them happened to have connections to Sonja Bata, who with her husband owns Bata Ltd.Mrs. Bata leapt at the chance to help. She telephoned Doug Hearns, a Canadian who runs Bata Pakistan, that country's largest foreign employer. He recruited Mr. Rana and Mr. Shuaib, who is expanding the company into Afghanistan, for the mission two weeks ago. |
They got a rough estimate of shoe sizes and numbers from the orphanage, then had the shoes packed into 200 boxes -- a package worth about $5,700 -- onto a truck that trundled off from Lahore to the border. But how to get themselves there? The roads were considered unsafe, so they went to Islamabad to catch an airplane, then discovered that all passenger flights to Kabul had been cancelled for security reasons. They finally managed to hitch a ride on a cargo plane.
When they arrived in the Afghan capital, they had no idea where to find the Canadians. No one on the street seemed to know, nor did the Pakistan embassy, which finally steered them to the Canadian embassy. There, they met with suspicion until Mr. Rana pulled out an e-mail from one of the Canadian soldiers.Once they arrived at the Canadian camp, they faced another problem -- extreme security. | 
Mr.Rana Muhammad Ahmad Noon Manager Advertising & promotions Bata Pakistan presenting the shoes to CPL Horner,Supply Platoon 5199 at the Canadian camp Kabul |
Three rocket-propelled grenades had hit the base a day earlier and the guards at the gate refused to let them -- or the truckload of shoes -- inside. It had to first be cleared by Cpl. Horner, but he hadn't known exactly when to expect the pair and wasn't around when they arrived."They were very wary of Pakistanis bearing gifts," Mr. Hearns joked on the telephone from Lahore.
The two men waited in the cold for a few hours before being asked to return the next day, when sniffer dogs would be on hand to inspect the shipment for explosives.Finally, the shipment was cleared and headed off for the orphanage in a convoy, with the two Pakistanis and the shoes in a truck sandwiched between two heavily armed military vehicles filled with Canadian soldiers. |
| Group Photograph of Bata representatives and Canadian troops with the children at Allahuddin Orphanage in Kabul |
| Mr. Rana shrugged off concerns about his safety. "If you have to die, you can even die by falling in your home upon the staircase."Meanwhile, Sgt. Beresford said no other mission in Kabul has done as much to lift the spirits of the Canadian soldiers as helping the orphans."We live with such harsh conditions here, the uncertainty, the threat is real," he said. "It just made us feel so good, knowing that they have shoes and blankets."I tell you, we are making a difference here." | 
View of free movement of Afghan and Pakistani people through Pak Afghan border at Torkham without involving any document like passport etc. |
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