Afghanistan

Afghanistan 

In 2000 and 2001, during the Taliban times, MEPO expanded to begin addressing the Afghan crisis. For two intense summers, Mostafa and several Afghan medical colleagues conducted desperately needed health camps in the massive and awful Afghan refugee camps of Peshawar, Pakistan as well as within Afghanistan itself.

This was the start of MEPO’s long-term and strong partnership with the Afghan NGO HEWAD. HEWAD facilitated Mostafa’s work in conducting these health camps. Mostafa also worked with HEWAD’s staff to arrange for food and tent distribution and the founding of two girls’ schools in the refugee camps. In Afghanistan itself, Mostafa and HEWAD established homeschools for girls and sewing training programs for women, services desperately needed and yet not permitted during the Taliban time. (see the Gallery below for pictures from this time)

In 2002 and 2003, Mostafa made several trips to Herat and Western Afghanistan to offer health camps, distribute blankets, hygiene materials, food, and vitamins, and also set up more home schools. He and MEPO provided direct assistance in the urgent hospitalization of several children from remote areas, accompanying them and their families to the hospital and paying for their care.

In 2002, after the Taliban fell, MEPO shifted its focus entirely to Afghanistan. We opened a mother-child care clinic on the outskirts of Kabul, offering pre-natal, pediatric, and women’s health services to needy Afghans and returning refugees. We also supported our Afghan NGO partner HEWAD in running two other clinics in outlying areas.

MEPO and HEWAD then collaborated to establish the House of Flowers Orphanage in Kabul. This orphanage was designed as a Montessori –based home and school for 20-30 children. For the next 18 years, destitute and traumatized children grew up in this home/school designed using the powerful Montessori developmental principles. It was the focus of MEPO’s work for the next 18 years, in strong partnership with HEWAD.

In the summer of 2020, MEPO gradually closed the doors of the House of Flowers due to the closure crises arising with the pandemic. But the commitment to children and the benefits of Montessori did not waver. We shifted our energy towards offering a day-school Montessori environment to younger children, preschool age. A few months later, MEPO and HEWAD and the experienced staff of the House of Flowers began their new venture: the Garden of Flowers Montessori Preschool. The Garden of Flowers opened in September 2020 and quickly became a thriving oasis for destitute 3-to-6-year-olds.