IOM assists reintegration of former combatants

In a tiny shop busy with customers in the western Afghan city of Herat, Abdul Rashid, 34, sells the latest foreign music and Bollywood films. “Life has changed since I started my business here,” said Abdul Rashid, recalling how just one year earlier he had been a militiaman for a local commander for four years. “It seemed strange to me when I first received the loan and started my business with the money. But today I am the owner of a separate shop and have a comfortable life and dozens of customers,” Rashid explained. Rashid is one of more than 500 beneficiaries of the International Organization for Migration (IOM)’s micro-credit programme for ex-combatants, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Herat. Initiated in October 2005, the programme aims to encourage former combatants to return to civilian life and establish sustainable businesses. To date, over 500 former combatants have borrowed nearly US $72,000, with an additional 300 people set to benefit from the same micro-credit programme in June, William Baang, the IOM’s Reintegration Officer in Herat, said. “The programme will increase additional sources of income for former combatants and will also provide additional employment opportunities to their families,” Baang added. IOM officials said that they were planning to expand the programme to other parts of the country where thousands of former combatants were still living without any proper means of employment or reintegration. “[The] IOM's micro-credit pilot programme is one of the most successful in Afghanistan and it is our hope it will continue to be offered in not only Herat but throughout the country," said Rahila Zafar, an IOM public information officer in the Afghan capital, Kabul. In addition, the IOM is also providing literacy training to former combatants and female members of their families in Herat, Badghis, Ghor and Farah provinces. "Both running a business and being literate go hand and hand. [The] IOM, its donors USAID, the Italian government, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) recognise this, and have successfully offered both to former combatants in the region,” Zafar explained. According to Jasper Llanderal, Programme Officer at the IOM regional office in Heart, the UN agency has enrolled over 3,000 former combatants and their female family members for literacy training in Herat, Badghis, Ghor and Farah provinces. "In terms of the one-year literacy programme especially, not only former combatants but their wives and sisters can also participate in these courses,” Zafar maintained. Regarding the significance of the training, Zafar said that both literacy training and income-generating opportunities would improve livelihoods of former combatants and their families. “They are also able to do homework with their children and read books to them. When you educate a woman, you are educating an entire household,” Zafar maintained. In 2005, the IOM assisted the reintegration of 26 former child soldiers in Herat, providing them with six-month vocational training in areas such as metal work, English, computer courses, embroidery and plastic flower-making. The IOM is also currently providing the same vocational training to nearly 700 child soldiers and war-affected youths in Herat, Badghis, Farah, and Ghor provinces. The project is funded by United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Italian government.