1

Sozo 2009

Transforming Afghanistan Changing a Life, Changing a World

2

2009 in Review

I just returned from Kabul, Afghanistan, where I saw the Sozo staff as busy as ever providing for people in need, and nurturing the communities where we work to become more self-sustaining each year. This year, the new clinic in Barek Aub was staffed, stocked and operational in a building dedicated in January. The new school building there was also dedicated this year and boys and girls studied in new uniforms. In addition, we completed construction on 11 houses for widows and disabled people in Barek Aub in October. Sozo also opened a school for street kids in Kabul this spring, and insured hundreds of them the right to a hot lunch and an education—boys and girls. Five new team members arrived from the U.S., adding to our staff in Kabul; and as we continue to provide emergency food, fuel, clothing, blankets and eyeglasses to hundreds of Afghans we are also looking beyond relief and towards development. We are excited about a new micro-loans program to help create jobs for people so they can feed themselves next winter. Already, the blankets we provide to refugees are made by widows who need work, and the holiday ornaments we use to raise money for our projects are helping to employ people. We look forward to helping change more lives in still more communities in Afghanistan in 2010.

Bob Drane Director of Operations Sozo International

3

Sozo 2009

Sozo Communities p. 4-5

Short-term Trips p. 6-7

Education and Jobs p. 8-11

Healthcare p. 12-13

Relief p. 14

Connections and Spending p. 15

4

Sozo Communities

Barek Aub

Above, an Afghan television

reporter interviews Sozo

International’s Afghanistan

National Director, Abdul Wakil, as

Sozo’s Chairman and President, Jim

Burgen, looks on. The Afghan

government declared Barek Aub a

“healthy village,” and credited

Sozo for the work done to sustain

the lives of some 600 families of

internally displaced people there.

Desert refugees

develop community

BAREK AUB, Afghanistan -- From

a small cluster of canvas and

plastic tents in 2007, to

groups of brick houses and

stores, and the brand new

school and clinic buildings,

Barek Aub now appears to be

more than a dumping ground for

internally displaced people.

It is becoming a village.

"It was so impactful that

14 months later what we said

would happen, had happened,"

said Mary Plese, who visited

Barek Aub in 2007 and again in

2009 with Flatirons Community

Church teams. "It's all work-

ing together for community,"

Plese said.

January – Flatirons Community Church (FCC) team dedicates new school, clinic; gives food. March – FCC team measures kids for uniforms. May – Global Health Outreach 4-day clinic. July – FCC team learns about refugees’ lives. October – Sozo gives first 11 houses built for widows and disabled people. Southeast Christian Church team dispenses eyeglasses. November – Silk Road Development gives food.

5

Istalif

Medical treatment in remote villages in this

area has been a priority for Sozo in the

last three years. Supplying life-saving

medicines, inoculations and medical staff to

two clinics here has helped a community of

100,000 villagers.

Sozo worked with Southland Community Church

in Lexington, Kentucky, for monthly support

of the Behzadi and Qale Marudbek clinics.

Southland also facilitated the building of

new boundary walls at each clinic to keep

supplies, medical personnel, and villagers

safe.

Mountain towns

reclaim resources

ISTALIF, Afghanistan --

This was Sozo’s sixth year

in funding medical care in

Istalif, Afghanistan. We

have seen Leishmaniasis, a

disfiguring skin disease,

nearly eradicated. We have

seen a huge drop in infant

and child mortality rate.

Below, a poster of local

celebrity, Haji Haider, who

works as a director for the

clinic in Istalif, encour-

ages villagers to insure

they are using clean water

in order to stay healthy.

Shaka Dara

6

Short-term trips

Top, Jeff English of the June,

2009 team from Flatirons Community

Church in Lafayette, Colo., arm

wrestles with an Afghan boy.

Above, the team poses for a photo

atop the new school building in

Barek Aub, Afghanistan. Left to

right, Cedar Cranson, Janet

Wineman, Rachel Nelson, Mary

Plese, Robin Cranson, Jeff

English, Stephanie Rogers, and the

church’s global outreach director,

Ron Barnes.

Hundreds see

Afghanistan in 2009

In 2009, Sozo hosted 11 short-

term trips to Afghanistan. in

June and November Sozo cancel-

led trips due to security

concerns. Sozo hosts teams in

our Kabul guesthouse, which

along with the offices there

employs 24 Afghans. Sozo also

employs some 75 more Afghans

as teachers, medical staff,

and transportation and secur-

ity personnel.

5 teams from Flatirons

Community Church, Lafayette,

Colorado, Ron Barnes

3 teams from Silk Road

Development, Memphis, Tenn.,

Cindy Taylor

1 team from Southeast

Christian Church, Louis-

ville, Ky., Ben Thornley

1 Global Health Outreach

team, Bristol, Tenn., Dr.

Sam Molind

1 Sozo medical team,

Louisville, Ky., Ashley

Wilson, R.N.

7

January 10, 2009

Thirteen months ago I visited

Barek Aub. It was a muddy

village with a dark tent for a school

and many hungry people. Today

we saw a beautiful community. The

school and clinic stand out like

beacons on the muddy plain. This

time the kids looked different,

healthy and hopeful.

--Written by Mary Plese of Flatirons Community Church

Above, volunteer team member, Jordan Burgen, smiles with

a group of Barek Aub boys he met in January, 2009.

Sozo International

PO Box 436967

Louisville, KY 40253

8

Back to Schools

BAREK AUB, Afghanistan—

The need for education

became one of the

prominent concerns for

both the community elders

and Sozo staff and

volunteers who became

involved in Barek Aub in

2007. Work crews and

volunteers worked through

2008 to complete the new

school. The building was

dedicated in January,

2009.

"The landscape contin-

ues to change for the

better,” Southeast

Christian Church team

leader, Chris Hadley said

of Barek Aub.

For students in Barek

Aub, the new school may

mean a new hope for the

future. Many of these

children are attending

school for the first

time, having missed out

on years of education

because of their lives as

refugees.

9

Short-term team member, Patty Tunnell, measures a school girl for a new uniform while Sozo staff member,

Hopeful Hearts School Education is a pressing need in a country where literacy rates are less than 30 percent and where the average adult has spent fewer than two years in school. Education for girls especially has been hampered through the tyranny of the Taliban over the past decade. For an estimated 50,000 street children, who work as laborers or beggars in the streets of Kabul, education is nearly impossible. In the spring of 2009 Sozo began providing 123 of them schooling, along with a hot meal, coats, shoes, and supplies, at the new Hopeful Hearts School.

“The aim is to divert their attention from begging and working on the streets to education,” said Sozo’s Afghanistan National Director, Abdul Wakil. “We want to improve their hopes for a healthy future life.”

Many of the children at the new Hopeful Hearts School in Kabul eat their only hot meal of the day there.

10

“We headed to Barek Aub first thing

this morning and continued measuring kids for their new school uniforms. … Lots of unrestrained giggling, laughter, and horseplay everywhere—and the kids were having a good time, too! But as happy an occasion as it was for all of us, after the boys removed their coats and I began to take measurements of their shoulders and chest, it was painfully evident that these kids are still a long way from being healthy. Collar bones, shoulder blades, and ribs protrude prominently through their shirts as a sobering reminder that they haven’t had a solid meal in months. There is still a lot of work to be done in Barek Aub. But the people know we (Sozo) will return again… and again… and again until Barek Aub goes from surviving to thriving.” – Bob Tunnell, March trip leader from Flatirons Community Church, Lafayette, Colo.

Students get new uniforms

11

Back to Work

About 50 women living in Barek Aub found work

this spring sewing school uniforms for the newly

opened school there. With more than 640

students, and a growing population as children

arrive to attend school from other villages, the

sewing machines were whirring along this year.

The goal was to sew 1,000 sets of uniforms, to

provide for current students and meet the demand

of new students. In addition, according to Sozo’s

Afghanistan National Director, Abdul Wakil, more

uniforms were given to children who had very little

other clothing at all.

“We are giving more than one set of school

uniforms to some kids,” Wakil said, “to make sure

they have enough clothes to use.”

Wakil said the women were also tasked with

making two set of uniforms for each school teacher

as well. The new school employs 12 working staff.

Sozo puts micro-loan

program in place for 2010

Sozo hired an Afghan team to oversee a new jobs creation program through community-based micro-loans for small businesses. Specifically, participants will be challenged to develop plans for new enterprises and will be given training, support and funds to start work that will support them. In addition to the sewing work, other ideas from the community include small shops, livestock, gardening and more.

12

Back to Healthcare

Sozo began offering medical care to IDPs at Barek Aub in December 2007. A makeshift clinic in a community member’s house began in January 2008, with services three days a week. Sozo supplied medical personnel, supplies and medicines. Sozo also began training Community Health Workers (CHW) in Barek Aub in late January. Sozo staff and volunteers educated 20 men and 20 women in the causes and prevention of colds, with continued training throughout the year. Construction workers completed the medical clinic for Barek Aub in November, 2008. The community began using the clinic in late 2008 and along with a team from Flatirons Community Church in Lafayette, Colo., Sozo staff, local Afghan media and Afghan government officials, they dedicated the new building for service to the Barek Aub community in January 2009.

The clinic provided medical care for more than 600 families, including life-saving vaccines for hundreds of children, treatment, care, and disease prevention training for the community.

13

Providing Medical Care

Istalif Clinic

Barek Aub Clinic

Kabul Clinic*

Qale Marudbek Clinic

Behzadi Clinic

Sozo clinics provide life-saving inoculations, nutritional supplements, medicines, and doctors and nurses in places where there is otherwise no access to healthcare. Sozo clinics also train local community health workers to educate communities in preventing disease and in caring for one another to sustain health.

*Unlike our other clinics Sozo did not fund or manage the Kabul clinic, but provided only financial oversight during a six-month contract in 2009.

14

Sozo brings relief Meeting urgent needs

Each year Sozo offers emergency food and fuel relief, such as charcoal, matches, cooking oil, flour, beans, sugar, tea, salt, peas and rice. For the nearly 600 families in Barek Aub, as well as to refugees that continue to stream into Kabul and live in harsh circumstances, Sozo also distributes clothing, blankets and school supplies .

Jan. 2009 – Food and fuel Nov. 2009 – Food and fuel Dec. 2009 – Blankets and school supplies

Burn prevention, treatment program continues

Each year Afghan children are seriously injured from falling into cooking or heating fires or by unstable propane fires that explode. Sozo is collaborating with the Afghan Ministry of Public Health and is funded by the US Government to manage an ongoing burn prevention program in Kabul, Herat and Nangahar provinces. The completion of the second year of this program highlights the success of this partnership as an example of the kind of medical diplomacy that can help stabilize Afghanistan, as was mentioned in a recent article by Col. Donald F. Thompson in Defense Horizon.

In Nangarhar, health workers, men and women, other social organization members, along with women activists attended courses this year. Some 91 percent of all districts are participating in the Burn Prevention Program. In Herat, 50 district representatives from around the province attended courses offered. Sozo also helped organize workshops and campaigns focusing on awareness, treatment, prevention and referrals. Meetings at local mosques, shopping centers, markets and town halls drew more than 14,000 people. In Kabul province, where 100 percent of districts are participating in the program, a Sozo burn prevention team met with a group of 200 women at the Sorubi district of Kabul. These women requested further expansion of the program into their own communities.

15

Sozo Connections Sozo collaborates with other organizations to maximize our impact on people in need in Afghanistan. By working with other humanitarian aid groups, as well as through government and privately funded grants, and with the military, Sozo provides on-going aid and relief to the people of Afghanistan. The military often aids in distributions of food and other supplies to the IDP camps, where refugees welcome the relief. Sozo works with the VCR programs at Camp Eggers and the ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) bases to help distribute VCR program donations.

Sozo Spending

Individuals 24%

Partners 76%

Sozo operates a small office in the U.S., with two full-time staff and several contract employees. Sozo employs 125 people in Afghanistan to operate projects there. We spend approximately 89% of revenues on relief and development programs, and about 11% on administrative and fundraising costs.

Afghanistan Relief and Development 89%

Administration and Fundraising 11%

Sozo Funding For 2009, Sozo raised $807,828 in total donations. Some 96 donors gave $250 or more. Seven partner churches/organizations (Southeast Christian Church, Louisville, Ky.; Southland Christian Church, Lexington, Ky.; Springfield Christian Church, Springfield, Ky.; Flatirons Community Church, Lafayette, Colo.; Tualatin Hills Christian Church, Tualatin Hills, Ore.; Silk Road Development, Memphis, Tenn.; and Hopeful Hearts, Louisville, Ky.) donated $614,269 in total for 2009.

Sozo International is a tax-exempt charitable organization under Section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Service. All

contributions and donations are tax-deductible.

16

About Sozo International Sozo International formed in 2002, in response to the opportunity presented by the liberation of Afghanistan from Taliban forces, shortly after September 11, 2001. In 2005, following the Indian Ocean tsunami of Dec. 26, 2004, Sozo began work in Sri Lanka, with communities heavily impacted by the disaster. Sozo aims to reach the most

impoverished people in identifiable communities where war and natural disaster have wreaked havoc. Sozo provides emergency and ongoing relief for internally displaced people (IDP) and encourages development with education,

health and economic initiatives aimed at changing the day-to-day existence of people in need as well as providing hope for their future.

www.SozoInternational.org Sozo International, PO Box 436967, Louisville, KY 40253 ● (502) 253-4308 ● Fax (502) 266-6075 ● e-mail

info@sozointernational.org.