Mark Manley

NGO and NonProfit: The Roqia Center: - Roqia Center Tree Distribution Project

In March of 2007 the Roqia Center funded a project to distribute a single fruit tree and a package of seeds to every family living within a small village located on the outskirts of Kabul.

It was hot and dusty at midday when we arrived at the village, aproximately 40 kilometers outside of Kabul. Other Roqia Center staff were already in the village, having arrived by truck with the trees and boxes of seed packets to be distributed.

The trees were scrawny, barren and spindley, their rootballs devoid of dirt. Lumped in the back of the truck they looked like little more than sticks. I wondered how any of them could ever possibly take root and grow.

But the villagers seemed undeterred. They showed up en mass, young men, children and elders. No women. They gathered together in anticipation of the distribution. For this village this was a big deal and everyone had come out.

Village elders gather prior to the tree distribution. Roqia staff had been working with village elders for weeks to build a kind of village census, to ensure that every eligible family was identified and that each family choose one family member to receive the allotted single tree and seed packet.