Afghanistan: After almost twenty years of war, Afghanistan is a country where destruction is widespread. Many countries, international agencies, and people are helping the country in various ways.

Hamideh Keyhani was part of the Bank’s team that went to Afghanistan to hook up the government to a modern computer system. The government offices weren’t as run down as other buildings. There was electricity and other things needed to set up computers, Hamideh said.

Hamideh trained many Afghanis how to use the computers and helped them learn different software. There were many women in her classes, who were very eager to learn and get back to work. (During the Taliban rule, women were not allowed to work.) Hamideh learned that many of these women used to work in banks before the Taliban. Almost two-thirds of banks’ employees were women. When the Taliban forbade them to work, the entire banking system stopped because nobody else knew how to do the work. These women were eager to get back to their jobs and catch up on five years of backlog, Hamideh said.

While in Afghanistan, Hamideh also met a foreign man who had lived there as a child. He returned last year to set up an orphanage for street children. He has given these children a place to live, eat, learn and play. But children in Afghanistan are very shy about playing. "People think you aren’t supposed to have fun, play, run or laugh as a child," Hamideh said. This young man is now showing them otherwise, she said.

East Timor: The conflict hit the countryside really hard. Farms were looted and destroyed, farm animals killed and farm tools smashed. The Bank helped people buy animals and tools to restart their farms.

In another project, the Bank helped establish eight community radios. East Timor is a small, developing country where people still mostly listen to radio; there aren’t many television sets. The idea behind the project was to help people stay in touch and be informed about what’s going on. These stations are completely run by volunteers who were trained to be broadcasters. They were taught how to produce, broadcast, interview, write stories, etc…

Loty Salazar worked on this project. She said these stations have been a tremendous success, especially among young people. "When we called for volunteers, we didn’t expect that it will primarily attract young people," she said. All volunteers are in their late teens or early twenties. "They are very dedicated and take their jobs seriously," Loty added.

These radio stations have also become places for young people to hang out, especially for girls. East Timor is a very traditional society, where girls lead sheltered and protected lives, and are rarely allowed to be outside the house. But working on these radio stations has given them an opportunity to prove themselves, build their skills and confidence. It’s also a place and a type of work that their parents approve of.

Bosnia and Herzegovina: After some five years of war in the early 1990s, most of the country was seriously destroyed. This included many small, private businesses, such as family-owned grocery stores. The Bank gave families, whose stores were destroyed, small loans to help them rebuild and restock their stores. This not only helped these individual families, but also a wider community. Since stores were filled with groceries, other people could purchase food to feed themselves. In turn, buying and selling goods helped circulate money among people: somebody was able to buy what another person was selling. With the received money, the seller could then hire somebody else to work. This exchange of money created jobs for people and helped restart the economy.