With news reaching us, gently on the radio whilst we were holidaying for a few days in Dorset, my heart sank, and my head went spiralling back to all those thoughts and emotions of a 14 year old growing up in rural Devon, watching the first air strikes landing in Afghanistan and feeling helpless. At certain points of your life, you feel like you are living history, even if it is just as a voyeur. For the first time I felt so keenly for the innocent and women and children, that had been repressed and now had bombs falling from the sky, to hopefully bring them a future of freedom and education.
With the news coming of the change of rule in Kabul, my thoughts were straight back to the Afghan women and children. Imagining how a turbulent life would have been turned upside down once again. I thought of what it would have been like to be a 14 year old girl at the beginning of this ordeal, and how her life would have changed with the freedom to have an education, to freely dress and to pursue a career. How would our lives have paralleled over the past 20 years, even though we were worlds apart, and how would I feel now on the brink of such horrifying change? With this thoughts circling my head, feeling compelled to do something, anything - it felt wrong to release my new collection of engravings
With time to think and the chance to research and review the last 20 years in Afghanistan, it felt coincidental that I was struggling at the thought of releasing my latest collection of engravings, and one of them is a poppy. The opium poppy trade in Afghanistan is booming, and is the number one source of funds for the Taliban, helping to propel them back into power. Looking at the UN’s most recent data, although illegal under the Afghan coalition rule, poppy cultivation has grown 37% in the past year. I have decided that all profit from online sales and sales at fairs of my Poppy engraving will all be donated to Afghan Aid - from each sale £13.50 will be sent to their vital work. I know one engraving will not fix the past 20 years of turmoil, but all I can think is that something has to be done. Somewhere out there, there are millions of people all wanting to protest their families, their livelihoods and their access to healthcare and education, whilst still battling the effects of a global pandemic.
The information above has been reasearched from the UN website and Reuters news sources. All Opinions are my own.
For more information about what Afghan Aid are doing on the ground can be found at their website : www.afghanaid.org.uk