To fix health care

Laguna Beach resident Sadiq Tawfiq’s heart is still in his native Afghanistan, a country devastated by decades of war and destruction. Through his Afghan Amity Society, Tawfiq is raising money to build a hospital in the city where he was born.

“When I traveled to Afghanistan after 24 years, I realized that the country is ruined and destroyed and is not the country that I used to know before I left,” he said. “People are desperate for everything — education, health, schools, hospitals.”

After 30 years of war with Russia, then occupation by the Taliban and now with U.S. forces fighting there, Tawfiq estimates that 80% of the country’s vital infrastructure has been destroyed.

“There’s a big need for creating hospitals and schools and clinics. And after I visited Herat, the city where I was born, I see that the basic service for education and health is not there. The idea of building a hospital came to my mind.”

The Afghan Amity Society is selling Afghan artwork and antiques, with half of the proceeds to contribute to building the 200-bed teaching hospital in Herat, in western Afghanistan.

Tawfiq, said the hospital will provide families with local health care that they do not have now. According to Tawfiq, many clinics and hospitals were destroyed from the wars.

Health-care equipment is also not current.

“New technology such as CAT scans, or MRI and all the X-ray machines, none of this exists there,” Tawfiq said. “So people, they have to travel outside of Afghanistan. The majority of people cannot afford that. If they go to neighboring countries, they have to get a visa, they have to get a passport and they have to have enough money to travel.”

Tawfiq said that by the time people in Afghanistan manage to reach a hospital in neighboring countries such as Iran or Turkmenistan, the sick person either dies or gets close to dying. People often have to sell much of their belongings just to leave the country.

“Economically all the people are under stress,” Tawfiq said. “For example, it’s costly to travel. They sell their home or they have to get a loan. It’s a very, very bad situation. Very expensive.”

The new hospital will provide classrooms and laboratories to teach Afghan people to build new facilities and provide health care. The building will be built on a 25-acre plot of land, which was donated by Herat University and the Afghan government.

Tawfiq said the Afghan Amity Society has also received help from other organizations which have hospitals around the world.

“We are talking with these companies and these organizations to help us once our building is there,” Tawfiq said. “We have some commitment from people who have hospitals around the world.

“They can come build the hospitals, they can take the responsibility of training and running the hospital for an ongoing long-term situation.”

According to Tawfiq, security in Herat is stable, so the organization will not have trouble constructing it. However, the Afghan Amity Society needs to raise money to hire technical workers and to buy construction materials and hospital equipment.

To raise money to build the hospital, Tawfiq is currently selling handcrafted work from Afghanistan to the public. Elaborate area rugs, carpets, musical instruments, jewelry and carvings are for sale at the Khyber Pass Gallery, which Tawfiq owns.

Works are also being sold at the Endangered Planet Gallery.

The Afghan Amity Society has helped build two schools in Afghanistan. According to Tawfiq, the schools have run for about six years so far. These schools teach English, math, art and computer skills. The students range from 5-year-olds to 45-year-olds.

“We have classes for literacy for older people and we also have vocational classes, such as teaching the ladies how to do sewing and making clothing,” Tawfiq said. “And then we have art students who can create art. We have also some programs for fixing computers.”

The artwork will be sold at the Khyber Pass Gallery, 1970 S. Coast Hwy. and at Endangered Planet Gallery, 384 Forest Ave.

To contact Tawfiq, call (949)494-8284 or e-mail stawfiq@khyberpass gallery.com. For more information, visit khyberpassgallery.com.