Telling Our Story Home » Submit a story » Calendars » FAQs » About » Stories by Region Asia » Europe & and Eurasia » Latin America & the Carribean » Middle East » Sub-Saharan Africa » Stories by Sector Agriculture » Democracy & Governance » Economic Growth & Trade » Education » Environment » Health & Medicine » Infrastructure » Youth & Gender Issues »
	USAID Information: USAID Country Page USAID in Afghanistan: Partnership, Progress, Perseverance USAID's New Sustainability Guidance for Afghanistan (PDF, 350K) USAID's New Initiative in Afghanistan to Protect U.S. Tax Dollars from Unlawful Use USAID Afghanistan and USAID Pakistan at a Glance (PPT, 2.9mb) Employment Opportunities Mission Web Site Transition Initiatives: Afghanistan Stories From Afghanistan Selected USAID Reports Frontlines 01/2011: Special Afghanistan-Pakistan Edition IMPACTblog Posts About Afghanistan External Links: Foreign Assistance to Afghanistan U.S. State Department CIA World Factbook United Nations Development Programme World Bank Group Embassy of Afghanistan Department of Commerce: Rebuilding Afghanistan
	Click for more stories from Asia and the Near East
	RSS Feed for Recent Telling Our Story Updates

Success Story

Photo: USAID/LGCD

Men from Eskin at work on the roadclearingproject.

Photo: USAID/LGCD

Men return to Eskin after completing ten days of paid work to clear the valley’s access road.

What started as an essential snow removal operation resulted in a renewed relationship between local Afghans and their government and a strong commitment to protecting reconstruction efforts from the Taliban insurgency.

Traditionally a stronghold for the insurgency in Kapisa Province, Eskin is a small village in a valley that more than 2,000 families call home. Tough mountainous terrain and restricted access had limited the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan’s presence in this area. Only one road reaches the district center where Eskin valley villagers can access health services, markets, and local government institutions.

But the snowstorm severed Eskin villagers from the world outside their valley. Following a request from the community, USAID’s Local Governance and Community Development project (LGCD) funded efforts to provide 140 local men with snow shovels and compensated them for ten days work to clear the valley’s 11-kilometer access road. The success of the project went well beyond snow removal.

Alasai District government officials visited the project site and shoveled snow alongside the local men to show their support and concern for the village. The impact of the snow clearing went beyond simply providing these men with a much-needed source of income in a difficult season; it provided a unique opportunity for the community to meet and discuss future development initiatives with their local government representatives.

A few weeks after the snow clearing, the people of Eskin announced that they would no longer tolerate a Taliban presence in the valley and would fight to protect future reconstruction and development efforts.

Though small in scale, the snow clearing activity demonstrated to Eskin residents that the government could respond to their grievances. LGCD continues to work throughout Afghanistan’s most volatile provinces to improve stability through strengthened governance, linking local populations with sub-national government structures to provide better service delivery in response to constituents’ needs.

Print-friendly version of this page (533kb - PDF)

Back to Top ^