THE parents of a Scottish aid worker who died in Afghanistan have vowed to continue supporting women there in her memory despite the Taliban crisis.
Lorna and John Norgrove founded the Linda Norgrove Foundation to carry on the legacy of their 36-year-old daughter. Her abduction by the fundamentalist group and accidental death during a US-led rescue mission sent shockwaves across Scotland in 2010.
Since then, the organisation set-up in her name has supported a children’s circus, funded a safe minibus service and paid for clean water and sanitation in a programme with women and young people at its heart.
Right now, as many as 200 female students are being funded through their university degrees. And at home in Uig, Lorna and John Norgrove are waiting to find out whether or not they’ll be allowed to continue learning as the Taliban takes charge of the country. The couple are also in contact with female Afghan staff now scared to leave their homes.
Linda, John told The National, would be “devastated” at the change there, which was triggered by the US and UK’s withdrawal of troops. But the couple say they won’t abandon the students, staff and community projects depending on them. “We set the foundation up to help women and children,” John said.
“That has not changed. We made a commitment.”
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Linda was fatally wounded by shrapnel from a US grenade in a Navy Seals mission. Prior to that, around 1000 Nato and Afghan troops had been involved in the search for her.
More than £1.7 million has been raised for the foundation and used to fund small-scale community projects that benefit women and children, along with university scholarships.
Around half of those currently studying are training to be medics and it’s hoped that these students will be allowed to continue under the new regime, which restricts female freedoms. Others on IT and engineering courses, it is feared, will not.
“We made a commitment to the women who have scholarships with us that we’ll support them until graduation,” John says. “Whether it’s possible they’ll be able to continue studying, we don’t know. It’ll probably depend on what subject they are studying. IT and computing subjects may be considered male areas, so they may have to change to other areas of study. For those in midwifery and medicine, those are considered more female areas so we think that they will be allowed to continue.”
“It’s going to take some time before the Taliban decide what they are going to allow,” Lorna adds. “It’s very difficult for us to say. Everything will be on hold for a week or two.”
The couple have visited Afghanistan several times, the last of which was 2018. Coronavirus derailed a bid to go back last year, but even in 2018 there was a sense of being “under siege” in capital Kabul, John says. That was during heightened militant attacks and roadblocks and helicopters were commonplace in the city.
They’re in contact with their local staff and volunteers, as well as with other non-governmental organisations they fund there. “Some have been operating in areas that have been overrun already,” John says.
“The Taliban search the premise to find out what they are working on and they have to agree to abide by certain conditions, one of which is that any woman who works for the organisation has to wear a burkha and be accompanied by a male relative when they go out. If that happens, that will really affect us.
“The women who work for us are frightened about going outside,” he goes on. “That’s going to hamper our activities for a while.”
However, major or long-term disruption to projects is a “big worry”, as is the safety for the women they know. That’s amidst stories of kidnappings and forced marriages by Taliban members.
“We’re in contact with women who have grown up having their security assured by American and Nato troops,” John says. “All of a sudden there’s the prospect they might get kidnapped and effectively imprisoned and systematically raped for the rest of their lives.
“We’ve got risk mitigation procedures as any reasonable charity is going to have. At the end of the day we rely on the judgement of the women who work for us – they’ve got a much better idea than we have. They’re really savvy.
“Linda would have been devastated by this,” he went on. “She always said that when she was in Afghanistan she could leave at any time but that isn’t available to ordinary Afghans. We are incredibly sensitive to the situation they are finding themselves in.”
To support the work of the Linda Norgrove Foundation with Afghan women and children, please click here.
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