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CNN Live At Daybreak
Inside Afghanistan: U.S. Humanitarian Worker
Aired December 26, 2002 - 05:43 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We now take you "Inside Afghanistan" for the final segment in our series. Before terrorism and the Taliban became household concerns here in the United States, an American woman had spent decades helping Afghanistan's women and children. The Taliban forced her to leave, but now she's back.
Our Fredricka Whitfield caught up with the one-woman wonder.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Eastern Afghanistan, breathtaking snowcapped mountains, sienna hillsides dotted with homes made of mud, so much natural beauty. Men of modest means herding goat to the valley creek seem rich in both place and pride, this setting both majestic and misleading.
Life is hard from the remote villages to the capital city, especially for children and women. What's it like exactly?
MARY MACMAKIN, HUMANITARIAN WORKER: It's a problem. You got to carry the water, you got to carry food and everything. So it's...
WHITFIELD: We wanted to know so we tagged along with American- born Mary MacMakin, a Stanford University trained physical therapist who has navigated the neediest neighborhoods here for 41 years.
MACMAKIN: Well my goal is to do a good job and to take care of these poor widows or poor women as best I can.
WHITFIELD: And helping those crippled. It's what she's been doing since 1961 when her printer husband at the time moved their family of six here for his job with the country's education ministry. Mary, who loves horses, at age 74 shows no signs of fatigue.
MACMAKIN: I've spent a lifetime doing various things, mostly supporting myself with physical therapy. And now that I've gotten into this humanitarian business, I find it's exactly what I want to do. I enjoy it.
WHITFIELD: Years ago, she became the head of her licensed humanitarian group called PARSA. Like an old-time family doctor, she makes house calls, delivering hope to people in places where there is none, speaking the language.
On this day, she treks to visit two little girls.
MACMAKIN: Here's Sharisa (ph) here. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi.
WHITFIELD: Both so malnourished, 5-year-old Parwana (ph) can't walk and 6-year-old Sharisa is nearly deaf. It's believed their mother, unable to meet their special needs, abandoned them.
MACMAKIN: She's very much the extrovert and -- but again, well there's a little bleak (ph), right?
WHITFIELD: Mary found a widow to be their foster parent. For $100 a month from PARSA, the widow provides the girls food.
MACMAKIN: She says she's got a carrot too (ph).
WHITFIELD: And shelter in their tiny two-room home.
MACMAKIN: Let's go.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bye.
WHITFIELD: At no charge, Mary takes the girls to physical therapy across town.
MACMAKIN: She has a lot of elasticity (ph) in these muscles, in the calf muscles.
WHITFIELD: Helping to stretch the muscles of dozens of crippled children. But the day's work still not over. Thirty bumpy miles and one hour later, Mary helps broaden young minds as well in small agriculture villages where home schools are packed. Little girls like Nazila (ph) eager to tell us about their ambition.
MACMAKIN: Little girl says she can be a doctor, she can be a teacher, she can be either one, whichever she wants to be.
WHITFIELD (on camera): Before now, did you ever have that dream?
NAZILA (through translator): Yes, I have had this dream.
MACMAKIN: It's not something new. They have had this thought. They've been wanting to go to school for a while.
WHITFIELD (voice-over): This she called a reward after enduring one of the biggest challenges she's had in this part of the world.
(on camera): When the Taliban took over here in 1996, Mary MacMakin's non-government women and children's advocacy group was just getting started. After several encounters with the Taliban she describes as not so nice, a final threatening ultimatum, leave in 24 hours or else.
MACMAKIN: I didn't have any choice at that point, but that was -- that was in 2000.
WHITFIELD: Well how was that message conveyed to you? MACMAKIN: By a letter from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It says that it's clear to us that you are engaged in espionage activities and we do not have any need for you in the country anymore.
WHITFIELD (voice-over): So she relocated to Pakistan, until the fall of the Taliban.
MACMAKIN: Oh that was a happy moment. November 11, I'll never forget it, yes.
WHITFIELD: Two months later, she returned to Kabul, reestablishing her humanitarian group, even opening this store selling crafts made by women; and she's still not finished.
MACMAKIN: Another goal is a swimming pool for women so women can learn how to swim.
WHITFIELD: Mary MacMakin, at an age when many Americans have retired, living her golden years in Afghanistan, still on the go.
MACMAKIN: Got legs that want to move so I have to move.
WHITFIELD: And a heart that continues to reach out to Afghans in desperate living conditions.
MACMAKIN: Yes, I need a couple more strong arms for this.
WHITFIELD: Fredricka Whitfield, CNN, Hogman (ph), Afghanistan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Great job by Fredricka Whitfield.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired December 26, 2002 - 05:43 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We now take you "Inside Afghanistan" for the final segment in our series. Before terrorism and the Taliban became household concerns here in the United States, an American woman had spent decades helping Afghanistan's women and children. The Taliban forced her to leave, but now she's back.
Our Fredricka Whitfield caught up with the one-woman wonder.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Eastern Afghanistan, breathtaking snowcapped mountains, sienna hillsides dotted with homes made of mud, so much natural beauty. Men of modest means herding goat to the valley creek seem rich in both place and pride, this setting both majestic and misleading.
Life is hard from the remote villages to the capital city, especially for children and women. What's it like exactly?
MARY MACMAKIN, HUMANITARIAN WORKER: It's a problem. You got to carry the water, you got to carry food and everything. So it's...
WHITFIELD: We wanted to know so we tagged along with American- born Mary MacMakin, a Stanford University trained physical therapist who has navigated the neediest neighborhoods here for 41 years.
MACMAKIN: Well my goal is to do a good job and to take care of these poor widows or poor women as best I can.
WHITFIELD: And helping those crippled. It's what she's been doing since 1961 when her printer husband at the time moved their family of six here for his job with the country's education ministry. Mary, who loves horses, at age 74 shows no signs of fatigue.
MACMAKIN: I've spent a lifetime doing various things, mostly supporting myself with physical therapy. And now that I've gotten into this humanitarian business, I find it's exactly what I want to do. I enjoy it.
WHITFIELD: Years ago, she became the head of her licensed humanitarian group called PARSA. Like an old-time family doctor, she makes house calls, delivering hope to people in places where there is none, speaking the language.
On this day, she treks to visit two little girls.
MACMAKIN: Here's Sharisa (ph) here. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi.
WHITFIELD: Both so malnourished, 5-year-old Parwana (ph) can't walk and 6-year-old Sharisa is nearly deaf. It's believed their mother, unable to meet their special needs, abandoned them.
MACMAKIN: She's very much the extrovert and -- but again, well there's a little bleak (ph), right?
WHITFIELD: Mary found a widow to be their foster parent. For $100 a month from PARSA, the widow provides the girls food.
MACMAKIN: She says she's got a carrot too (ph).
WHITFIELD: And shelter in their tiny two-room home.
MACMAKIN: Let's go.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bye.
WHITFIELD: At no charge, Mary takes the girls to physical therapy across town.
MACMAKIN: She has a lot of elasticity (ph) in these muscles, in the calf muscles.
WHITFIELD: Helping to stretch the muscles of dozens of crippled children. But the day's work still not over. Thirty bumpy miles and one hour later, Mary helps broaden young minds as well in small agriculture villages where home schools are packed. Little girls like Nazila (ph) eager to tell us about their ambition.
MACMAKIN: Little girl says she can be a doctor, she can be a teacher, she can be either one, whichever she wants to be.
WHITFIELD (on camera): Before now, did you ever have that dream?
NAZILA (through translator): Yes, I have had this dream.
MACMAKIN: It's not something new. They have had this thought. They've been wanting to go to school for a while.
WHITFIELD (voice-over): This she called a reward after enduring one of the biggest challenges she's had in this part of the world.
(on camera): When the Taliban took over here in 1996, Mary MacMakin's non-government women and children's advocacy group was just getting started. After several encounters with the Taliban she describes as not so nice, a final threatening ultimatum, leave in 24 hours or else.
MACMAKIN: I didn't have any choice at that point, but that was -- that was in 2000.
WHITFIELD: Well how was that message conveyed to you? MACMAKIN: By a letter from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It says that it's clear to us that you are engaged in espionage activities and we do not have any need for you in the country anymore.
WHITFIELD (voice-over): So she relocated to Pakistan, until the fall of the Taliban.
MACMAKIN: Oh that was a happy moment. November 11, I'll never forget it, yes.
WHITFIELD: Two months later, she returned to Kabul, reestablishing her humanitarian group, even opening this store selling crafts made by women; and she's still not finished.
MACMAKIN: Another goal is a swimming pool for women so women can learn how to swim.
WHITFIELD: Mary MacMakin, at an age when many Americans have retired, living her golden years in Afghanistan, still on the go.
MACMAKIN: Got legs that want to move so I have to move.
WHITFIELD: And a heart that continues to reach out to Afghans in desperate living conditions.
MACMAKIN: Yes, I need a couple more strong arms for this.
WHITFIELD: Fredricka Whitfield, CNN, Hogman (ph), Afghanistan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Great job by Fredricka Whitfield.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
