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CNN Live At Daybreak

Woman's Husband Awaits Word on Husband in Afghanistan

Aired October 29, 2001 - 06:35   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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: A wife and a child anxiously await word, but it doesn't come. The woman's husband went back to their homeland of Afghanistan to try and help the struggling people there. He made his trip seven other times, always returning, but as CNN's Thelma Gutierrez reports, it's been a month since the family last heard from him.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Darmina Calilee (ph) and her daughter Dora (ph) watch the suffering of Afghan children, and news of bombs raining down on what was once their homeland.

DARMINA CALILEE: They're my people. Of course it hurts and Afghanistan is my land. I was born there. I was raised there, and of course it hurts.

GUTIERREZ: They watch images of desperate men, women and children on videotape shot in refugee camps by Darmina's husband Argull (ph).

CALILEE: He's helping his people and he's giving them the supplies like food, medicine, clothes.

GUTIERREZ: The family says Argull has made the trip to Afghanistan eight times to provide humanitarian relief. She believes he is there now somewhere in the north.

CALILEE: No communication at all, because there's no way that you can have communication.

GUTIERREZ: Argullleft Los Angeles more than a month ago. His wife and children last heard from him when he was about to cross the border into Afghanistan.

DORA: I'm afraid that he might get killed, but at the same time, I know that he's going to make it because he's a very brave man, and I'm very, very proud of him.

GUTIERREZ: Once a parking valet, Argull is now the founder of a non-profit charity called Afghanistan Relief Organization. He has distributed donations of food, clothes and medical supplies to refugees since 1998. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): She's said there have been like times that for 10 days we don't have food. There's no food, no water -- nothing.

GUTIERREZ: Darmina says these miserable conditions were shot back in March, long before U.S. strikes. The situation now is worse than ever.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Our homes have been destroyed and we have nothing, and we're just living here under these tents.

GUTIERREZ: The plastic tents, jackets, and shoes were donated by Afghan Americans who say it is now harder to enjoy a meal while so many go hungry.

CALILEE: It's very hard, and it's been like three, four days I haven't slept, and I can't eat because when I eat, you know, I can't - it just gets stuck in my throat because I think that all my people there are hungry there and God knows what's going on right - on there right now, and I'm really depressed - really depressed.

GUTIERREZ: Fourteen-old Dora says she is haunted by this image of a 13-year old Afghan girl.

DORA: She was very sick. My dad told me she was very, very, deeply hungry.

GUTIERREZ: Argull left the girl's side, visited other children, then returned a few hours later.

DORA: When he came back, he found her dead. When I heard that, I was so shocked, and I couldn't believe that girl died.

GUTIERREZ: The stories are echoed from camp to camp.

CALILEE: I feel sorry for them and I wonder how they - how they can live like that. You know it's not easy to live like that, so I keep wondering just how they can live like that, you know. It's not easy for them.

GUTIERREZ: And it's not easy on Argull's family either. They grieve for refugees thousands of miles away, and they worry about the man trying to save them somewhere in Afghanistan. This interview was taped in September right before he left.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I (INAUDIBLE) Afghanistan I pray for myself and for my (INAUDIBLE) and for my wife and say good-bye.

DORA: If he dies, then when I grow up, I will live on his legacy. I will go to Afghanistan and I will do the same thing that he did.

GUTIERREZ: Thelma Gutierrez, CNN, Los Angeles.

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