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On 14 May, Lithuania’s development cooperation projects in Afghanistan’s Ghor province were presented during Armed Forces and Society Festivity at the Santaka Park in Kaunas.

At the MFA tent in the international operations’ camp, visitors had the possibility of seeing the film “From a Recruit to Ambassador” that tells the story about Jonas Vitkevičius, the first Ambassador of the Lithuanian background to Afghanistan, and a film about Afghanistan’s Ghor province.

Participants of the Armed Forces and Society Festivity could see photos and the Afghan women handicrafts, and listen to folk music of the country. Visitors were welcomed by some mannequins that were dressed in authentic Afghan clothes.

The MFA tent attracted visitors not only with the images of Afghan, but also with its flavours: a huge cauldron with typical tea drunk in Afghani homes was boiling over the campfire near the tent, visitors were treated to dried peas.

At the festivity, children had an opportunity to take a quiz and demonstrate their knowledge about this distant country, while the smallest kids were invited to communicate their wishes through drawings, which later will be sent to their little fellows in Afghanistan.

In 2010, Lithuania implemented 26 development cooperation projects in this country at the total value of over 2 million Litas. The majority of all projects are being implemented in the spheres of social development, healthcare, good governance and in building institutional and administrative capacities.

Medical staff from the Chaghcharan hospital in Ghor province got the internship in Lithuania and a Lithuanian gynaecologist visited Chaghcharan, consulted patients at hospital and in women’s prison, organized training courses for Afghani medics.

For several years Lithuania has supported the Afghan Civil Service Institute’s unit in Chaghcharan, where civil servants of Ghor province acquire computer literacy, basic English and management skills.

Assistance was provided to schools, police stations and rural communities through other projects in Ghor province.

In 2010, Lithuania also continued to build the Children’s Care Centre in Chaghcharan. This year, Lithuanian plans to improve health care services to residents of the province of Ghor and to start the reconstruction of the hospital in Chaghcharan.

The international community aims to ensure safe every day life of the Afghan people, to end the fights that have lasted several decades, to reduce poverty in the country and the threat of international terrorism.