Allaudin Center Orphanage is the only orphanage is Afghanistan's capital city, Kabul. Home to over 2000 children, mostly between the ages of 3 to 12, the orphanage is over crowed beyond its capacity and lacks basic facilities.

However, majority of the children in the orphanage is not 'orphans' in the traditional sense. Most have at least one living parent. But utter poverty and lack of employment have driven parents to send their children to the orphanage. As many as six new children arrive at the orphanage every day in hope for food, shelter and an education.

Inside the cement-block building, dirt cakes the grimy, unpainted walls. There is no electricity or heat in the dormitories. An old generator provides power 2 1/2 hours a day. Thin mattresses lie on the floor to accommodate the increasing number of children, who share dirty blankets and wrap themselves in ragged layers against the chill.

The plumbing system is in disrepair, and children are allowed a bath once a week in stove-heated water. The orphanage’s sewerage system remains blocked, despite numerous pledges by various aid agencies and NGOs over the years to resolve the matter. As children play in the afternoon sun, the stench of human excrement permeates the air.
Old clothes are shoved into a cardboard box; broken sandals and running shoes are in another box for the children to pick through.

A much needed food assistance program that was started by the United Nations world food program also stopped in July 2001 after monitors determined some of the food was actually going to families of staff members or was being sold in the market instead of reaching the children.

The school which is one of the most promising aspects of the orphanage is also over crowded with 65 students per class and short on supplies of paper, pencil and basic stationary

The Allaudin Center Orphanage has about 400 staff members who are mainly involved in administrative work, aid agencies are bemused how so many people could possibly be employed in a government-run facility with few resources.

Whatever be the reasons, it is evident that as the orphanage is expanding and its needs increasing, aid agencies and NGOs are becoming more and more reluctant to get involved with the center. A recent report by the Associated Press mentioned that international interest in the orphanage has been waning, with aid workers gone and the number of children increasing. Most aid agencies are reluctant to invest in the orphanage because they perceive it as a form of institutionalization of children.

The worst affected in this bargain are the children living in the orphanage. 

In spite of wide coverage in the international media, and the passing of the Afghan Freedom Support Act 2002 by the United States government, Allahudin orphanage has received little help.

The orphanage is still in need of blankets and beds to protect the children from  the chilling winter conditions of Kabul. The sewage system still needs to be repaired. Electricity and heat are yet to be come to the orphanage and the school is still in dire need of supplies.

Little has changed for the children in Kabul.

HELP ALLAUDIN ORPHANAGE

There is no email or phone contact available with Allaudin orphanage because of the poor conditions in Kabul. Even the postal system is not working properly because of which any letter may take a very long time to reach the orphanage.
One of the most reliable sources to contribute to the orphanage, and also the one that we recommend, is through the RAWA (Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan). which has been helping the children since a long time. The following is the mailing address of RAWA in Pakistan:

Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)
Mailing Address:  RAWA,  P.O.Box 374,  Quetta, Pakistan
Mobile: 0092-300-8551638
Fax: 001-760-2819855
E-mail: rawa@rawa.org
Home Page: http://www.rawa.org
Mirror site: http://rawa.fancymarketing.net
You can learn more about RAWA by visiting their website. We appeal to you to help the children in this orphanage in any manner you can.