Special Projects

Solace for the Children operates the Solace Summer Program and the Solace Extended Program. We also stay connected with children as they return to Afghanistan. Once healthy, the most valuable gift to offer a child is education. This can be accomplished by placing a child in an Afghan school or helping to find the right educational experience for him or her in America.

Solace Summer Program
The Solace Summer Programs identifies children from throughout Afghanistan to come to America and live with host families for 6 weeks. Each child receives basic medical, dental and optical care throughout the weeks of the program. Each child requires a sponsor to help offset travel costs and a host family within a Solace Branch area. Solace Summer participants return to Afghanistan healthier and with a different, more positive perspective of America and Americans.

Solace Extended Program
The medical need is great in Afghanistan. The health of many children can be substantially improved within 6 weeks. For others, more time is needed, or the need is immediate. These children often qualify for the Solace Extended Program. Extended candidates can arrive in the U.S. for treatment at any time of year. Host families and partnering medical teams and facilities are recruited to meet the individual need of each child.

Solace Learn
Children return from Solace Programs with improved health and ready to learn! Some have never had the opportunity to attend school before due to their medical needs. Solace Learn evaluates the needs of each Solace alumni to see if additional support is needed to enable the child to safely learn. This may mean providing safe transportation for girls or making adequate schools supplies available. Solace may also help with the cost of teachers or course work for eager and able students.

You made a difference in 2010!

• Celebrations for 2010 (Click to open a PDF)
• So many lives have been profoundly affected. Read these examples:

Lida arrived from Mazar-e-Sharif with what was believed to be an orthopedic problem in her leg. Afghan records told us Lida and her family were running from a rocket attack near her home when her leg was accidental broken. This likely happened in 2008, yet this 9 year old was still have trouble with her leg. On arrival in her Solace Host Community physicians quickly realized the problem was not a bone that needed to be reset, but a raging infection of the bone! Quick and generous action and three surgeries saved this girls life and returned her to her Afghan family healthy. You can see more of Lida on NBC's Nightly News with Brian Williams - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/ns/nightly_news/#38529577

Feroza suffered from extensive burns as a small child in Bamyan. With no medical care available to her, the affects of the scarring left her unable to perform even the simplest tasks expected of an Afghan girl - a devastating situation for most rural Afghan females. Now Feroza is in the midst of a multi-step surgical process to restore full her to health and a productive life. She is also in school for the first time and soaking up knowledge with great enthusiasm!

 

• Still at work! Children are waiting for treatment!

Sher Jahn is from the province of Nimroz in southern Afghanistan. A surgical team has agreed to correct the defect commonly called clubbed feet which causes both of his feet to be twisted and deformed. To the best of his family's knowledge, Sher Jahn was born 11 years ago.