GOP women learn about Afghanistan
By Daniel Wolowicz danielw@theacorn.com
Laid out on a table of clean, white linen, the polished jewelry sparkled under the noonday sun.

JEWELRY FOR EDUCATION––Bonita Chamberlin, who spent many years in Afghanistan, shows jewelry made by Afghani women Chamberlin sends the money raised from the sales of the jewelry back to Afghanistan to train teachers and help in other ways

The quiet surroundings of Westlake Inn’s main dining room gave no hint of the gems’ turbulent past or the incredible journey they took to come, literally, from the other side of the world. The jewels are the product of one woman’s campaign to save a nomadic tribe of Afghan men, women and children trapped in their own country.

Last week, Bonita Chamberlin shared her story of international travels and tribulations during a luncheon presented by the Thousand Oaks Republican Women Federated. The Afghan tribal jewelry was on sale as part of the event’s boutique.

Chamberlin, a PhD in biology and an explosives expert, spent the past 30 years traveling in and out of Afghanistan to bring aid to the country’s war-torn refugees.

Her treks through the rocky mountain passes of the Wakhan Corridor in the Pamir Mountains have been dangerous undertakings. She has endured freezing temperatures and land mines and even survived being shot by a Pakistani border guard in 1997.

“Nothing is the same,” Chamberlin said of Afghanistan’s past 30 years. “What was once green, lush, prosperous and rich with export is now brown, barren and Stone Age.” In March 2002, Chamberlin used her expertise in geology to start a jewelrymaking program to help Afghan refugees rebuild their local economy. Chamberlin taught members of the Kuchi tribe, a group of nomads from eastern Afghanistan, how to mine the country’s indigenous gems.

She introduced the Afghans to craftsmen from Bali, who taught them how to fashion the gems into silver-plated jewelry.

Her efforts also helped establish worldwide distribution and sales of the jewelry.

Today Chamberlin travels throughout the United States to sell the jewelry and raise awareness of Afghanistan’s efforts to rebuild.

According to Chamberlin, the $300,000 generated by the nonprofit group goes straight back to the Afghan villages that mined and created the jewelry. The money finances two schools, a health clinic and an orphanage. The money also paid for the clearing of two landmine fields. Now one of those fields is used for reforestation, while the other helps irrigate local crops.

It was the romantic tales from James Michener’s “Caravans” that drove Chamberlin to visit Afghanistan in the mid-1970s. She quickly fell in a love with the country.

However, her travels became increasingly dangerous after the former Soviet Union invaded the Texas-sized country in 1979.

From 1983 to 1997, Chamberlin continued to sneak in and out of the country with the Afghan rebels––oftentimes dressed as a man––to bring aid to the Kuchi tribe.

Chamberlin said the Soviet’s “scorched earth” policy of continual bombings ravaged the country. The bombs destroyed cities and villages and ruined the nationwide irrigation system. Because agriculture was Afghanistan’s No. 1 export, the country sank into an economic depression marked by famine and disease. The result was one of the largest refugee populations in the world.

The Soviet bombings also had an unexpected result. The explosions uncovered a land rich in precious gems. Afghans began grassroot mining projects, using unexploded Soviet land mines and bombs to mine the gems.

Because they were untrained, Afghans began killing themselves in mining accidents. So Chamberlin returned to the U.S. in the mid-1980s and took explosives classes at the Colorado School of Mines. She returned to Afghanistan and started to train the locals in explosives handling and basic engineering.

Chamberlin said she’s the first woman in 6,000 years to be given access to the country’s famous lapis mines, the source of the rare gem found primarily in Afghanistan.

After the Soviets left in 1992, the country erupted in a civil war.

During this political unrest, the Taliban rose to power and began an era of strict religious rule.

“Women were no longer allowed to work,” Chamberlin said.

“The only way a woman could make money was to be a prostitute or a beggar.” Women were also forced to wear burkas, veiled and hooded dresses that completely covered their bodies. “It wasn’t just a physical burka for the women,” Chamberlin said. “It was a psychological burka.” Chamberlin also wore a burka at certain times to help avoid detection.

Chamberlin, who continued to travel into Afghanistan throughout the various wars, said she primarily stayed in one of the areas free of Taliban control. “I felt as safe as you could feel there,” Chamberlin said. “I knew the Afghans would lay down their lives for me if need be. That’s how they are.” After the 2001 bombings of the World Trade Center, the United States invaded Afghanistan in search of Osama bin Laden, leader of Al Qaeda, the militant Islamic group responsible for the attacks.

When the bin Laden tapes were released, then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz called Chamberlin to use her expertise to help locate bin Laden.

“Because I had mapped nearly 1,400 mines in the area, they thought I might be able to tell where he was based on the rock formations in the background of the video,” Chamberlin said. She was able to correctly identify the location, but the terrorists had already moved on.

Eventually, the Taliban were pushed out of Afghanistan, leaving a shell of the country in their wake. “People were starving, living in these enormous refugee camps,” Chamberlin said. “There was no food and no blankets. It was out of this environment that I started my project.” To make matters worse, Chamberlin said, a decade earlier the Soviets left behind an estimated 10 million land mines. As a result, the nomads can no longer travel the countryside, and Chamberlin must stick to dangerous, rocky paths when coming into Afghanistan. She said 100 people a month are losing their lives and prosthetics is a booming industry.

“There needs to more international pressure on Russia to help clear those land mines,” Chamberlin said. “As it is now, it will take 50 years to clear all of the mines.” Dangers aside, Chamberlin plans to return to Afghanistan in November. Her trips, which were once three months long, are now only 10 days long because she has to support herself by working in adult education.

Rosemary Licata, the event’s chair, said the Republican Women Federated meetings help “empower” women. The luncheon also included a slideshow presentation by Cadet Colonel Andrew Kim, who heads the Los Angeles Unified School District Junior ROTC and is the chairperson for the Young Republicans Party at Los Angeles High School.

Kim spoke about his trip to Washington, D.C., to participate in a youth conference and see President Bush sworn into office in November 2004.

For more information about Bonita Chamberlin, visit www.insideafghanistan.org.