The Ehsan Family Project was started by the Ehsan Family in 2000 in the city of Jalalabad, Afghanistan.
This project has helped hundreds and hundreds of families and individuals raise their standard of living by providing small grants to applicants.

The grants are typically $5 - $10.

This small amount of money can significantly raise the income potential of a family. I first learned of this project in January of this year when I attended a meeting of Bay Area groups that work in the rebuilding efforts in Afghanistan.

I was absolutely inspired by the simplicity of this project and its effectiveness. Rather than try to extol the virtues of the Ehsan Family Project, I instead want retell the story Hosai Ehsan told us that day in January:

This involved a family in Jalalabad. A boy in the family would take the family cooking pot and go out on the streets and sell beans (cooked in a traditional way, this is a typical dish in Afghanistan). He would work to sell all of the beans in the pot but, because the pot was the only one the family had, he'd have to get the pot home by 3:00 in the afternoon so that his mother could cook dinner.

With a grant of $5.00 the family was able to buy another pot which allowed the boy to stay out all day and make more money. In addition, they got an additional grant of $8.00 to buy a large amount of beans which also improved the family's earning potential.

So, with a total of $13.00 this family was able to greatly improve its standard of living.

Hosai passed around the actual grant applications, she had dozens of them, each one with a photo of the applicant and the written application for grant money. Her main point in showing the grant documents was to emphasize that, "This is not charity. People must be able to tell us how they are going to use the money."

I was completely inspired by Hosai and her story. Athough there are large non-governmental organizations and well-known groups working to rebuild Afghanistan, I was struck by the effectiveness of this small effort. While the large groups and governments are doing their part it is the combined efforts of all of us that will help this country rebuild.

As of this writing (November 6, 2005) Hosai Ehsan's father is in the United States for a short visit. One of the purposes of his visit is to raise more money for the project so more grants can be made. All donations are used for these grants, all overhead expenses are covered by the Ehsan family. If you would like to help (no amount is too small) send a check to:

Ehsan Family Project
c/o Hosai Ehsan
5569 Gold Creek Drive
Castro Valley, CA 94552

if you have further questions email: Hosai Ehsan

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