Sana Orphanage is a tax-exempt, independent, non-political, non-profit, and non-government organization providing assistance to the poor & needy children of Afghanistan.
Dr.Hamidullah runs Sana Orphanage in Kandahar with the support and help of the American people and Afghan Americans. Donations in the US are handled through Shughla K. Ahmadi, who is the president of the organization’s Non-Profit office in the United States. Sana Orphanage provides excellent care in the field of orphan services, education, and vocational training. Sana Orphanage especially serves impoverished, handicapped, abused and orphaned children in the city of Kandahar, but we hope to expand to other cities soon.
It is imperative to have a well equipped and organized center for this orphanage, so that we can increase the capacity of our building, and have a good facility for the staff. The staff currently includes two administrators, four security guards, a driver, a cook, a housekeeper, a laundress, and two teachers (for a total of 12 staff). The orphanage continues to need such items as food, clothing, and shoes for the children, plus books and school supplies for the childrens’ education. In addition, there is a need for continuing medical care for several of our handicapped children, as well as to alleviate the conditions of malnutrition and abuse that some of the children have suffered.
Sana Orphanage is dedicated to educating the children in its care. The orphanage school is designed to serve the needs of all children in its care, including children who have never seen the inside of a classroom. All children at the orphanage are educated. Sana Orphanage provides highly qualified teachers to teach reading, writing, and mathematics, as well as language instruction in Farsi, Pashto and English. In addition, Sana Orphanage also focuses on vocational training for the students with an emphasis on occupations to improve the community. Similarly it provides job placement upon graduation.
Sana Orphanage has made it our mission to educate, care for and provide hope to the orphans of Kandahar. Sana Orphanage will train these orphans to become the backbone of the country, to be the future doctors, engineers, mechanics and teachers of Afghanistan. Education is the light to our future, it opens doors for a better future, and Sana Orphanage will give this light, this opportunity to orphans in Kandahar. It is our hope in the Sana Orphanage to provide education that will stop crime in Afghanistan, fight poverty, and bring success to the country through employment.
The reason why I opened Sana Orphanage:
I was in the seventh grade when my family left our home in Afghanistan. In February 2006, God gave me a chance to return to Afghanistan and visit my devastated country after 13 years.
Going back to Afghanistan after so many years was emotional, yet an amazing journey. After three days of traveling to get there, I could not contain my emotions. The uneasy feeling, the nervousness that I felt was so uncomfortable that I did not know whether to cry or to laugh out loud, for I was once again in the land that I was born in. It was the moment of truth to face what I left behind in my childhood. As I was looking through the airplane window, I could not believe the damage to the city of Kabul. Nothing was the same as I had remembered it to be. At this point I could not stop my tears from flowing.
What amazed me the most was to see how people are surviving every day in Afghanistan. I could see the pain and suffering of my poor people. There were widows with their babies begging in the streets. Young boys were looking through piles of trash to find items to sell. It still hurts to think or talk about it. After a month and half I had to leave Afghanistan, but my people never left my heart. My heart was broken and I was praying to God to give me courage and a chance to share my blessings with my country.
Eight months later I returned to Afghanistan. One night while I was in Kandahar, my relatives and I were talking about the harsh conditions that the orphans and widows are in. That night I decided that I had to do something to help. I called my husband, who was in the US, and told him about opening an orphanage; he was very supportive and he told me that he would send me some money for the startup costs. The next day I took my valuable jewelry to the jewelers and sold it. With the money that my husband had sent me and the money that I received from selling my jewelry and with God’s blessing, I opened Sana Orphanage. Sana Orphanage is named after my daughter.
2021 Update
Since Sana Orphanage opened its doors
to the poor and needy children of Kandahar
in October 2006, with God’s help
we have been able to save
53 kids.