Perkiomenville farmer brings water to Afghan village

Published February 28, 2005
By Lisa Schaeffer

The first time Aldo Magazzeni set off solo for Afghanistan, he really had no clear purpose for his journey.

One thing he did know was he felt an unexplainable draw to travel to Afghanistan alone, in hopes of forming relationships with people in need. Despite initially lacking a clear focus, Magazzeni opted to fund his own trip and ultimately ended up having a huge impact on the way hundreds of Afghan people live.

Magazzeni is credited with creating the first modern water system in the Panjsher Valley.

"I decided that I would do it on my own," he said. "I am really a strong believer in that the way the world gets better is by forming relationships with people. My full intent was to go there and meet Afghan people."

Magazzeni, of Perkiomenville, owns and operates Agway in Pughtown with his wife, Anna. The couple owns a farm in Perkiomenville and Aldo Magazzeni spends several months out of the year traveling to remote locations around the world. He spent the last five years of his life traveling to various countries, including Jamaica and Haiti.

Magazzeni attributes his desire to help others to his own impoverished upbringing in a small town in Italy. He decided to travel to Afghanistan in 2003, shortly after America’s invasion of Iraq.

"I lived in very, very poor conditions until I was 7 years old," Magazzeni said.

Magazzeni embarked on his first trip to Afghanistan in February 2004, arriving in Kabul with no friends and no clear path. Beginning the trip alone, he integrated himself into the local government, meeting foreign journalists, doctors, and local and national politicians. By chance, Magazzeni became close friends with a 22-year-old Afghan driver named Kais. Throughout Magazzeni’s trip, Kais served as his guide and translator.

"When I feel the right thing inside me tells me what do, I don’t look for all the details," Magazzeni said. "The boundaries will all be brought down by the relationships you form with people."

While in Afghanistan, he visited the Panjsher Valley, which comprises 1,000 villages in the northeast mountains of Afghanistan. Despite being home to more than 250 residents, the village has no running water and each day residents walk 400 meters down the side of a mountain to retrieve approximately 500 gallons of water from the Panjsher River. Magazzeni said after his first visit he immediately knew he had to find a way to provide the village with water, even if it meant raising funds by selling his BMW.

"They needed enough to have water for the 250 people who live there and all of their animals," he said. "I took a break for a while to come home and think."

After spending several weeks in the village, Magazzeni returned to Perkiomenville, where he mapped out a plan to construct a water system for the village. After selling his favorite BMW, amongst other personal belongings, he returned to Kwalakoe with funding and materials to build a water system in May 2004. The system he designed pumps water directly from the river to the village, where it is stored in two 450 gallon water tanks. Once the Kwalakoe project was complete, Magazzeni used his remaining materials to build a smaller scale system for the adjacent Jasta village.

"We spent five weeks up there and we built an aqueduct of stone," Magazzeni said. "I provided the know how and all of the products. They were the first two water projects in the entire Panjsher Valley of 1,000 villages.

"I stayed in this village and lived in the village and lived in a tiny room with seven or eight other people."

In addition to his work in the Panjsher Valley, Magazzeni completed two additional projects during his second trip to Afghanistan. During his first trip, Magazzeni met the creator of "Voice For Women," Suraya Pakzad. "Voice For Women" works toward liberating Afghan women and providing them with career skills.

Magazzeni and Pakzad completed work in a Kabul women’s prison, which contained 35 female prisoners and their children, Magazzeni said. Through the "Voice For Women" program, female prisoners were provided with sewing machines so they could learn a trade for when they are released.

Even though Magazzeni was impressed with the program on his first visit, he felt more needed to done for the children. With the help of Pakzad, he funded and created the Voice For Women day-care center. Magazzeni said he secured a room to house the day care, purchased a van to transport children to the nearby center and learning materials, so the children could leave the prison during the day while their mothers sewed. He also supplied Pakzad with office equipment.

"To be a woman, it is so difficult. You have so little voice," Magazzeni said. "We created the program so they can either go to school or to the nursery."

Before returning to Perkiomenville, Magazzeni also completed work at a Kabul shelter, which houses 350 mentally ill and handicapped people, including 120 orphaned children. He said the children were provided with no education, because they could not afford uniforms that are required if they want to attend the local public school. On his return trip, Magazzeni brought funds to purchase materials to make school uniforms for each child at the shelter and provided them with basic school supplies.

Despite being considered a hostile country, Magazzeni said he never once felt in danger and he has plans to return to the Panjsher Valley in April. "I never really felt frightened or threatened. I wasn’t really of that mind, so I never gave people the feeling I was scared or worried," he said. "By the time I was done, there were at least 500 people in the mountains who were very kind to me."

This article can be found online here.