“Return to Hope”
NATO’s upcoming website on Afghanistan
Excerpt
“Sometimes I wake up and put my right sock on, and then I'll try to put a left sock on. And
then I'll look down and my brain will be, like, "Oh." And I'll sit there, really depressed, for
about ten seconds. But then I'll be, like, ‘Charlie Mike.’” [Continue Mission]
In the early morning hours of 16 June 2013, a one-legged man stepped through the door
of an airplane 800 feet
above Fort Bragg, North
Carolina. It was exactly
14 months since his left
foot had been blown off
by a roadside bomb near
Kandahar – an event that
would have ended the
combat careers of most
soldiers. But Lt Joshua
Pitcher is not ‘most
soldiers.’
Description
Entitled
Return to Hope,
this website weaves together the story of Afghanistan as
told by some of the
extraordinary
people who returned there, determined to help
create a better country:
an 86-year-old
American
historian
and archivist
who has documented Afghanistan’s
history since the 1960s, despite being thrown out for a decade by the Soviets
and
kept out by the Taliban
;
a young entrepreneur, the first female CEO of an Afghan technology company
who dedicates her life to educating women, despite death threats;
a musician
and scholar
who left a life of ease in the West to found Afghanistan’s first
orchestra after the Taliban regime, which had banned music in the country;
a commando who stares death in the face to defend his nation;
a TV presenter
who began his career as a child radio broadcaster during the Taliban era and
whose TV shows now attract millions of Afghan viewers each week; and
an ISAF paratrooper who lost a leg to an improvised explosive device but returned to
combat duty
a year-and-a-half later
.
Return to Hope
stands as a virtual testimony to the NATO mission in Afghanistan. The
website is rich in strikingly beautiful images, immersive soundscapes and high-
definition video. It features personal interviews with key actors of varying perspectives,
explores the history, charts the challenges and achievements and recognises the
sacrifice of thousands of men and women from Afghanistan and around the world.
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