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Aid worker role against poppy industry         11/10/10

 

 

 

►    Linda Norgrove: family background  

►    Community shocked by islander’s killing  

►    Aid worker role against opium poppy industry  

►    Conservationist’s work in Peru rainforests   

 

 

Linda Norgrove was killed helping a battle-torn country she loved. She was working in a dangerous region of Afghanistan when she was captured.

 

Her remit with American-based Development Alternatives Inc (DAI)  involved encouraging poor rural farmers to stop growing illicit opium poppy crops. The plant is turned into addictive heroin and smuggled across Europe.

 

The  industry operates in the shadow of tribal warlords and corrupt government officials in the most lawless parts of the country and the Taliban takes a share of the profits.

 

With drug traffickers almost trebling the price, Linda faced a hugely difficult task persuading poverty stricken growers to switch to legal, less lucrative, sustainable crops like tea or cereal.

 

What rallied development workers like Linda was no sign of acreage increasing.

 

DAI President James Boomgard said her death was “devastating news. Our first thoughts at this moment are with Linda’s immediate family: her parents, John and Lorna, and her sister Sofie.

 

“On behalf of all DAI employees, I extend to them our heartfelt condolences for their terrible loss.”

 

He added: “We are saddened beyond words by the death of a wonderful woman whose sole purpose in Afghanistan was to do good -  to help the Afghan people achieve a measure of prosperity and stability in their everyday lives as they set about rebuilding their country.”

 

Boomgard said: “Linda loved Afghanistan and cared deeply for its people, and she was deeply committed to her development mission.

 

“She was an inspiration to many of us here at DAI and she will be deeply missed.”

 

Linda joined DAI in January as a senior manager on a program called IDEA-NEW, which stands for Incentives Driving Economic Alternatives for the North, East, and West.

 

Funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, IDEA-NEW aims to create jobs, boost local economies, and strengthen local Afghan leadership in unstable and vulnerable areas.

 

Mr Boomgard said the project “has been called a “model of success,” and that achievement is due in no small measure to Linda’s leadership.”

 

He said: “Only a matter of weeks ago she addressed staff in DAI’s Bethesda office about the work she was doing, and expressed cautious optimism about the progress she and her team were making.

 

“Intellectually she was so sound, but she was also highly practical and always calm - a rare combination in this environment,” remembers one long-time colleague and friend of Linda’s.

 

“She was in every respect a gifted development practitioner and an emerging leader in her field.

 

“At DAI, she will be forever remembered for that, but also for her quiet dignity, her commitment to the cause of development in Afghanistan, and her personal warmth.”