SALEM — The Salem Rotary Club had just finished lunch yesterday in the ballroom of the Hawthorne Hotel when a 17-year-old from Afghanistan, a girl with dark hair and a sweet smile, told a story that was hard to forget.
She said her name was Maria and that her family had suffered much and lost almost everything during years of fighting in her country, initially involving the mujahideen, the Afghan resistance fighters, and, later, the Taliban, the Islamic militant group.
"We didn't have anything, no house, no food, no water to drink," said Maria Fahim, who learned English only a few years ago and spoke in a strong, steady voice. "My small sister was crying just for a piece of bread."
Maria was a young girl when the Taliban fired rockets into her home. One killed her grandfather while he was praying. When she awoke, Maria saw the blood and his body.
"I will never forget this happens," she said. "I was so sick nearly to die."
Maria and the half-dozen children who spoke or sang yesterday at the Rotary meeting, many of them war victims, live at an orphanage run by the Afghan Child Education and Care Organization, an Afghan charity based in Kabul.
The Salem Rotary was their first stop, the first speaking engagement, on a three-month tour of the United States that will include programs at universities and high schools and an interview in Atlanta with CNN, the cable news station.
The tour is sponsored by the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Initiative and grants from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.
The Salem program was arranged by Rachel Williams, a member of the Ipswich Rotary Club and a sponsor of a child in an orphanage run by AFCECO.
They are touring the United States to learn about this country, raise awareness about the plight of the estimated 1 million orphans in Afghanistan and, hopefully, to raise funds for AFCECO, which runs 12 orphanages with about 700 children from the war-torn country.
Ian Pounds, the American-born teacher for AFCECO, explained that many of the children still have parents but are living at orphanages to get an education, food and shelter — and to be safe. AFCECO has armed guards around the clock, according to one of its publications.
Education is so important to the children that he was almost reprimanded one day when he tried to end a class at 6:55 p.m. that usually goes to 7, Pounds said.
"We want our five minutes," one of the girls said.
Nasrin Sultani, the education coordinator at AFCECO, said the orphanages are more "foster havens" that accept children from different backgrounds and regions in the hope of creating future doctors, nurses and community leaders for Afghanistan.
"I really want to work for my people and work for my country," Maria told the Rotarians.
Since arriving in Boston — their first plane trip — the children have visited the Museum of Science, driven on super-highways and met Americans.
"Here is very beautiful, and people are very kind," said Hala Rahmani, 16.
They also have had new experiences.
"When I first saw the lobster," Rahmani said, suddenly giggling, "it was amazing."
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