January 2002, the Taliban Regime had fallen only two months before, when

I visited Afghanistan for the first time on an assessment mission for the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS). The south part of Kabul was in ruins. That was the beginning of the support for the set-up of the Jesuit presence in Afghanistan, which became a permanent reality in 2005, when Fr Santiago and Br Noel Oliver SJ started to work in Herat. The dream of Mr Karimi of the Herat Technical School started with two mud classrooms for boy and girl students, for whom I brought technical appliances on my visit. Ever since then, I have visited Afghanistan almost annually, and in my time as International Director of JRS sometimes twice a year. The most challenging time was the kidnapping of Fr Prem on 2 June 2014 until his release on 20 February 2015 by the Taliban. These annual visits continue now in my responsibility as Executive President of Jesuit Worldwide Learning (JWL). A great consolation is the many English language, professional and academic students in Bamiyan, Daikundi Province, and in Herat Technical School who study with JWL online. Ever since my first visit 18 years ago, I have fallen in love with this country. This commitment remains unbroken despite many setbacks, because it is based on my relationships with the people. Afghanistan is a country and people I have been accompanying more than any other country in my life and this commitment stays ever stronger seeing in our students the new Afghanistan in whom we believe.