Kabul, Afghanistan — In parts of Afghanistan where there are no street names or house numbers, utilities and their customers have taken a creative approach to connecting. They use mosques as delivery points for notes and cash, a “pay and pray” system.
Now the national postal service wants to phase this out by installing mailboxes on every street in the country, as part of a plan to modernize a service long challenged by bureaucracy and war.
Big aspirations include introducing access to shopping through e-commerce sites and issuing debit cards for online purchases. It will be a leap in a country where the majority of the population is not banked, air cargo It is in its infancy and international courier companies do not even deliver in the capital, Kabul.
The changes mean Afghans will pay higher service fees, a challenge since more than half the population already depends on humanitarian aid to survive.
The Afghan Post, like much of the country, still does everything on paper. “No one uses email,” said its business development director, Zabihullah Omar. “Afghanistan is a member of the Universal Postal Union, but if we compare ourselves with other countries, the level is low and is in the early stages.”
The postal service has between 400 and 500 branches throughout the country and is key to carrying out administrative tasks such as obtaining a passport or driver’s license. Distributes up to 15,000 passports daily.
Another popular service is the certification of admission documents to higher education or foreign institutions. The main Kabul branch has dedicated counters along with VIP lanes and a women-only area.
Post offices in Afghanistan are vital for women who want to access services or products they would otherwise be denied, as they are often prohibited from entering ministries or other official facilities.
But the specter of Taliban edicts targeting women and girls also haunts the Afghan Post.
At the entrance to the main Kabul branch, a sign tells women that they must wear hijab, or the Islamic veil. One image shows a woman with a red cross over her face visible from her. The other one has a green check mark over her face because only her eyes are visible.
One woman who visited the branch was a 29-year-old medical graduate from the western province of Farah, who identified herself as Arzo. The Ministry of Education would not let her in and sent her to the post office to do the paperwork.
He wanted to certify his documents, a practical measure in the midst of the country’s crisis. precarious economic situation and the radical restrictions about women and girls.
“Anything can happen at any time,” he said. “There are no jobs. There are many problems.”
It was my first time using a post office. He paid 640 Afghanis, or $9, for each document and called the fees too high.
A more satisfied customer was Alam Noori, 22, from the eastern province of Paktika, who came to collect his passport. “Piece of cake,” he said in English. In the past he also used a post office to pick up his driving license.
“I found out about the post office through social media,” he said. “People in the city use it a lot because they know it, but people in the towns and districts don’t.”
Afghan Post business development director Omar wants to make services easier for people, but admitted that will take time.
“In most government agencies, people go from one public service to another, so I want to serve the people here, and that makes me very happy,” he said. “A post office is needed wherever there is a population. “
That’s where the plan to have a mailbox on every street comes in. They will be for paying bills, sending mail, and submitting documents for processing.
But handwritten letters are disappearing, as they are in many parts of the world.
Hamid Khan Hussain Khel is one of the country’s 400 postmen and travels around the capital on a motorcycle sporting the cheerful blue and yellow color of the Afghan Post. But he has yet to deliver a personal letter, despite serving the city’s population of five million for two years. He cited the popularity of smartphones and messaging apps.
He enjoys the work, which is less dangerous than during the decades-long conflict.
“When we meet people, their satisfaction makes us happy,” he said. “I haven’t seen a person who doesn’t smile when he receives the documents from him.”
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