THE parents of a Scottish aid worker, who was killed in Afghanistan after being taken hostage, have visited the country for the first time since her death 18 months ago.
John and Lorna Norgrove – whose daughter Linda died when a US special forces soldier threw a grenade during a failed attempt to rescue her in October 2010 – travelled from their home on Lewis to Kabul to see projects they have funded in her name.
The couple, who had previously visited Afghanistan shortly after their marriage in the 1970s, also wanted to meet Linda's friends and workmates as well as voluntary staff at the schemes aided by their foundation in the country.
They said the visit was emotionally draining, but immensely valuable in giving them a better sense of how things were on the ground.
Speaking on his return, Mr Norgrove said: "We could not believe the change in the country since our visit there as newlyweds.
"Until you see it, it's difficult to appreciate the scale of the military operation in the coun-try. In 2011 the cost of the war was $103 billion and aid $15.7bn. This equates to around $20,000 per Afghan family per year in US spending alone.
"By contrast a teacher heading up this notional Afghan family might receive $20 a week, if he gets his pay at all. This imbalance inevitably exacerbates corruption."
After Linda's death, at the age of 36, her family refused to apportion blame and instead set up a charitable foundation in her name, raising money for projects which help women and children in Afghanistan.
They gathered more than £300,000 – £100,000 from their own and Linda's savings, £100,000 from the Scottish Government and the rest through fundraising.
Mr Norgrove said: "We are so determined to make sure the foundation only funds projects where we know the donations people give us will make a real difference on the ground.
"We want to fund small projects with low overheads and visible results."
During their visit, the Norgroves went to the Afghan Educational Children's Circus – a groundbreaking project which uses entertainment to educate children on issues such as land-mine awareness and drug misuse.
The foundation has given £9135 to provide meals for the children for a year. This encourages them to attend and also helps tackle malnourishment which is rife among children.
Mr Norgrove said: "This is a really inspiring project and it was great to see children singing and dancing, escaping from such a battle-scarred neighbourhood with razor wire topping every wall."
The Educational Children's Circus is one of a number of projects that have received funding totalling more than £50,000 in the latest round of grants from the foundation.
Other projects the Norgroves visited included a women's safe house, where counselling for abused women – such as women released from prison, on the run from murderous families or acid attack victims – is provided by an international group.
Although born in Sutherland, Linda had grown up in the Uig area on the west of Lewis.
To mark the first anniversary of her death, the local community launched the inaugural Linda Norgrove Valtos Peninsula 10k run.
As well as entrants from the local area, people were encouraged to take part remotely by running 10k wherever they were in the world, wearing a foundation T-shirt, and posting photographs on the foundation website.
Entries came from across the world including Antarctica, Papua New Guinea, Canada, Peru, Australia, New Zealand, Germany and Uganda.
More than 60 T-shirts were sent to the United States.
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