Good things are happening in Afghanistan although you’d never guess it from the mainstream media. Contrary to the negative reports that focus on violence, drugs, and corruption, there has been a tremendous increase in both girls’ and boys’ education in Afghanistan over the past several years. Millions of children are now attending schools all over the country.
Two California organizations that are actively involved in these successful efforts are the Afghan Friends Network, John Bortner, President, based in San Francisco and Afghan Education for a Better Tomorrow, based in Tracy, California. Both are US 501 c3 non-profit organizations as well as registered NGO’s in Afghanistan.
These organizations report on a number of successful programs around Afghanistan that are bringing education and literacy to both children and adults and reducing the 70% Illiteracy rate throughout the country. A record number of children, both girls and boys, are attending schools. So many are graduating with high school diplomas that the next challenge is to develop sufficient university and technical school opportunity for them—and of course job opportunities upon graduation. But these challenges are the keys to a successful Afghanistan.
Afghan Friends Network Board members Humaira Ghilzai and Carol Ruth Silver spent two weeks in March 2011, visiting AFN’s projects in Ghazni province, including the Khurasan Learning Centers, Ghazni Womens Literacy program and KLC Scholarship recipients. Their delegation included Mo Qayoumi, president of San Jose State University, Bruce Green, and Dr. Brian Rose of U. of Pennsylvania and past president of the Archaeological Institute of America.
At a recent Bay Area event, Humaira reported on the successes their schools are having in educating both children and adults, including teacher training.
On June 6, 2011, at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club, a delegation from Ghazni Province provided us with direct input about their on-going struggles to build a representative government in their troubled homeland. Panel speakers included Mohammad Yousuf Pashtun (Senior Advisor to President Karzai on Urban Development and National Construction), Mohammad Musa Khan (Governor of Ghazni Province), and Shah Gul Rezaie (female member of Parliament from Ghazni Province). Ghazni and Hayward, California, are sister cities.
The speakers reminded us that Afghanistan has a 5000 year old history and that 1000 years ago, in the 10th century, Ghazni, one of Afghanistan’s largest provinces, was a cultural and educational center for science, mathematics, and the arts. Scholars came from all over, including Iraq and Iran. Although more recently, it’s been one of the most troubled areas in Afghanistan, things are looking up and it has been named a Capital of Islamic Culture for 2013.
At a recent Bay Area reception for Fatema Mushtaq, Director of the Afghan Training Service Organization, since 2004, reported on her organization’s work. In collaboration with AFN and the Khurasan Learning Centers in Ghazni, the centers serve 750 students, both girls and boys, in their school programs and 80 women in the literacy programs. Instead of spending resources on new buildings, AFN rents space from local people, thereby also encouraging a sense of community investment and support for the projects which is key.
The annual budget of $55,000 funds three schools, 4th-12th grades, offering supplemental classes in chemistry, physics, general math, and English and in addition literacy classes for adult women along with marketable handicraft training.
Several of their graduates have now moved on to university, studying nursing and medicine, with plans to return to Ghazni and use their education to bolster their communities. A contribution of only $40 per month funds the cost of a high school graduate to attend university.
Afghan Education for a Better Tomorrow, www.afghaneducation.org, based in California, organizes and funds a variety of projects in Afghanistan, including:
- Taking the schools to the children: tent schools for children in displaced communities.
- Distributing wheelchairs to the disabled.
- Clean Water Project: building wells
- Women’s literacy classes
- Window of Hope Orphanage: helping disabled/handicapped children
- Street Kids to school project
To learn more about, volunteer, or make a donation:
Afghan Education for a Better Tomorrow
Your support will help both of these organizations continue their valuable work.
Comments