School's in at Last
Decades of conflict, years of severe drought, governmental mismanagement and the related loss of livelihoods and educational opportunities for the Afghan people, especially women and girls, have created a humanitarian and development crisis in Afghanistan.
Estimates suggest that more than 50 per cent of the country’s population live in absolute poverty, with an average life expectancy of only 46 years. Unemployment is high at 50 per cent and illiteracy runs at around 70 per cent—higher for girls.
With virtually all key institutions destroyed, the recovery and reconstruction of Afghanistan will require a concerted and financially significant, long-term national and multidonor effort.
One of the desperate needs for Afghanistan is to reconstruct critical infrastructure. It’s now time to start rebuilding Afghanistan’s educational system, which is devastated from decades of war, suppression and oppression.
International attention has already been drawn to the dire state of education in Afghanistan. The symbolic and physical importance of formal schooling is important.
I went into Afghanistan as part of an Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) team, which aims to construct 16 classrooms in needy villages in the province of Jowzjan, in the northern region of Afghanistan.
The classrooms will be fitted out with basic school furniture and provide regular education for up to 640 needy Afghan children. ADRA will also provide essential school and classroom supplies.
Our goal is to enable the Afghan children, especially girls, to access a basic primary education and thus improve their employment opportunities in the long term. The classrooms are a first step in giving this opportunity. It is hoped, of course, that the village children will catch up to their age/grade level and integrate into the national educational system.
Each village will provide the labour for the constructions as their contribution to the future of their children. The staff to teach in the schools will be provided by the Afghan government.
The project will permit ADRA to move beyond the immediate needs for relief assistance by introducing a reconstruction project in the key development sector of education.
By focusing the project on this key area, ADRA can ensure funds are spent on their most productive uses rather than being spread too thinly to have a quantifiable effect.
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