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REPAIR BOMB DAMAGE
Saw Girls’ School Kunar Province, Afghanistan
$ 35,000 needed
CAI is committed to helping Saw village, in Afghanistan’ s conflictridden Kunar province, rebuild its girls’ school, which was partially destroyed in a February bombing.
No one was killed or hurt when foreign militants attacked the 10-room school one night during the school’ s winter break. Three of 10 rooms and a toilet were destroyed. Sections of the roof were also blown off, and windows and furniture damaged.
Saw is in a rugged, mountainous area on the porous Afghanistan – Pakistan border. Militants frequently travel through the region, which is also a crossroads for opium, heroin, and human trafficking.
CAI is resolved to do“ everything in our power to help the Saw community continue education in the village,” Thaden said.
The attack on the school is“ very sad and painful,” but the brave Saw students“ risk their lives to go to school, and we must always honor and help them realize their dreams,” said CAI-Afghanistan Director Wakil Karimi.“ We will never quit to help the children of Saw.”
The school was completed 2009 and enrollment has increased from 49 to 597 girls, the first generation of literate girls in the village, said Naray district Education
Officer Maulvi Abdul Kayoum.
Foreign militants have been blamed for the attack. The local Afghan Taliban commander has repeatedly said his fighters were not involved; some of them send their daughters to the school.
“ This is deeply saddening for the people of Saw,” said Christopher Kolenda, a CAI consultant and former U. S. Army colonel who introduced CAI to Saw elders in 2007 while serving in Afghanistan.“ I know how passionately they feel about education and how fiercely they have defended the school and their children’ s rights and future from increasingly aggressive threats and attacks from Pakistani militants.
“ I have no doubt this despicable attack will only strengthen the determination of the people of Saw as they fight for the future of their children through education,” Kolenda said.
The cost of repairing the school is higher than usual given the challenges of moving materials and laborers in and out of Kunar, Karimi said. Foreign Taliban control the only road and have threatened to kill local leaders and civilians if strangers enter the village. Frequent attacks on roadblocks and checkposts throughout Kunar make the situation even more complex. n
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