AFGHANISTAN’ S FRONTIER:
It can take days or weeks to get from Faizabad, the provincial capital of Badakhshan, to the end of the Wakhan Corridor. People living in this isolated panhandle, sandwiched between Pakistan to the south and Tajikistan to the north, have been deprived of basic education and resources for decades. With little political leverage and only occasional access to the outside world, this wasn’ t likely to change any time soon. That is, until CAI came into the picture. Specializing in helping isolated communities like these, CAI set out to build schools and provide the people with educational resources. Today, the Wakhan is home to 13 schools built by CAI overseas partners and four other schools are supported by CAI funds.
The Wakhan was not the only region of Afghanistan cut off from educational resources. Narray, in Afghanistan’ s eastern Kunar Province, is one of the most conflicted districts of Afghanistan. In 2009, an estimated 70 % of the region’ s population did not have access to education, there were no schools for girls, few schools for boys, and roughly 40 % of children dropped out of school before completing the fifth grade.
Wakil Karimi, CAI Afghanistan
Other groups, nonprofit organizations and the government alike, were too afraid to work in the area. So CAI-partner organization Star of Knowledge( SKO) stepped in.
Wakil Karimi, director of SKO, wrote“ We were the first to build a school for girls, Batyash Girls School, in 2010. Since then, we have built seven more schools there and close to 1,640 students are receiving an education.”
Education changes the lives of students it touches.
A young woman named Madina can attest to that fact. Madina was a student at Banat ul Muslimin Girls’ High School when Marco Polo Reconstruction Services Director Janagha Jaheed encountered her for the first time. The school had no building to protect students from the elements, and lessons were taught outside. When Jaheed first spoke with Madina, he said she was sitting in the open air in the shadow of the school toilets. The smell was overpowering as he bent down to ask her what was her greatest hope.
“ We have spent 11 years of our school time sitting on the ground and sometimes getting wet if it rains,” Madina said.“ So my greatest ambition is to have a school building before graduating from 12th grade. I want to sit on a chair and be able to study my lessons both on sunny and rainy days.”
Jaheed was determined to give these children a school, but he knew he would have to hurry if it was going to be completed before the 11th grader graduated.
A few months later, Jaheed made good on his promise to Madina.
“ On the day of school inauguration I asked [ Madina ] to come and cut the ribbon. She was crying due to happiness,” Jaheed recalls.“ I cried too. That was the second time I cried- the first was when I saw the horrible conditions of the children sitting outside and then for happiness when the new building is complete.”
These stories are just the tip of the iceberg, a brief glimpse at the impact hundreds of programs have had over the course of two decades. Our in-country partners have been on the ground watching change happen, day in and day out. They tell us that the children who went to class in the first CAI-supported schools have graduated and are having children of their own. Taking after their parents these girls and boys are now getting their own education, continuing the cycle of learning. The women who took part in literacy and vocational trainings are providing for their families, giving them a better life. Scholarship students are getting advanced degrees, doing the research that will shape their countries for generation to come.
All of this was made possible because a few well-meaning people, like yourself, came together to form a global family and together declared that education was the way to a better world— one without poverty, illness, ignorance, and war. After 20 years, so much has been accomplished, so many lives have been changed. Yet, there is still work to be done. As long as there are
girls who dream of an education, we will continue our mission to make their dreams come true. We cannot wait to see what the next 20 years hold. •