Journey of Hope 2017 journey-of-hope-2017 | Page 12

EXECUTIVES’ BRIEF:
What is it like
TO WORK IN
CENTRAL
ASIA?
by James Thaden and Jed Williamson
What is it really like to
work where we do?
W
e get asked that question
all the time.
If you haven’t vis-
ited the countries
where CAI operates —
Afghanistan, Pakistan,
and Tajikistan — it’s hard to imagine these
working environments. We do our best to
place you in the communities with story-
telling, photos, and video, but even then it‘s
difficult to get the full picture.
To understand the region and how CAI
operates there, it is important to examine
the complex issues that will shape the future
of these three countries, and influence how
CAI and our in-country partners function.
PAKISTAN’S POPULATION
EXPLOSION
According to an article published in
The Washington Post this September,
preliminary results from the national census
show Pakistan’s population has grown by
10 | JOURNEY OF HOPE
57 percent in just under 20 years. This
population explosion will significantly
impact the educational landscape of
the country, and thereby CAI and our
beneficiaries, for years to come.
We have witnessed the phenomenon
ourselves. Enrollment in CAI-supported
schools has increased, midwives we train
are serving more patients, and schools need
more teachers to keep teacher-student ratios
reasonable.
Pamela Constable, the author of the
article, goes on to report that 60 percent
of the population is under age 30, nearly a
third of Pakistanis live in poverty, and only
58 percent are literate. “It is a disaster in the
making,” she quotes a Pakistani columnist
as saying.
With such a young, impoverished popu-
lation, education, or the lack of it, will de-
termine whether the country can turn this
growth into an advantage or whether this
will be an anchor slowing their progress.
Will children start and finish school? Will
there be scholarships to help them get de-
grees should they wish to continue their ed-
ucation? Will there be jobs waiting for them
when they graduate? CAI wants to be part
of the solution so the answer to all of those
questions has the potential to be “Yes!”
Our partners in Gilgit and Baltistan have
talked to us about leveraging our services to
address these developments. To handle the
flood of children, both Pakistani partner or-
ganizations have it in their long-term plans
to upgrade primary schools to middle and
high schools. Extra classrooms are being
added where full upgrades are not possible.
Dilshad Begum, director of women’s
development programs in Gilgit, wrote to us
recently about this subject:
“It is my pleasure to share with you
that enrollment in CAI-Gilgit schools
are increasing day by day. This increase is
really wonderful but in some schools we
have limited classrooms and we are facing
capacity issues in some schools. The school
management committee and parents request
for additional rooms. If CAI-US agrees to
support us, then we can build extra rooms
in schools.”
Supporting them in this effort, and others
like it, must be a top priority for us. We will
work hard to get them classrooms, scholar-
CENTRAL ASIA INSTITUTE