Books for Afghan Girls School

Thanks to your generous support, Sahar will equip a school in Northern Afghanistan with books. On a recent trip, our Fellow Advisor, Airokhsh was once again reminded of the great need for books - textbooks, fiction, non fiction and poetry in the schools we work with both in the city and rural areas. Take a look at her video of bringing books to girls in Afghanistan. It is important too that when we purchase books, we do it locally to contribute to the economy. As donors, you are contributing to educating girls. Why is this important?

A growing body of international research demonstrates that girls’ education is vital to their personal success as well as the health and prosperity of their families, communities, and countries.

At the most basic level, educating girls saves lives. For mothers with a primary school education, the mortality of their children under five falls by nearly 50 percent, and for each additional year of schooling, infant mortality falls by an additional 10 percent.

Educating girls also increases their lifetime incomes, affecting all those around them. Girls who have one more year of education than the national average earn 10 to 20 percent higher wages; while girls with a secondary education get an 18 percent return in the form of future wages. And women are more likely than men to reinvest their income in their families, spending 90 percent of earnings on their children compared to men’s 30 to 40 percent.

Educating girls and women also encourages them to resist discrimination, vote, and participate in civil society. Half the citizenry, once silent, becomes engaged in public life. That may be why, in nations where girls go to school, corruption decreases and conditions that lead to violent extremism are reduced. In short, female education has a tremendous impact on a country’s wealth and stability. 

Mahommoda is an 11th grade student at the school where the new books and equipment for the library will be housed.  Her passion for books started early.

She said, "reading books will help me reach my goal. "I always wished to have a room for the library in our school to go borrow books and study books there. When it became known that a fuller library was to established in our school I was very excited. The books help me to better understand people, cultures, ideas, behaviours, wishes and most importantly, their hopes. I think my top position in my class is because of my understanding of general information about class studies and also about the wider world now."

Mahommoda cares a great deal about her country, "this urban school is inside the city and has lots of opportunities like a library for the students. But it is not the same in the villages and rural areas. Even if the school in the village has a small library, there are not many important and interesting books. So, making a program to establish libraries is a great idea and I know there will be lots of improvements in the students after a while."