By Ginna Brelsford | Executive Director
Your dollars have helped fund the transportation of over 30 young women from villages in northern Afghanistan to our teacher training center. Thank you.
Afghanistan remains near the bottom of the UN Index for Human Development which tracks a nation's rate of poverty. A proven strategy for tackling poverty is literacy and especially educating girls and women. In rural Afghanistan, where 75% of all Afghans live, 93% of women lack basic reading and writing skills. Conditions for girls and women are the worst in these areas: they are more likely to marry younger and are often denied an education because of cultural standards that require them to be taught by women. You have had the power to change this in helping us train more female teachers, allowing girls to return to classrooms and be exposed to ideas that aren’t shaped by the extremism that takes root among rural Afghanistan’s most vulnerable populations.
"I saw the other girls from my village going to the Teacher Training course and decided I wanted to apply too. I just graduated from high school and looked for a way to earn money for my family. I wasn't sure if I would be able to go because of my father. I needed his permission and the Teacher Training Center is far away. The girls travel in taxis and change taxis because of our very bad security just to get to their place of study. And they must do this for six days a week.
I approached my father because the new beginning of the course was coming. At first he said it was too dangerous to travel that far and to go so often. But then I explained that there were so many other girls from our area and that a system of line taxis was worked out for security. I think my father wanted me to have a way to earn a living and to help the girls in our village.
We had 77 girls graduate from high school in my village this year. Over half of those girls are looking for a future to become teachers. I am one of them. I bring new hope with me." - New Teacher Training Center student
This woman and the others, will receive teacher certification from the Ministry of Education after the new two-year-long training cycle and then return to their villages, making programs for female education more sustainable in the regions with the lowest literacy levels. Now, thanks to you, over 50 women will be trained in fundamental teaching principles and will create lasting change in their communities by educating hundreds of girls each year. Girls in these villages will now be instructed in essential subjects, including English, Dari, history and literature, geography, mathematics, psychology, chemistry, zoology, plant science, and environmental awareness. Furthermore, you will improve the future educational and employment opportunities for girls and their families living in the rural areas we work in: for each additional year of primary school, their future wages will increase by up to 20%.
We believe that training more female teachers is the key to improving the quality of life in rural Afghanistan. We thank you for generosity and for your help in giving more girls in these villages the opportunity to learn from women they can depend on.
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