Establish and Support Afghanistan Model Schools

With the 2009 Afghan school year well underway, Help the Afghan Children (HTAC) is providing over 18,000 deserving girls and boys with a safe, nurturing learning environment and quality educaiton through its model schools.

One school in particular, Rokhshana Girls School (enrollment 4,169), in the capital city of Kabul, is providing many of its students with diverse and enriching learning experiences that are changing their lives for the better.

HTAC's highly-regarded computer education program is not only training 783 of Rokhshana's high school students fundamental technical skills in Microsoft Windows, Word, Excel, and Power Point, but valuable experience learning how to navigate and work on projects using the internet. This past year, over 75% of graduating seniors were able to obtain highly valued computer-related jobs in Kabul's rapidly emerging information technology marketplace, and for many of these girls, it provided an opportunity to help move their families out of poverty (and in some cases), prevented others from early forced marriage and child-bearing.

Another 200 Rokhshana students are reaping the benefits of HTAC's "Read Afghanistan" literacy program. In a country where (sadly), about 80% of school-aged girls remain illiterate, this innovative program, using bi-lingual illustrated original storybooks, has raised literacy levels among primary and middle school students to over 85% since their introduction in 2003.

All girls at Rokhshana are benefiting from a diverse educational curriculum and supeior instruction, provided by HTAC-trained teachers.