Learning Centers for Rural Afghan Women

Dear Friends,

Herat’s rural Learning Centers (LCs) play a crucial role in providing educational opportunities to disadvantaged women in small communities. So far in 2017, 8,000 students are attending 16 LCs in rural Herat locations including 5,351 females.

As an example, one rural center had the following classes during one month. This center has 563 students (530 female). There are 227 students studying Arabic (208 female), 88 females doing sewing and 175 (164 female) in literacy classes and 73 females in embroidery class.  The students also learn about health, peace, democracy and any current topics of interest that the teachers wish to address in class.

The manager reported last month, “As the number of applicants is increasing we are looking at having more classes. The students are mainly young girls most of them want to learn sewing and to become literate so they are applying for those classes most often.”

Thank you for your continued interest.

AIL is working towards: SDG Goal 4 – Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

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Updates from programs!

Girls team wins Technovation Challenge with Education App!
Professor Sakena Yacoobi High School , Herat has won first place in the girls  Technovation Challenge competition creating mobile phone applications.
The 5 girl team beat 36 other teams from Afghanistan with their education app Amozgar, that teaches literacy. Sponsored by AIL, they worked on this project for 3 months creating an app with the alphabet with audio and words and sentences.  Their message, “With Amozgar we change homes into schools.”
The team and their app now move on to the semi- final round of judging with 100 teams from around the world. Six finalists will be picked from this round to compete for the final prize.

Radio Meraj wins more Top Awards in Media in Western Afghanistan!
The Afghanistan Institute for Research and Studies held a contest for 161 media outlets. Meraj was permitted to enter 3 categories and won all 3!  Meraj won best news package, best analysis and speakers, and best innovative programming. In addition, a photographer working with AIL won the best photography prize for one of his AIL photographs.
The competition attracted media outlets from all over the western zone including the well- known stations that have been operating for decades. Meraj’s success is remarkable in that it has been in operation for only two years yet won awards usually associated with stations of 5 plus years of experience. It won the most awards among all the existing media.
Radio Meraj is many years ahead of its strategic plan and has gained popular and professional credibility and success making it one of the top three Herat stations.   The station operates 20 hours a day reaching 9 out of the 15 districts of Herat.