By Kelly Brantner | CEO
Our Centre is open and for the past two and a half months classes have been running for the women and children living in the Zebak district of Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province.
Since the program’s official kick-off on August 20th, weekly household smoke reduction workshops have been delivered along with follow-up visits to participating households to further support the implementation of what was learned in the classroom. Through the participant's new knowledge, the greater goal is a 5-7% reduction in the usage of firewood for environmental reasons and for a more healthly home enviornment.
In addition to the smoke reduction sessions, the training program for the District Women's Working Group started and includes a series of workshops that focus on leadership skills, priority setting and community planning. Who is this group? The Women's Working Group is comprised of 15 volunteers that act as motivators for the community’s women as well as their local level advocates. The Women’s Group also works to strengthen the culture of volunteerism by supporting and encouraging the younger generation to get more actively involved and contribute to their community.
The final learning component of our program focuses on younger students, and we're pleased to share that these learning sessions have also started with attendance comprised of 148 girls and 105 boys who are now enrolled into six classes of English language and four classes of mathematics.
The Centre also is home to a small borrowing library and the Department of Culture of Information of Badakhshan has donated 120 books including 100 for children. All the books have been catalogued and are now regularly used by the beneficiaries.
To build upon what’s been accomplished in this program to date, our local NGO partner has recommended the purchase of 50 new style breadmaking stoves which create minimal smoke and use considerably less wood than the traditional stoves. These new breadmaking stoves are made in the local city of Faizabad and to date the communities in the project have not used them because of the per unit cost which is US$20.
We've been overwhelmed by the feedback, and demand, for this program and have made the decision to continue to fundraise for two new objectives. First, to extend the smoke reduction workshops through February 2023 to accommodate more households and secondly, to purchase and install 50 new breadmaking stoves.
On behalf of BBS, our Badakhshan partner SALEHO, and everyone participating in this program, we cannot begin to express our thanks for your support and donation. We're hopeful that this is the first step in many that we'll be able to make together for the families in this region of Afghanistan.
By Kelly Brantner | CEO
By Kelly Brantner | CEO
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