The Afghan School Project

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In this article, we discuss our current plan for the Afghan-Canadian Community Center.

As always, your feedback is highly appreciated.

Overview

“The Afghan School” is a project to fund a vocational school based in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The project’s overall goals are to improve the accessibility and the effectiveness of the school’s existing activities by establishing a community center in residential Kandahar, and to augment the school’s curriculum with courses from the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) and other educational institutes.

About the School

Ehsan’s school offers training in information technology, business management and English language to young men and women as well as mature students, including adult women, who were denied education by the Taliban. It is attended by over 2,100 students, including 400 women. Female attendance is presently limited by the school’s location and threats to harm female students.

The school has been the subject of numerous articles highlighting issues in Kandahar, including articles by the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, and BBC World (see the links to the left). Funding for the school’s existing staff of 50 teachers and support personnel is presently provided by the governor of Kandahar, and no student fees are charged. Graduating students have gone on to establish schools, work as translators and obtain jobs with international agencies.

The infrastructure of the school is severely out of date, and demand for Internet access is high. The computers are over four years old, and the Internet connection is insufficient to support current demand. There is often a long line of people waiting to access the school’s computers, as the school is one of the few places in the country where women can publicly access the Internet for free.

The Pilot Project

At this time, our goal is to provide Ehsan’s school with sufficient funding to establish and operate a community center in residential Kandahar for a period of not less than six months. Ehsan proposed the idea of establishing community centers as a means of improving the accessibility of the school, while limiting the risks to the students. As part of this project, SAIT has agreed in principal to offer the students access to their online courses.

The community center is to consist of a rented house with no less than three rooms, and is to be powered by a generator. Internet will be provided via satellite. Although this is an expensive way to establish the community center, it also means that the facility’s equipment could be moved if necessary and that the concept could be applied to more remote areas, provided they had access to a fuel source.

Funding for the pilot project has already been established. The estimated cost of the project breaks down as follows:

Power lines – CAN$240 / US$200

Generator – CAN$1200 / US$1000

Classroom Furniture (10 tables, 30 Chairs) – CAN$1800 / US$1500

Office furniture – CAN$1080 / US$900

Stationary – CAN$120 / US$100

Vacuum cleaner – CAN$120 / US$100

Internet Connection – CAN$720 / US$600

Rent – CAN$480/US$400/ month x 6 months = CAN$2880 / US$2400

Internet Access – CAN$360/US$300/ month x 6 months = CAN$2160 / US$1800

Efforts are ongoing to secure computers for the project. The goal is to provide the pilot project with between 5 to 15 computers, and at least one printer. We also need to determine the best means of transporting the computers to Afghanistan, should we acquire the computers in Canada. Should acquiring and shipping the computers prove difficult, we are prepared to fund the purchase of new computers in Kandahar. Ehsan estimated that he could purchase new computers for CAN$600/US$500 each.

It is our goal to have the community center established no later than January 2007. Initial funding for the rent of the community center and the purchase of its basic supplies will be provided no later than December 2006.

Throughout the six month period, the project will be evaluated to ensure that the initial goals of accessibility and increased effectiveness are being reached. To this end, we intend to work with Ehsan and SAIT to establish metrics that will indicate how many students are using the computers and the community center, the courses they are studying and the impact of the courses upon the students and the communities in which they live.

Should this project be a success, I believe that it will have a tremendous impact upon the students’ quality of life and on the students’ ability to find employment in skilled positions. The nature of the support also encourages students to seek work in fields such as business management and health care that will benefit Afghanistan as a whole.

Summary

The Afghan School project is a grassroots solution designed to effect maximum benefit at minimal cost. By partnering directly with Ehsan, an experienced and widely respected school administrator, this project has already received significant support within the community in Kandahar. All funds associated with this project will be used to address the financial needs of the community center. The Afghan-Canadian Community Center may offer hundreds of students valuable education that they would otherwise be unable to receive.