An ACCC student delivers a graduation speech

On November 2^nd, 2009 a landmark ceremony was held in Kandahar to celebrate the graduation of 140 female students from the Afghan-Canadian Community Center (ACCC). The ceremony was attended by over 350 guests including teachers, parents, students, prominent members of the local community and media, and representatives of the Afghan and Canadian governments.

Among the graduates were ten students who completed a two-year Business Management Program provided online through a partnership with the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT). These ten students also received certificates, signed by the Prime Minister of Canada and presented by Jess Dutton, Acting Representative of Canada in Kandahar (RoCK), to mark their achievements in business management, computer technology and English language training. The ceremony also celebrated the graduation of a further sixteen students from the SAIT program upon completion of a Project Management course.

Jess Dutton presents ACCC students with certificates signed by the Prime Minister of Canada

Mr. Dutton recognized the hard work and dedication of the SAIT students under challenging circumstances, noting that the students’ achievements were an inspiration to Afghans and Canadians alike. He further encouraged the students to use their education to give back to their community in Kandahar, and their nation of Afghanistan.

The accomplishments of these students and the ACCC are significant, particularly considering they took place in a country that is still trying to recover from conflict and amidst the threats of a narrow minority who oppose women’s education. This achievement was further recognized in several speeches by local employers, who thanked the ACCC for raising the overall standard of education for women in Kandahar.

The graduating class of SAIT students at the ACCC

Bibi Zhilla, a graduating student from the SAIT program, spoke on behalf of her class about what it felt like to graduate from an international learning program. She thanked ACCC Director Ehsanullah Ehsan and her many teachers for their support and encouragement throughout the two year program and noted how the program instilled a confidence in herself and her fellow students, along with the many practical skills that they learned.

She assured the crowd that: “…the end of this course is just one of the many great accomplishments I hope to achieve in my life. Graduation from this course is just the beginning of a new flight for all of us and from this day onward everyone tries to work harder and participate in the reconstruction of the country.”

Shamim, another graduating SAIT student, noted the significance of the Prime Minister’s signature upon the certificates, which she felt clearly demonstrated the importance placed by the people of Canada on empowering the people of Afghanistan with the gift of education. The Government of Canada provides most of the operating budget of the ACCC via a capacity-building grant administered by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

ACCC Director Ehsanullah Ehsan and CIDA Development Officer Karine Landry

The Deputy Governor of Kandahar spoke during the ceremony, emphasizing that “Canadian investment in education is truly building us. Education can really help us a secure a better future.” He further noted that the ACCC could be proud of its many remarkable accomplishments.

The Director of Information and Culture, whose own daughters were in the graduating class, also spoke of his pride in the women’s achievements and asked the graduates to “…make the best of the knowledge you received for the betterment of yourselves and the people of Afghanistan.” Many speeches personally thanked ACCC Director Ehsanullah Ehsan for his tireless efforts, as well as the ACCC’s many teachers and supporters in Kandahar, Canada and around the world.

In his speech, Ehsan thanked Canadian donors, volunteers, and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) for their considerable support. He noted that Canadian support has been not only financial but had also provided invaluable expertise and guidance which was helping the ACCC move toward self-sustainability. He also thanked his female students for the courage and dedication they’ve shown, despite the many challenges that women in Afghanistan still face. He praised the brave example they have set for future classes of women.

ACCC Director Ehsanullah Ehsan delivers his speech

The ACCC awarded certificates of appreciation on behalf of SAIT and the Canadian International Learning Foundation to 19 Kandahar journalists from a diverse range of news agencies and networks for their promotion and media coverage of education efforts in Kandahar. Graduates expressed their appreciation with handmade gifts to CIDA and SAIT staff members, CanILF volunteers, and Ehsan and his family.

The event was also covered by local, national and international media, including Kandahar Television, Larawbar, Pajhwok News (English / Pashto),  Benawa Online Pashto World, Surgar Weekly Newspaper (First Story, Second Story), ReliefWeb, Benawa,  and the MILNEWS Canada blog.

Afghan girls sing at the ACCC graduation

The courses offered by eSchool are very flexible, offer continuous enrolment, and can be accessed from anywhere at any time, making them ideal for students on the other side for the world. Programs such as this make it possible for students in Kandahar to get access to education that they would otherwise be unable to receive. This kind of education enables students to obtain valuable jobs with local and international employers and allows them to give back to their community.

Canada eSchool has also agreed to provide further courses to ACCC students at significantly discounted rates. The Afghan School Project is proud to partner with the ACCC to sponsor students in Kandahar for this unique opportunity. To help, please visit our Donate page.

Together with their affiliate school, Canada eSchool is one of Canada’s largest private online learning programs for international secondary students, and provides courses which are accepted by Universities and Colleges in Canada and around the world. The initial group of ACCC students is expected to begin their classes by mid-February.

The capacity-building program will enable the ACCC to hire additional teachers and improve our facilities, thereby allowing us to significantly increase the number of male and female students enrolled in business management, Information Technology, health care and English courses. Students will be selected from local and international non-government organizations, the Afghan government and the Kandahar community. The long-term goal of the program is to help the ACCC become a self-sufficient, not-for-profit educational institution capable of providing job-oriented education to the people of Kandahar for years to come.

The Government of Canada’s generous grant, offered under the Kandahar Local Initiatives Program via the Canadian International Development Agency, will be combined with funding from the Cadmus Foundation, the Afghan School Project and fees paid by individual ACCC students to support a yearly budget of approximately $110,000. As part of the new program, the Afghan School Project is launching a campaign to raise a further $25,000 towards the cost of operating the school. By donating to this project online or by cheque, you can play an important role in making our new program a success and give the gift of hope and opportunity to students in Kandahar.

I hope that you will join me in thanking the Government of Canada for its generous support of the ACCC and our students. I have every confidence that the dedicated teachers and students of the ACCC will prove there’s no better investment in the future of Afghanistan than the precious gift of education.

 Note: This post has been revised to reflect our current fundraising goal of $25,000, instead of the original figure of $10,000.

The main purpose of ACCC is to educate Afghan women; those were deprived from education since 25 years and to promote their standard of knowledge with extending the level of health, management and computer sciences awareness and education programs for women and girls in Kandahar Afghanistan. The aim of the program is to enable women of Kandahar to get their basic rights and become a useful part of the society.

The Afghan Canadian community center is a free learning institute and non-profit initiative which was established by the support of Canadian families in residential Kandahar. This institute provides female students with the opportunity to access locally provided professional training, the Internet and internationally recognized post-secondary education.

The Center’s programs provide students with the skills required to get good jobs that will support themselves and their families, and provide opportunities for self-directed learning. Over 200 students are currently busy with the ACCC learning programs.

It is worth mentioning that ACCC is only one institute at Kandahar level which teaches business management, English and health care and Computing Technology (ICT) especially to the women with no charge. Even one side it is great learning opportunity but another point of view it is huge financial help because we know that in current life it is very expensive to follow these kind of courses, even through the Internet or private institutes or colleges, but we are lucky to having such opportunity without paying any fees.

We have qualified teachers, doctors and professional manager at ACCC who are using their skills and experience to teach the students and increase their knowledge in different fields.

Through ACCC we have registered with SAIT course for on line studies and also linked with our online professors who are helping us in our daily lessons and guide us how to overcome with the studying problems. 

In the end I would like to say that ACCC is HOPE, OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM for women in Kandahar.

I would like to thanks from our entire respective Canadian supporter, professors, donors who provided their kind support and extended their cooperation and spending their valuable time and struggling to  make prosperous the women and girls life in Kandahar.

I also appreciate the cooperation of our respective director Mr. Ehsan, teachers, doctors who are using their skills to promote the students knowledge day by day on voluntary bases.
 
With regards,
Shamim
Student of the Management Class

I’d like to thank Shamim for taking the time to reflect on the progress that the ACCC has made so far, and what it means to herself and her fellow students. I think this really demonstrates what we, the volunteers in Canada and the staff and students in Afghanistan, have been able to accomplish by working together.

There is still a great more work to be done, but I know that with patience, dedication and hard work we’ll be able to bring hope and opportunity to a growing number of students in Kandahar.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article, and I hope you will share your thoughts in the “Comments” section.

I would also like to extend my thanks to those students who have shared their thoughts regarding the problems facing women in Afghanistan. We will be publishing these articles on theafghanschool.org in the near future.

The course, which is provided via the Internet and runs from June to September, examines operational issues encountered in business and draws upon Total Quality Management principles to develop the business strategies needed to acquire and maintain a competitive advantage. The students will be supported by expert instructors at the ACCC, as well as a dedicated instructor at SAIT.

The skills taught by this course are in great demand in the Kandahar area by private enterprise, government departments and non-government organizations involved in reconstruction and development. Students who receive the training will not only benefit from improved employment prospects, they will also have the opportunity to further the development of Afghanistan and improve the quality of life of others in their communities.

We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to the educators and administrators at SAIT who have made this project possible. In the words of our supporters, education is a candle in the desert, the key that unlocks all doors and our best hope for the future. For further information regarding this program, please contact us at staff@theafghanschool.org.

Thank you to the staff of Global National for bringing attention to such an important issue, to everyone who participated in the story and to the many students and teachers who are working hard to make the ACCC a success.  

If you have any questions regarding the story, please feel free to contact us.

Fariba Ahmadi meets with Ehsan

Fariba Ahmadi visits the students of the ACCC

Fariba Ahmadi visits the students of the ACCC

- Ryan

Program Description

The Afghan-Canadian Community Center is seeking funding to provide training programs to government employees who use computers at government institutions in Kandahar. The program’s goal is to teach Afghan government staff successful and effective management skills. The employees will be trained by IT experts hired for the courses by the Afghan-Canadian Community Center.

The proposed training period is four months per course. It is our goal to run three training cycles during the twelve month period, once funding has been received.

Implementation

This program will provide computer literacy training to 40 trainees in Kandahar. Fifty percent of the students will be women. The trainees will be selected among candidates submitted by Provincial Government offices and local representatives of Government of Afghanistan (GoA) ministries and other stakeholders of the Afghan-Canadian Community Center.

Course Description

This course will introduce the use of Information and Communication Technologies in government institutions within fast changing IT environment. The employees will receive practical instruction in the use of MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher and Outlook).

They will also receive introductory and ‘on the job’ training in the operating system and its applications in a wireless network environment, which will help them to understand and use a computer effectively. Furthermore, they will have the chance to experience the different applications and usage of the Internet (Web browsing, HTML, FTP, blogs, e-mail, Macromedia Flash, Chat, VOIP) and will use these applications to reach their objectives in this and other courses.

From the very beginning, the students will work with virtual tools (Intranets, WebCast, Instant Messenger, Webmail), which will allow them to stay in contact with the lecturers at all times and prepare them for today’s work environment. These systems will be provided by the teachers. Whenever possible, the instructors will try to include other topics and integrate the newly learned techniques and their applications to other subjects.

Course Goals

Upon completion of the course, the employees will be expected to:

1. Understand the different software and hardware components of today’s ICT institutional & business environments.

2. Be able to create professional presentations, documents, reports, charts, calculations, simple desktop publishing and blogs using the appropriate software.

3. Analyse information and use the Internet for research and development purposes.

4. Understand how ICT can help today’s institutions and businesses support a global, virtual, immediate and knowledge-supporting work environment.

5. Feel comfortable and have fun with ICT!

Course Content

· Introduction to today’s role of Information and Communication Technologies within today’s institutional and economic environment.

· Setting up virtual work environment – Hotmail, MSN “buddies”, virtual office access, WebCast

· Microsoft Excel – Worksheet, calculations, and charts

· Microsoft PowerPoint – Presentations

· Microsoft Word – Word and Document processing

· Internet Explorer and its applications – Mail, search engines, HTML, WebBlog

· Collaboration tools – Web Collaborator, Skype, Webcast, Chat and others

· Chat and Instant Messenger

· WebCast with Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP)

Teaching and Learning Strategies

The entire course will be presented via lectures. The employees will be encouraged to participate in classroom training. The instructor will act as a guide to help the students acquire knowledge and experience through practical experience and by investigating the use of the latest ICT tools and applications. The emphasis is not on memorizing technical terms but rather on learning how to search and analyse information to achieve objectives in a professional manner. There will be used real-life examples and the latest Internet tools available to prepare the employees for their future virtual, digital, immediate, knowledge-based, and innovative working environment.

Unique Features of this Training

By streamlining communications between the provincial government and its departments with the central government, this program directly promotes the institutional development and capacity-building of the public sector. It will also contribute to a qualitative improvement in the administrative services offered at the provincial level, which in turn, will enhance local governance and the expansion and promotion of legal economic activities.

Although this program’s contribution to business development seems modest in the short term, it will be vast in the mid and long term due to the impact it will have on the promotion of new businesses and entrepreneurial opportunities at the regional level. It is also gender sensitive and will open new windows of opportunities for women in the region.

A strong, efficient, qualified and motivated public administration is an asset for the Afghan Canadian Community Center’s activities in Kandahar. This type of training will have a significant contribution to the development of human capital at the regional level. The emphasis of the Government Institutional Capacity Building Program on capacity-building activities will help improve the legal and regulatory governance at the provincial level.

Program Requirements

2 trainers (1 male and 1 female teacher)

Monthly salary: US$ 300.00 each for a total of US$2,400.00 per course.

Total cost of this Donor Request is US$600.00 a month, for a total of US$2,400.00 for a four month course.