Over three decades of conflict have seriously hampered the educational prospects of Afghanistan’s children. Here is a quick look at five dedicated philanthropic organizations that are working to ensure a better future for the country’s next generation of social, political, and business leaders.
The Bayat Foundation
The Bayat Foundation was created in 2006 to assist those Afghans most in need: children, women, widows, refugees, and orphans, as well as people living in poor communities without access to basic infrastructure. The organization particularly believes it is necessary to educate the children who will play a key role in helping the country recover from decades of conflict. In the years since its establishment, the Bayat Foundation has built, refurbished, and/or outfitted with supplies the Faryab Orphanage and Learning Center, the Tahya Maskan Orphanage and Learning Center, the Chill Dokhtaran School, and the Ayenda Learning Center and Orphanage. These centers educate nearly 2,000 young students.
The Bayat Foundation has also sought to encourage camaraderie and team spirit by creating sporting complexes, sponsoring sporting competitions, and funding training for Afghanistan’s first Olympic medalist.
Afghans4Tomorrow
Afghans4Tomorrow has also worked to improve the quality and availability of education for children in Afghanistan. The organization succeeded in creating a program for young girls at the Sheikh Yassin School in Wardak Province, which now offers a program for boys in the morning and girls in the afternoon. A4T raised money to pay instructors’ salaries and to upgrade classrooms.
A4T also funded and built Tomorrow’s Afghans Private School in 2004; by 2014, more than 300 students were attending the school. In addition, the school has been able to administer new teacher and student evaluations to improve the quality of education all around, and has created new science programs, including a student science fair. In December 2014, the first group of 12th graders graduated from the school.
Lamia Afghan Foundation
Lamia Afghan Foundation most recently funded and created a tent school for over 500 children living in a Kabul refugee camp. This followed a similarly successful tent school created in a refugee camp in Jalalabad. The organization has also worked to build or reconstruct six schools that educate more than 2,000 children in the communities of Chelton Village in Kabul, Sayd Khel, and Lakan Khel in Pule Charki. Additionally, Lamia Afghan Foundation facilitated the distribution of 12,000 books to high schools in Jalalabad to assist older students in reading and writing skills and creative thinking.
Lamia Afghan Foundation has also been part of a coordinated effort to bring state-of-the-art prosthetics to children who were maimed and injured in the conflict. Through this initiative, the foundation has helped more than 200 children walk again.
War Child International
War Child International is a group of independent humanitarian organizations that work together to assist child victims of war with relief aid, medical attention, and education. To date, the group has set up more than 25 kindergartens and early childhood development centers to give young children a preschool education and their mothers a community.
WCI has also developed resource centers for children forced to work on the street to support their families. These centers provide free education and support to help them return to school, as well as business skills training for older youth to improve their job opportunities.
War Child also coordinated with the Afghanistan Educational Children’s Circus to help form and promote children’s shuras, a traditional Afghan form of democracy. These youth groups meet after school to discuss the issues of education, medical aid, and child labor. In March 2015, the first children’s shura presented a discussion at the Afghanistan Ministry of Culture for five parliamentary members. These officials made a commitment to hear and act on the issues raised by the children’s shura, promising to amplify their calls for a better future for the country’s children.
Afghan Connection
Afghan Connection was founded by Dr. Sarah Fane in 2002 to provide medical support, equipment, and vaccinations for women and children suffering in the ongoing war. More than a decade later, their efforts focus on education to achieve the sustainable reconstruction of northeastern Afghanistan.
The foundation has received enough donations to build 42 schools that educate over 50,000 children. Each school has several classrooms and a resource center for a computer room, library, meeting room, and science center. Afghan Connection has also funded and encouraged sports programs for girls and boys, in order to encourage teamwork and competition.
The organization operates with the goal of building at least two schools each year. While its early efforts focused on constructing schools over a large geographical area, its more recent efforts are concentrated on the smaller, rural region of Worsaj. Although illiteracy is high in this area, parents are eager for their children to receive the education they did not.