Fast Track Education for Afghan Women and Girls

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AIL’s Learning Centers were examined by the Taliban and are open as they comply with gender segregation rules. We have instituted changes such as switching to an emphasis on post-6^th grade girls education to help girls who are unable to attend school. Of course, we continue to provide income-generating skills training such as tailoring, beautician, English and computing

Our fast track classes are running and helping women and girls accelerate their learning. One of the most popular fast track classes is the Mobile Literacy class and we are running 8 of these out of 4 centers with 35 students in each class (total 280 females).  The classes will end on 31 December. Students are given mobile phones and taught how to use them. They text the teacher answers to questions and also work in small groups. The program is highly effective with approximately 86% of students reaching grade 4 reading level in the 4 months of the course and 14% reaching grade 3. The phones also provide a means to socialize and maintain contact with friends and families who live elsewhere.

AIL Outreach 2021: 23,905 students, 18,132 PPE distributed, 6 health clinics, 50-bed Covid-19 hospital, 95,593 patient treatments, 59,888 health education, 13,050 food aid families served, 22 radio broadcasts daily, 8 hours of TV programs, 12 provinces reached.

Thank you for your support.

Recent Developments in Afghanistan

Afghanistan has been stunned by recent developments and people are adapting as best they can, to a new situation which remains both unclear and uncertain as to the future.  AIL’s current priority is to provide urgently needed assistance to the thousands of displaced families who have flooded into Kabul and Herat. Some of our Learning Centers provide a staging point for aid. Our clinics have expanded their capacity to cope with the large numbers of refugees that are in the area.. Our staff are all working, though offices currently are men only with women working from home.

The centers are all female and await instructions from the Taliban with regard to procedures required for reopening centers to our students. As our fast track classes are run outside of normal schools, and they cater to women and girls not normally found in school classes, these classes have always been held in our Women’s Learning Centers. The unfortunate closure of our centers means these classes are not being held as of now. 

The Yacoobi private schools are open and operating under the rules that have been given such as dividing male and female. It is exam season and students are studying hard and sitting their exams as usual. It is a great credit to them and their teachers as everyone has heightened levels of fear, stress and anxiety. The private TV and Radio Meraj are not broadcasting but awaiting instructions in how to recommence and staff are creating content and archiving materials for broadcast at a later date.

We have been touched by the outreach of support and outpouring of donations to help the Afghan people. We thank you for standing by Afghanistan as it faces another humanitarian crisis on top of Covid-19 and drought. 

Update on Fast-track classes

Fast track classes were introduces to cater to those students who joined courses with some knowledge and those who were able to progress more quickly than their peers. One of the most popular fast-track classes is literacy. AIL has 7 levels of literacy class as well as the fast track mobile literacy class. Literacy is the gateway to other learning and is often the first and most popular class students want to join. In the first half of 2021, Kabul and Herat Learning Centers had 2,516 students studying at various levels of literacy. Computing classes were attended by 583 students and English had 2,409 students. 

Thank you for your support.