Education as a Ray of Hope for Afghan Girls

“I was very depressed during the lockdown because there wasn’t any opportunity to continue official schooling but, I am glad that Womanity courses continued. This helped us not to give up with our dreams and continue to have an active educational life despite lockdown ”. Marwa, student of English Language course in Speen Kalai High School.

Key highlights January-December 2020 | 

• In 2020,  considering all operations in the four partner schools and activities organised for alumni, Womanity conducted 44 training modules of different length enrolling a total of 716 students who completed the training and with a very limited dropout rate of 5.4%. The majority of students attended more than a module this year or in previous years. Therefore, we served 469  individual beneficiaries, of whom 76 were students enrolled for the first time in one of our courses in 2020. 
• During the year, on the basis of the Covid-19 measures enforced in Kabul, Womanity was able to move classes online and again in person always guaranteeing social distance and availability of hand sanitiser and masks. 
• Although, for some courses, we did not follow our traditional timeline and curricula, we were able to differentiate and somehow expand our offer of courses, to innovate our teaching modules and to continue follow our students and alumni in a time where the official schooling was disrupted enabling them to maintain an active educational life.  This not only continued to support girls’ education but also showed resilience and adaptability of our team. 
• During the  lockdown, we ensured that students could attend our classes by providing each a 4G internet connection, while throughout the year we also distributed 70 refurnished 2^nd hand  laptops for the students who did not have any appliance to do attend online courses comfortably or do their homework.  
• We assisted 67 alumni to find free online courses in English language or IT related subjects so that they could preserve and improve their skills while waiting for the Kankoor exam (the Afghan University entrance exam). Additionally, in February, 20 students attended a webinar organised by SOWCoders, a New York based organisation led by women working in tech. 
• During the reporting period 33 internships or volunteering opportunities were on-going or completed (of them 4 are part of a 4y scheme that will support students throughout University). In a couple of cases, girls were offered short term contract extensions following the internship.
• 5 university students are continuing successfully their higher studies in computer science thanks to our scholarships and additional 7 scholarships were awarded in the last quarter of 2020 when University enrolment re-started. Furthermore, we were able to negotiate with the Salam University a reduction of fees for students graduated from the GCC course.
• The lockdown, more than the Covid-19 itself, is estimated to have a long-lasting impact in Afghanistan worsening the already fragile situation of many families for example increasing dramatically the people reaching emergency level of food insecurity as well as the number of children facing acute malnutrition. To do our part and try to alleviate the extreme poverty of families (students and schools’ workers) in our schools’ communities, Womanity mobilised funding to cover two rounds of food parcel distribution for a total of 275 packages.  The first at the end of June supported 110 families, while the second at the end of October distributed food to 165 families (about half of them were already supported in the first round). 
• Womanity distributed hygiene kits in schools and renewed and equipped hygiene facilities with sanitizing materials when they reopened.

With the release of the lockdown in August, Womanity ws able to re-open in-person activities and increase its offer to students by opening new courses in English, basic computer literacy, and introduction to coding. About 350 students are currently enrolled in our classes and expect to complete courses by the end of the year.

We are very proud that throughout the year, we were able to offer additional online courses to GCC alumni both organized by Womanity or by third parties ensuring that they will preserve their skills and learnings while waiting to join University. 

In parallel, Womanity is upgrading the computer labs in schools as well as upgrading hygiene facilities to allow a better management of rules related to social distance.

Finally, as part of the COVID relief support, we have organised a second round of distribution of food parcels directed at 160 families (students and schools’ staff) who are facing difficulties due to loss of income or jobs as a result of the pandemic.