By Brian Hu | Student Ambassador
Happy New Year Friends and Family!
This past year has been filled with many events, including a few bumps in the road. As always, we persevere and march forward into the next year. Our main blip in the road was the damages sustained to our well. The well, built in the early 2000’s, has had its wear and tear from usage over time. The pipes broke and needed replacement. The well had an amazing lifetime. Serving over 500 families a year means the overall cost of the well was about $1 per family per year for safe and potable water. Our friends and families in Afghanistan look to the well for easy access to clean water. We set up a funding project on Global Giving to raise $10,000 for a replacement well, but it only raised $1700. The well is a priority, and we are extremely grateful to the Wardak family who came together and donated the funds necessary to repair the well before the ground froze for the winter. We appreciate that the family also funded the updating of the project’s solar panel system. And, we are excited to announce a New Year’s agreement! The Wardak family has grown and now that the younger generation is working, they want to take on the responsibility for the monthly operational costs. This allows K4AK to focus on funding the clinic and new additions to the project.
We have also made great progress on our hospital. Our clinic keeps up with most health needs of our village and schools, however, we had the opportunity to work with a doctor who wanted to help start the hospital project years prior. Construction started earlier this year and finished the foundation. Most buildings use concrete or bricks for foundations, but we decided to use an effective and cheaper alternative: Afghan bedrock. We used the plentiful rocks and the bedrock itself to create the foundation. We added steel reinforcement rods for structural strength.
We are proud to have great friends at Northville High School. Our local school supported our project during a model United Nations tournament that they hosted. The event raised $800. The University of Michigan also matched the donation so the event raised $1600. We are immensely grateful for the amazing students in our local area. We also worked with the Northville Rotary on a wonderful Empty Bowls fundraiser, in which donors got to experience the meager meal of bread and soup that our families in Afghanistan traditionally eat.
In our Alternate Christmas Fair, we sold holiday gifts like chocolate dipped Oreos, pretzels, and some scarves our friends in Afghanistan knitted. We are happy to make specialty chocolates for anyone who would like to purchase for special events. All profits go directly to K4AK. Contact us with your event needs at kids4afghankids@yahoo.com
As we continue steady progress in promoting our village’s health, we also continue growing their education. The schools we have built teach children important subjects much like one would see in any American primary school: English, the regional languages of Dari and Pashto, science, history, and mathematics. When the Taliban controlled large swaths of Afghanistan, women and girls were prohibited from attaining the education that they deserved. We uphold the ideal that all people are truly equal, so we built schools for our boys and girls. The fruits of our labor can be seen in the photos showcasing the happiness inspired in our children who are so lucky to have a school! In the next year our focus will be on our second campus so we can offer education to even more children waiting to attend school.
Interesting Fact: According to the United Nations, an organization that has already established schools for women across northern Afghanistan, women account for only 20% of the population at Afghan universities. Motivated by equality, we hope to continually increase that number to 50%, and because of your help, we are steadfast in our journey towards equality and an ultimately better world! On behalf of our Afghan families we thank you for your continued support. Please donate so we can continue to make the world a better place.
Thank you for making 2016 a great year for us!
Brian
Student Ambassador
By Brian Hu | High School Student Ambassador
By Brian | Student Ambassador
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