Help Support Kids 4 Afghan Kids Schools

When I was thinking about what to write in this report, Khris, the teacher who, along with her students, founded Kids 4 Afghan Kids in 1998, reminded me that we’ve had another peaceful year of educating students, especially girls. She writes that is “something we don’t ever want to take for granted.”  She’s right, of course.  In the US, education is something we take for granted.  It is very easy to forget that in rural Afghanistan, every day of school and every girl who learns to read is a big victory for K4AK.

Khris remains K4AK’s US Director.   Our director in Afghanistan recently had an opportunity to explain the political situation to a group of volunteers.  He told us that there are three types of areas in Afghanistan that he calls green, yellow and red.  Green areas are relatively safe.  They are the government controlled areas, mostly near big cities.  Red areas are controlled by insurgents and are very unstable and prone to violence.  Our project is in one of the many yellow areas – areas that are between the green and red, both geographically and politically.  There are safe pockets in those areas, such as our village and schools, but the surrounding area remains politically unstable and dangerous.  

We have strong support in our village for educating all children and for teaching them about the outside world.  However, education remains a risky venture.   The men in the village, especially the fathers, volunteer to take turns acting as armed guards around the village 24/7.   They are on constant alert for a group that might seek to violently shut down our schools since there are still many people in the red and yellow areas who don’t think girls should be educated, or that children should learn about the outside world.

When you get fundraising requests from other organizations, it is usually accompanied by a heart warming story and photograph of someone helped by their programs.  You don’t get those stories and pictures from us, because doing so would put our project, especially the person pictured, into grave danger.  In these days of the internet and ubiquitous cell phones, it would be too easy for a photograph to end up in the wrong hands, possibly placing that person on a literal “hit list”.   We do have a few pictures of “our” children on our website, but children more easily disappear into a crowd and are harder to identify as they grow up and change.

If you have a group that would like to hear a presentation from us, we would love to come and show you some of the pictures of our graduates and tell you their success stories.  We just can’t put those photos into any electronic medium.  There is contact information on our website: http://kids4afghankids.org/.  Please contact us if you are interested.

We have had many successes!  Every year, several of our graduates are able to attend college, often in Kabul, but they occasionally even get scholarships to attend European universities.  Four of our students were recently accepted to a prestigious pilot training program in Afghanistan.  We are proud we gave them the strong science and math training required by the program.  When these students eventually find jobs, they often choose to support our project.  We are pleased that K4AK is sponsored by wonderful people both in the US and in Afghanistan.  It is a true partnership!

Here in the US, we have had a successful fundraising year.  We participated in the alternative Christmas Fair and sold out most of the baked goods made by one of our talented volunteers, as well as selling lapis jewelry and embroidered items made in Afghanistan.  And, once again, students sold drinks at the Northville Victorian parade and donated the tips they earned helping the artists at the Northville craft fairs.  We also sent hundreds of knitted hats, made by volunteers, to the village in preparation for their cold winters.  Of course, the steady stream of donations made by you through GlobalGiving has provided the core of our funding.

Construction of the hospital on our original site is progressing well, as is construction of the second site which eventually will house schools and a clinic similar to those on our first site.   We have also begun discussing how to raise money for a learning center that will help train those graduates who can’t go to college, or who don’t have an opportunity to make a living by farming.   We’d like to train high school graduates for skilled jobs such as plumbers, electricians, auto mechanics and nursing assistants.   Having a few electricians and plumbers would be doubly helpful now – not only could our graduates earn a living, but we might not have to pay for skilled workers to travel from other areas of the country to our construction sites.

Just like our students, we have dreams and, with your help, we will continue to work toward them.  Please know that your contributions are greatly appreciated both by us and by our students in Afghanistan, even if we often can’t show you pictures of their smiling faces.