Scholarships for At-risk Youth in Afghanistan

Dear Friends and Supporters,

Thank you for your ongoing support of Bamyan Foundation! Your generous donations have enabled us to help prevent our partner schools from collapse due to COVID-19 pandemic. From the Foundation’s inception, it has been our focus to provide support to grassroots and community-based educational institutions in the best manner possible. Since 2016, we have provided 526 scholarships to students at our partern schools, 272 scholarships to girls and 254 scholarships to boys. Our partner schools are located in the historically marginalized Hazara communities. They are part of an education revolution that began among Hazaras after the US-led international intervention in Afghanistan and removal of the Taliban. The Hazaras were brutally suppressed under the Taliban. Since 2001, there has been a dichotomy in the approach of the Afghan Central Government and the international development assistance with respect to development and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan – focus on the Taliban insurgency and prioritizing development resources in conflict-affected areas. In other words, development efforts followed the insurgency and as a result, peaceful areas were predominantly ignored from the international development assistance. The Hazaras overwhelmingly believe that historical and systematic discrimination and marginalization also played a major role in stopping the arrival of development assistance to their areas that have been peaceful since 2001.

Despite said lack of attention, hundreds of schools have been created in the Hazara areas of Afghanistan with minimum outside assistance. The schools have been built at local village level, where villagers tightened their belt and contributed their meagre resources towards building of schools. Some donated land and others contributed in cash and they took part in building each school, brick by brick until completion. In other words, the schools have been created by the communities in various districts, cities and provinces and sustained by the communities, and the schools enroll both girls and boys. This is a testament to a community’s resolve towards social growth, and transition within one generation towards education, peaceful norms and moderate values. Needless to say, enormous challenges remain for such transitions in an inhospitable environment and a little help from supporters abroad will go a long way. 

Our scholarship program helps such institutions in the most direct way possible. These schools are private/fee-based, and private schools play a major role educating the Afghan youth. In fact, approximately five hundred thousand youths attend private schools as public school system is not able to accommodate them. The private schools have created livelihood for nearly 5000 teachers and staff. The private schools survive based on incoming student tuition, which in turn, is used to pay for teacher and staff salaries. Our scholarship program fund covers a child’s yearly tuition, transportation, uniform and stationary costs. The fund is in turn used to cover teacher and staff salaries. In other words, your generous donations not only help a child get an education but also help the school stay solvent as the school is enabled to keep its valued and trained teachers and staff by providing them a source of income. In the process, the Foundation plays a crucial role in strengthening and empowering local communities to find the best solutions to their need – in this case educating the youth and providing them a sense of optimism for future.

Student Scholarship Update:

Upon the school reopening on August 22, 2020, we resumed our scholarship program with our partner schools. Your generosity and support made it possible. Due to the pandemic, the Afghan Ministry of Education devised the following approach:

2020 Semester 1: 8/22/20 – 12/21/20

Midterm Exam

2020 Semester 2: 3/5/21 – 6/5/21

Final Exam

2021 first and second semesters: 6/22/21 – 12/21/21

Marefat High School: Upon school reopening, we provided 92 scholarships to students at Marefat, 48 scholarships to girls and 44 scholarships to boys. We have heard from multiple students at Marefat. Pakeeza is one of them. She is a member of 12 member family with nine females and three males. The older sisters have all studied at Marefat starting from Marefat’s Adult Literacy School. Four of the girls showed great talent and enthusiasm completing all the six grades in one year. They completed the entire school period (successive grades) in six years, graduated and went to universities. Pakeeza and her siblings have also demonstrated great talent in music and are members of Marefat’s music band called “SA” (Sound of Afghanistan), which is now an established brand in Afghanistan.

Rahnaward: We provided 88 scholarships to students at Rahnaward, 48 scholarships to girls and 40 scholarships to boys. We would like to introduce you to one of our students named Sahar in 8^th grade at Rahnaward. Sahar lives in a family of 14 people. Sahar’s father works as a driver earning 12000 Afs (about $150) per month that isn’t sufficient to support a family of 14. Because of his commitment to educate his children, he has brought Sahar and her two brothers and two sister to the center of the district from his village that is about 15 km away from the school, and has rented a small place for them close to the school. Sahar and her father are very happy that she has been awarded a scholarship by the Foundation. Sahar is very motivated to study and she recounts, “I studied from the first to the fifth grade in a school near our village, but I leaned nothing due to the low quality. I have been learning a lot since I have been in Rahnaward school, and I am currently in category A”. Painting and Biology are Sahar’s favorite subjects. Mr. Navid, Sahar’s teacher, often refers to Sahar as role model for other students given her dedication towards her studies. Sahar wants to be a teacher in the future.

Baba: We provided 23 scholarships to students at Baba, 14 scholarships to girls and 9 scholarships to boys. One of our student is Mahnaz, 5^th grade, whose father was killed by the Taliban. She is excelling in her education at Baba and lives with her mother and two brothers and sisters. Her mother is the head of the family and works at a tailor shop to provide for her family. According to her teacher, Mahnaz is talented, polite and creative. She is interested in math and science and wants to become a doctor in the future.

ROYA: We are committed to continue our support to the nine former child laborers through our partnership with ROYA (Resources of Young Afghans), and see them continue their education this year and also help cover the fees for their upcoming winter classes. They continue their education at Royesh School and are happy to be studying in-person again. It was an extremely challenging time for students, teachers and administrators and their school have been badly affected financially. Together, we hope to weather the storm.

We thank you again for your generosity and continued support of the Bamyan Foundaton. Our collective efforts undoubtedly help with making a lasting impact towards educating the at-risk youth and the survival and longevity of our grassroots partner schools. We ask you to please share this update with others in your networks. Your assistance is greatly appreciated!

The Bamyan Foundation Team 

Dear Friends and Supporters,

Thank you for your ongoing support of Bamyan Foundation! Your generous donations have enabled us to expand our projects and continue our support to our partner schools during such critical times when they are struggling to survive due to closures in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. This report provides an update on the current status of our programs in partnership with Marefat High School, Rahnaward High School, Baba High Schooland ROYA Mentorship Program in Afghanistan.

Schools have been closed since March 2020 due to the pandemic. Earlier in June, the government of Afghanistan extended school closures for three more months or until end of August. While COVID-19 has affected people everywhere, private schools in Afghanistan and the communities they serve, particularly those relying on scholarships, are disproportionately affected.Their primary concern is that teachers rely on salaries that are then based on tuition fees.This means many teachers and staff at private schools are left with no income due to school closures, while public school teachers' salaries are paid by the government.

There are around twenty-five hundred private schools in Afghanistan to help the country's education system due to void left by public school system. These private schools provide education to approximately five hundred thousand students and employment opportunities to about five thousand faculty and staff. Unfortunately, due to a lack of financial resources caused by the pandemic and school closures, seventy-to-eighty percent of the private schools face imminent collapse as they are unable to pay salaries to faculty and staff and cover other costs. Afghanistan's Private Schools Association has sent its concerns to the country's Ministry of Education, and the Ministry has not yet provided a promising response, according to Afghan media reports.

So far this year, our immediate efforts have been focused on raising funds to keep our partner schools solvent. Our support will help pay a stipend of $65 to each faculty and staff member at Baba, Marefat and Rahnaward High Schools. We also helped provide a stipend of $45 to each family of the former child laborers through our partnership with ROYA Mentorship Program. Additionally, our support includes a small budget for each school to help with the hygiene requirements.

We hope that our continued support will relieve some of the burden our partner schools are facing during the closure by covering the most basic necessities so they do not lose teachers and staff until they reopen their doors to students - so that they can reopen their doors!

Student Scholarship Update

We have agreed with our partner schools that, upon their reopening, we will continue our scholarship support for the same number of students in academic year 2020 as we did in academic year 2019; Marefat (44), Rahnaward (88), and Baba (23). We have already covered the tuition costs for the nine former child laborers through our partnership with ROYA Mentorship Program. We are committed to continue supporting them when schools reopen.

We prefer providing consistent support to the same students year after year until they graduate. However, we have asked the schools that in cases where students have either dropped out, relocated or graduated to be replaced with new students.

The schools have been considering distance learning by making educational materials available online. However, due to students' lack of access to the internet and their financial inability to afford the costs associated with it, online learning is not an easy option for most of the students enrolled in our partner schools, particularly those who rely on scholarships for their tuition fees. Three of the schools have recently began to offer limited alternative avenues such as providing study materials through a USB drive and allowing a few students to come into the school facilities to study on their own while following certain guidelines and hygiene requirements.

We thank you again for your generosity and continued support of the Bamyan Foundaton. Our collective efforts undoubtedly help with making a lasting impact on the lives of many during this critical time. A lack of financial resources makes those already impoverished families and communities more vulnerable to the risk of COVID-19. We ask you to please share this update with others in your networks. Your assistance is greatly appreciated!

The Bamyan Foundation Team