Support Education for Marginalized Kabul Children

In October 2016, Action for Development (AFD) founded the school for street-working children in one of the most populated districts of Kabul, Kart-e-Char; as of January 2019, the school has opened in two other locations, having enrolled about 200 children between the age of 5 and 14.

Today we would like to tell you the story of one of these children, a girl named Saima.

Saima is 10 years old and lives in Dehmazang, a district of Kabul city; she has 2 brothers and 4 sisters. Saima’s father has cancer and therefore he is no longer able to work to support the family; for this reason, Saima was forced to start working in the city by polishing shoes and selling chewing gum, making less than 1$ per day.

As a young girl working on the street Saima is particularly vulnerable to violence and exploitation. 

Saima started attending AfD's school four months ago and has already learned to read and write words and number; in addition to attending classes, she has lunch at school and plays sports with her friends. Although Saima still gets up and returns home at the same time, she is no longer working on the street all day. When she is at home she plays with her sisters and does her homework.

Saima’s greatest fear is being kidnapped, which is an ever-present danger for young girls working on the street in Afghanistan. Saima’s hope for the future is being able to help treat her father from cancer.

In Saima's words, her biggest dream is “to live a good life".

Action for Development continues to support Saima and the other children attending its schools; we thank our donors for all the efforts made, but so much more needs to be done, in order to guarantee a better future to the children of Afghanistan.

Help us make Saima's dream of a good life possible!

Please visit our website www.actfordev.org for more information on our current projects.

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Back to school program

Afghanistan is one of the least developed countries in the world; it is estimated that in 2018, 54% of the population was living below the poverty line. 

A country’s poverty indicator is the presence of minors working on the streets. In Afghanistan, 29% of children aged 5 to 17 years old are engaged in child labour. In 2018, nearly half of all school-aged children were not attending school. This represents 3.7 million children, 60% of whom are girls.

The education of children and young adults, representing the men and women of tomorrow, is paramount for a sustainable and peaceful development of the country. 

This is the context in which Action for Development founded, in 2016, the “School for street children” program, driven by the objective of giving children the opportunity of having access to education.

The program aims at providing marginalized children with access to flexible education, extinguishing inequality, poverty and child labour.

By attending the program’s school, children are given the opportunity to learn basic numeracy and literacy skills, as well as to develop social abilities through for example practicing a sport, particularly football; it also enables them to have access to a regular schooling programme in the future. This program contributes to reducing the level of illiteracy among children in Afghanistan.  

Children are selected for the program according to pre-defined criteria: being between the age of 5 and 15 years old, having no access to formal education, and originating from households with little or unstable income. 

Since the beginning of the program in 2016, AfD has opened 3 education centres in Kabul, in 3 different districts: 

-      Kart-e-Char, 3rd District of Kabul: this is one of the biggest neighbourhoods of the city, where many children gather regularly to work; the first school was established in October 2016, with 12 children attending.

-      Baburshah: located in the central area of Kabul, further classrooms were established to cater to the high number of street children. 

-      Khuja Buhgra District: afternoon classes are provided at AfD’s local Health Center in addition to a daily meal. For many of the children attending these classes, it is the first and only meal of the day. 

In addition to the schooling program, children can benefit from access to health services provided at AfD’s Comprehensive Health Centre in Kabul. 

In 2018, AfD’s schooling program went from having enrolled 58 children to 201 children by the end of the year. At the Kart-e-Char’s center alone, AfD was able to provide 16.566 meals to children.

2018 also witnessed the introduction of a sport program: a football field, dry and safe, dedicated for the children to train and play each week; a football coach was hired. An important objective of this programme is raising awareness on the benefits of regular physical activity for children; this would also allow communities to accept girls joining the sports program. 

The schooling programme for 2018 at a glance:

• 3 schooling centres, 9 classrooms in total;
• 1 school coordinator, 5 teachers, 1 football coach, 1 cook;
• 201 children enrolled;
• 80 boys playing football regularly;
• 16.566 meals offered at the Kart-e-Char’s center.

 Children with disabilities 

Parween Azimi, Founder of the school for children with disabilities:

“The students in our school learn how to use sign language and to communicate with their hands. The fact that people in the community are unable to use sign language, motivates the pupils to attend our school, since they can be in a place where they can be understood and understand others.

With a vocational training, children learn the necessary skills to become self-reliant in the future. It is difficult for persons with disabilities to find employment, even when having knowledge of English or computer science. Many organizations do not trust them because of their disability, in this particular case hearing loss. It is important for us to raise awareness among the community that young adults with disabilities can be capable of assuming regular job roles.

In the next 20 years, we should aim at giving all children of Afghanistan access to education”. 

Links:

• Learn more about our projects in Afghanistan