Access to education for children in conflict zones

Dear Donor,

it's already August again and summer is coming to an end - time to bring you up to date on our work!

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AFGHANISTAN

Situation:

The Taliban have been in power for over a year now, and the humanitarian and economic situation in the country is worsening. About 97% of the people in Afghanistan do not have enough to eat, the economy is idle, and prices for almost everything are rising continuously. As far as the educational situation is concerned, the most recent figures show that 46% of Afghan schoolgirls are not allowed to attend school. In addition to that, many female school graduates are forced to abandon their studies or decide not to enroll due to the harassment of the Taliban.

Projects:

The construction work at the Mohammad Parsa Elementary School in Kabul is progressing faster again. The next steps include: work on the roof, attaching the doors, building the well and painting the in- and exterior.

We are very grateful that, despite all the challenges, this project will be completed probably by the end of August and the 600 students will finally be able to move into their new school. If everything goes well, two new projects for Afghanistan will also start in September. You can be curious!

UGANDA

Situation:

Uganda repeatedly suffers from extreme weather events. According to Save the Children, more than 18.6 million people are facing a hunger crisis that extends across the East African region into Uganda, South Sudan and Sudan. The drought in northern Uganda, where our project schools are located, is also particularly bad this year. In some cases, schools had to end the term a few weeks before the vacations because they could no longer provide food for the students. This exacerbates educational inequalities, as students have missed a lot of classes due to school absences.

Projects:

• Barmwony Primary School: The follow-up project at Barmwony Primary School has been successfully completed. The evaluation of the measures is still ongoing. As part of the follow-up project, three buildings with a total of seven classrooms were renovated, two new latrine blocks were built and various workshops were held within six months.
  
  
• The school-wide WASH (Water Sanitation Hygiene) project was officially launched in August! At seven elementary schools in the Otuke district in northern Uganda a total of 60 latrines as well as hand washing facilities, wells and one energy-saving stove per school for school meals are being built. Furthermore, workshops on WASH-related topics (such as menstrual hygiene) are also planned for parents, students and teachers. The WASH project will run for two years and is our first BMZ-funded project in Uganda!

• The IT project also continues to make progress. The trainings for ten teachers at two secondary schools in the Oyam district on MS Office and Excel Advanced have been completed. At the beginning of September there will be another training on Web Development. Some of the teachers are already passing on the knowledge they have gained and the methods they have used to their students in their IT lessons.

GERMANY

Situation:

In many German states, the summer vacations end in August and school starts again. But access to education is by no means a given everywhere in the world. We want to draw the attention of students here to this with our Education in Germany project!

Project:

As part of our Domestic project - Learning Development Cooperation, we have worked with experts and educators to develop teaching materials on the causes and consequences of international crises and conflicts, using Afghanistan as an example. With this project for and with Hamburg schools, we want to sensitise pupils for these topics at an early stage and introduce them to the idea of sustainable development cooperation.

After having finalized our teaching materials in April, the project period funded by the FEB ("Förderprogramm Entwicklungspolitische Bildung") came to an end. In this context, we can proudly announce that we have been working on the conception of a follow-up project, again in cooperation with the FEB.

Interested in our teaching materials? You can find out more and download the materials directly from our website. They are designed for grades 9 and 10 and thus convey the challenging content in an age-appropriate way.

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Despite the good news, we are deeply concerned about the increasing humanitarian problems in our project countries. Therefore, we would be very grateful if we could continue to rely on your support and if you could tell your friends, family and colleagues about the situation in Afghanistan and Uganda. 

If you want to stay informed about our project countries and our work, feel free to follow us on Instagram. We'll of course keep you posted here on GlobalGiving as well.

Thank you so much and all the best. :)

Celine

Links:

• Website Visions for Children
• Instagram Visions for Children