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Blackanthem Military News
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Last Updated:
Jul 4, 2009 - 6:56:05 PM |
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| Students listen attentively at the girls%u2019 school here during a visit by the Provincial Reconstruction Team June 13. Supplies at the school are limited and teachers are paid $40 a month, but enrollment has increased from last year to nearly 1,500 girls. Classes run from two to four-and-a-half hours six days a week. (USAF photo by Capt. Bob Everdeen) |
Blackanthem Military News, QALAT, Afghanistan – As one of the poorest and least literate places in all of Afghanistan—a country that holds the title as one of the three least literate on the planet—there are glimmers of hope for the people who live in this capital city of Zabul Province, an impoverished area that is rebuilding itself one day at a time.
During a visit to several facilities in Qalat Wednesday, members of the Provincial Reconstruction Team—a group of U.S. Airmen and Soldiers stationed here—had the opportunity to meet with leaders of both the local girls’ school and the Green Afghanistan Initiative (GAIN) Center. Both locations offered insight to the challenges facing this city that is home to approximately 3,500 people, most of whom struggle daily for a better life through the help of their new government and organizations such as the PRT and international agencies.
“There is optimism here,” said a senior U.S. government official who works closely with the PRT, “and that goes a long way toward creating a better life for the children of Qalat, Zabul Province and eventually for Afghanistan as a whole.”
Upon arrival at the girls’ school, PRT members were met by the principal and the recently appointed Director of Education, who told the visitors that current enrollment at the school was nearing 1,500 students.
“We have 30 teachers, 10 staff members and today we have more than 900 girls in attendance,” said Parwin, the school’s principal. “We are open Saturday through Thursday and our first through third graders attend from eight to 10 a.m. and our fourth through 10th graders are here from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.” Teachers at the school earn about $40 a month.
The school’s curriculum includes classes about the local language (Pashtu), math, grammar, art and sports for the younger students and adds English, sociology and social studies for the older students. All students receive teachings from the Islamic religious text of the Qur’an.
Even with the noticeable lack of supplies such as pencils, paper, books and functioning computers, the school seemed well-organized and the students happy and inquisitive of their visitors: two females in U.S. Army uniforms.
“You could tell by the expressions on their faces that they were intrigued by seeing us there,” said U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Joyce Cole, a member of the PRT’s civil affairs team. “I was impressed with how courteous and attentive they were.”
Another program providing optimism within the city of Qalat is the Green Afghanistan Initiative (GAIN) Center, a small, unassuming nursery that offers women the opportunity to participate in a work-for-food program. In exchange for three hours of work a day, at least 21 days a month, women are provided with food items such as beans, wheat, salt and oil. The Center, which opened in 2006 through help from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the World Food Program (WFP), currently provides work for about 75 women.
“The director of the Center told me that the women who participate in this program are very courageous,” Sergeant Cole said, “because they still come to work even after receiving threats from some of the men in the city.”
Women at the GAIN Center have planted and continue to nurture hundreds of trees including apricot, almond, cedar, pine and pistachio.
Although the reemergence of security, governance and reconstruction in this war-torn country is likely to be slow and arduous, the determined women of Qalat who teach and attend schools and work at the GAIN Center stand as symbols of progress and determination that are sure to move the city, the province and the country forward toward a better tomorrow.
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