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Education Changes Everyday Lives in Afghanistan

Children in Crisis' education manager in Kabul was recently handed the thank you note seen below from a doctor in Baghlan Hospital where Fatima*, a woman from the Kuchi community regularly receives treatment for a skin disease. After three years of receiving treatment, on her most recent trip to the hospital the doctor was delighted that Fatima was able to fill out her admission forms by herself for the first time. 

Extract from Thank You letter

Fatima is from the Kuchi community, a nomadic pastoralist group who are marginalised within Afghan society. As a result of the conflict, in particular the high numbers of landmines, and severe drought which has affected the country, many Kuchi groups have now been forced to settle in Afghanistan’s cities. Children in Crisis have been working with a Kuchi group in the Parwan Se area of the capital city, Kabul for two years. These settled Kuchi continue to live with their animals and the men earn a living through trading animals and animal products whilst the boys often find employment as petty traders in the nearby markets.

    Kuchi girls on their way to literacy class                       Young Kuchi girl collecting water for her family   

The leader of this woman's Kuchi community approached Children in Crisis when we were running education classes nearby and asked for these same classes to be offered to their children. The majority of the community have never before attended school and since the Ministry of Education has ruled that no children over the age of 9 are permitted to enrol in grade 1, these children have no option to gain an education.

                                        Young Kuchi girl in her literacy class                                          

Children in Crisis has provided an accelerated course of education to 80 children from this community and assisted them to enrol in government schools in grade 3. In addition, almost all of the women in this community were illiterate and through Children in Crisis’ literacy classes, 63 women are now able to read and write and can assist their husbands and sons in their work in the markets. Of these 63 women, Fatima is one of the many success stories.

Although CiC’s work has now finished in this community, the legacy of the impact of this opportunity to gain an education remains.

Step by step the difference that education is making in the lives of adults and children in Afghanistan is being seen. Children in Crisis believes that only through gaining an education can the people of Afghanistan have the knowledge and power to demand a peaceful future.

*This name has been changed to protect the subject's privacy.