Remembering Maria Rosario Lazzati Niada

On  February 2, 2022, Maria Rosario, Co-founder of Comitato Arghosha Faraway Schools, left us after a short illness. It was very sad news for all of us because her loss came at a very difficult juncture for Afghanistan, just  few months after the fall of the Ashraf Ghani government, supported by the US with a Nato coalition, and during a very delicate new phase under the new Taliban administration that took power in August 2o21. It also came after two long years during which, because of Covid restrictions, none of the Committee members was capable to visit the country. Fortunately, thanks to the help of our friends of Shuhada Organisation, we were still capable to fund and build two more schools: a mixed one at Koshkak Naqshi in Yakawlang district of Bamiyan province and one at Lazir, close to Nili capital of Daikundi province.

Sadly, Maria Rosario couldn’t make it to see our two new facilities and bring her smile and her reassuring words and warm affection to the pupils of those valleys she loved so much and she visited back and forth for 15 long years. She was a ray of hope and a force for good who will be remembered by the thousands of pupils, particularly girls, that she helped to educate, providing them with the tools that will help them to look forward with confidence to their adult life. Maria was the inspiring force of our organisation that she helped to found in 2005.

In October 2023 Marco went to visit Arghosha School where a tumbstone was laid in memory of Maria Rosario. Arghosha school was the first school construction funded by Arghosha Committee It was inaugurated in September 2005 and it paved the way to 14 more schools in the provinces of Bamiyan and Daikundi.

A tumbstone in memory of Maria Rosario at Arghosha’s school

It was a very moving ceremony attended by the principal of the school and its teachers and the pupils attending the courses. a Short speech was made but the presence of some of those who were there 18 years before when the school was inaugurated was the best way to remember her. We were told that in all these years many boys and girls who attended had good careers with some of them attending University and get good jobs

Marco with the pupils of Arghosha School during the celebration in memory of Maria Rosario

Let us still hope and be confident that Arghosha School with that bright shining sun over its roof on that bright and mild day of October 2023 will bring a good omen for many and many years to come to hundreds of more pupils that will contribute to buld the future of a better country

Arghosha School, still in very good shape 18 years after its construction