A visit to three old schools in Yakawlang district and in Bamiyan City

During his trip last October 2023 Marco and his friends of Shuhada Organisation also had the opportunity to visit 3 existing schools and assess their needs and eventually some works of maintenance and refurbishing. We decided to pay a visit to Chardeh and Zarin school our biggest only girls’ school with a capacity of about 600/700 pupil each. Sadly with the new government restrictions on school attendance, limited  to girls up to grade 6 the schools were not at their full capacity. Still, they were in good order and bursting with students’ cheerfulness The first stop was at Chardeh girls’ School built in 2008-2009 where the delegation was warmly welcomed by the girls from grade 1 to 6.  The young girls attending the courses were lively and in high spirits and the building, which is 15 years old, was in good condition. We committed to provide some educational material urgently needed.

Marco and Shuhada Org delegation paying visit to Zarin School

The second stop of our trip was at Zarin girls’ school, which was established in 2011 and extended in 2019. Together with Chardeh, Zarin was originally built to host 600/700 girls. Today, after the restrictions posed by the Afghan Government, the amount of pupils has literally halved and it is attended by around 350 girls. The director of the school, Mr Akbar Khan, has kept the school in pristine condition. The school has been a model for other structures of the Arghosha educational system, with the first volleyball pitch that we ever built and a huge orchard that combines learning through the knowledge of plants (such as apricots, almonds, apples and cherry trees) and a useful purpose, as the kids can take home some fruits.

A view from the top of the huge complex of Zarin school with a volley pitch and a big orchard on the back

Mr Khan has done a great work with the school and is a very respected member of the Zarin community. Unfortunately, because of the recent droughts, the orchard is having problems for lack of water. We committed, among other things, to dig a deeper well to provide more and better quality water both to the girls and the plants keeping the school greener and the pupils in the best possible conditions to attend theirs studies.

Mr Akbar Khan, principal of Zarin School

Finally, we had the opportunity to pay a visit to Mrs Fawzia who was the principal of Chardeh School until 2019 until she was made deputy head of Bamiyan province Education department. With the return of the Taliban Mr Fawzia was transferred to run a big girls’ primary school in Bamyian city that is hosting around 700 girls. We committed to refurbish the school, which is not one of our original buildings but is getting old and in bad condition. We pledged to provide it with educational material and an electric water pump to give the girls fresh running water. Mr Fawzia is a very distinguished teacher with a lot of experience and although one could see her new role a bit as a demotion she is enjoying her new job pretty much and is making the best out of it with passion and competence as ever.