Inauguration of Zarin Secondary School for Girls

On October the 22d, 2011, Maria Rosario and Marco attended the official  inauguration of Zarin, a school of 13 classrooms for 700 girls, spanning from grades 1 to 12. The ceremony was one of the most outstanding that Comitato Arghosha Faraway Schools (CAFS) has ever witnessed: it attracted over 1000 people, including boys of the neighbouring high school, relatives of the children and many other people involved in the planning and construction of the building. The event was a unique occasion for the inhabitants of the area and was celebrated by many distinguished guests from all social backgrounds:  members of government, religious and civil society. Among the attendants were Mohammed Reza Ada , director of the Department of Education of the Bamyan province,  Mr Fayaz, Governor of the Yakawlang district, where the school  is located, and Ayatollah Ehsani, one of the most distinguished religious leaders of the region. There were also the elders of the biggest neighbouring villages and the top representatives of Shuhada, the Ngo in charge of the implementation of the project: Abdul Rauf Naweed, director general of the organisation and Eng . Gholam Hussein, head of the Bamyan office.   Marco and Maria Rosario, who represented the CAFS, where accompanied by their son Andrea who took many photos and also managed to make a short film of the event (see separately in the films section). The inauguration also attracted a team from the regional  Afghan television.  Mustafa Hosseini,  whose help on the ground has been invaluable for the CAFS during all these years, also joined, taking some days off from his job at the UNHCR in Kabul.

It was striking to notice how deeply the girls were involved and passionate about their school. They had prepared all the road map of the event, deciding the timing and the order of the speeches, a musical intermission, the reading of poems and ceremony of the cutting of the ribbon. The girls pledged to keep the school in perfect order for themselves and future generations, as was recommended to them by Ayatollah Ehsani.  They also were impatient to upgrade their education skills and asked for a library, a laboratory and a “professional teacher” for English courses.  In brief they gave the impression of having a great desire to recover the time lost during a quarter century of civil war and the Taliban regime, which was particularly damaging to the region, with destruction and mass murders of civilians.

The inauguration ceremony, consisting in laying the first stone of Zarin was attended in April by the Governor of Bamyan province, Habiba Sorabi. Ever since, the local population has shown incredible drive and energy to make sure that the school would be built on time. And it was: the whole process starting from the laying of the foundations up to the completion of the last interior decorations took less than 6 months!  Zarin lies in a fertile valley and it was amazing to witness how great the economic progress of the population of the area have been. The herds of cows, goats and sheep have massively increased in number. The agriculture is flourishing with better irrigation and the use of the first mechanic tools such as tractors.