The new girls’ school in Dasht e Sefid, Kahmard district, is on its way

August 7, 2024 (Safar 3, 1446 AH) will go down to Arghosha’s history as a memorable day. The Governor of Bamiyan province, Abdullah Sarhadi (pictured while cutting the inauguration ribbon), wanted to come personally to lead the ground-breaking ceremony of our new girls’ school in Dasht e Sivid in Kahmard district. His presence and his speech that put the emphasis on the importance of a “modern education”  was particularly well received as it marks the commitment of the new Government to the cause of Education. The school is a girls’ school grade 1-6, which means that girls can attend up to 12 years old, in line with the new regulations of the Taliban regime, is nonetheless an important step forward because  in absolute terms this is the first girls’ school in the whole area

A group of girls read a thanks giving note in front of Bamiyan governor and other authorities

The ceremony was attended by hundreds of people and together with the Governor were the local authorities and the village elders, proud to host a new public building on their land. The school will be a 6 classrooms school plus two administrative and storage rooms. It will be built according to government specifications and  safety requisites. At the ceremony a group of girls (pictured) read a thanks giving note together with some poems. The ceremony was attended by the local Shuhada representative, Raziq Naveed, who was instrumental in negotiating the project with local authorities.

Bamiyan Governor Abdullah Sarhadi lays the first foundation stone

Contrary to the past, this time the bureaucratic process that has led to the start of the construction works has taken much longer as under the new regime many decision making functions have been centralised in Kabul. The choice has sensibly decreased corruption that in the last years had increased many folds according also to independent observers but has slowed down the process. To that new regulations inspired by Sharia compliance have also made the process a bit more cumbersome. As far as we are concerned it was worth the wait as the costs of the school, thanks to a transparent bidding process for the construction company, have been quashed from an expected US $ 180,000 to US $ 132,000.

The site where the new school will be built, pic of 27-7-2024

Slow in departure the works have picked up with incredible speed. By the third week of July al the building materials have been assembled on site and two weeks later as you can see the foundations are already in the process of being laid.

Foundations are already well on their way on August 11 2024

This school stands at 1600 m height and is the lowest in terms of altitude of all our schools that stand between 2200 m and 3300 m. For this reason transport of materials have been easier and overall the construction season will be longer than usual well into late November and restart at beginning of March. The building company plans to complete the structure by the end of March. We will keep you updated!