No more tent schools
Forty-one percent of schools in Afghanistan does not have buildings and for most children it means studying under tents, other unprotected structures or in ‘open-air’. Similarly in a far district of Heart named ‘Say Polak’, children attend classes in tents or mosques which do not have enough space for all the children of the district especially when it makes it least possible for girls to get an education.
To contribute to this cause, Zardozi Kadars took the initiative to knock on people’s doors and to encourage the families to permit their daughters to go to school and informed them about female teachers availability for their girls since many families are more likely to send their daughters to schools where men are not present. As a result, with the coordination of the community elders, the Kadars signed a petition by the local people and sent it to the Education Department of Heart.
After 7 months of struggles and hurdles, Say Polak has now a school consisting of six classes and 150 male and female students attending the school in different hours of the day. However, this building structure may not suffice the need of 5,000 houses living in the area but it is a small and fundamental step towards development.
One of the Kadars tells us about the difficulties they faced and says, “It is not easy to collect a whole consensus over building a school since most people prioritize other things more than education. It took us months to spread general awareness and convince people to allow a certain part of their land for school building because government can’t make a school unless the people coordinate.”
Spozhmi who is a resident of the district and also teaches at the school expressed her gratitude to the Kadars: “This is a great step towards development of this country. We are happy we have the Kadars who have always gathered people to promote a good cause which is not always easy especially building a school.”
Who are Kadars?
Kadars are Zardozi’s volunteer members who perform as communication bridge between Zardozi and Nisfe-Jahan’s offices by getting involved in the implementation of Zardozi’s programs, services and activities in the four regions. Zardozi provide several capacity building trainings including business administration to the Kadars in order to prepare them to become the building blocks of their societies and help community members particularly women to engage in civic activities.