Afghan Girls Fund Update: Over $831,000 Raised

Jennifer Vernon
for National Geographic News

December 5, 2003

An outpouring of public support has resulted in the funding of three
projects instrumental to reviving the education of young girls and women
in Afghanistan.

The Afghan Girls Fund (AGF) has worked to realize the wish of Sharbat Gula—whose arresting childhood photograph graced the cover of National Geographic magazine and captured the hearts of its readers—to improve the prospects of Afghan girls and women through education.

The fund has received $731,791.72 in public donations and an additional $100,000 gift from the National Geographic since its inception in March 2002.

Grass Roots Effort

"No one anticipated just how strong the public response would be. It really seemed to pluck a chord," said Mark Longo, National Geographic Development Office. "We received hundreds and hundreds of checks and online donations. The response has been mostly grass roots. It's really been wonderful to see."

Take the efforts of Sara Percy, Elizabeth Percy, and Morgan Smith, three high school students from Stowe, Vermont, who launched Project Hope, a campaign to raise $5,000 to donate to the AGF.

Working through the Stowe Community Church, the girls studied Afghan culture and issues, then organized talks and raffles to raise donations and developed a web site to track their progress. Started in December 2002, Project Hope exceeded its goal this October. Their motivation? "To someday receive a hand-written letter from three girls that we have supported—because we helped them learn to write!" their site states.

On the Ground

With such enthusiastic support from the public, the AGF soon accumulated enough funds for the National Geographic Education Foundation to move ahead with projects on the ground in Afghanistan.

The first of these projects, the National Geographic Girls Education and Training Center, opened in October 2002. Based in Kabul and administered in conjunction with The Asia Foundation and their local partner, Afghan Street Working Children and New Approach, the center provides educational opportunities for 270 girls, ages 12-17. The curriculum is designed to bring the girls up to a 6th grade level in three years and help them reintegrate into the existing school system.

The center provides these girls—many of whom are orphans living on the street—with basic necessities such as one substantial meal per day, toiletries, hygiene instruction, and basic medical care. In addition, the girls receive vocational training in tailoring, computer science, calligraphy, and art and physical education classes.

"There is a generation of illiterate girls with few social skills. They don't laugh, run, and play like boys—they don't know how," observed Mark Bauman, National Geographic Mission Programs, who visited the school on behalf of the Geographic this past summer. "How much fun it must be for them now to play and learn with girls their own age after being locked away at home for so long."

The next AGF grant was given to provide 25,000 girls with each issue of a new Afghan children's magazine, Parvaz, meaning "flight" or "to fly." The 52-page, full-color publication is a first, covering health, geography, history, science, math, and special concerns to children such as the danger of landmines. Copies are distributed free via schools and humanitarian organizations or sold on the street for roughly 20 cents U.S.

Administered through the Afghan Media and Culture Center, Parvaz receives the majority of its funding through AÏNA, an international nonprofit group. However, offsetting the considerable production costs—$1.40 per issue—is a continuing concern, explained photojournalist Reza, a member of the Parvaz project team who has covered the region for over 20 years.

The most recent collaboration between the AGF and The Asia Foundation will refurbish the Rabia-e-Balkhi school in Kabul, where UNICEF tents now serve as classrooms. Named in honor of a celebrated female poet, the school once served 10,000 female students in grades K-12. Bombing during Afghanistan's civil war destroyed 90 percent of the school, which now struggles to provide resources for 2,300 girls.

The project will add 15 new classrooms, outfit and refurbish the rest, construct a chemistry lab and a freestanding library, and provide books and maps. After renovation, each classroom will hold 150 girls each day under a rotating, three-shift schedule. Afghanistan's Ministry of Education has committed to employing 90 new teachers for the school, with more to come as enrollment expands.

Remaining funds will be used to purchase a generator to provide reliable electricity for the school, the library, and the computer lab; assist with installation of basic latrines and a sewage system; and provide for the installation of a telephone in the school's main office.

The school's new library resource center will serve a dual purpose, providing women throughout the city a safe place outside of their homes in which they can study, research, and have access to computers and the Internet.

Local language reading material, computers, a printer and scanner, fee-for-service Internet access, laptop connections, an audiovisual room and equipment, and a study hall space will be made available, and plans are in the works to provide computer training to community women for a small fee. Such fees will help ensure the long term economic viability of the center, planners say.

Renovation of Rabia-e-Balkhi is scheduled to be completed by March 2004, the beginning of the Afghan school year, with the library resource center to open during the summer.

With generous public support, and strong partners such as The Asia Foundation and AÏNA, the AGF is providing critical support to the rehabilitation of education for girls and women in Afghanistan.

Surely, Sharbat Gula must be pleased.

Contributions can be made online to the National Geographic Afghan Girls Fund or by sending a check directly to the National Geographic Afghan Girls Fund, Development Office, National Geographic Society, 1145 17th Street N.W., Washington, D.C., 20036.