Smiles on their Faces: School Feeding Programmes in Afghanistan
by Devaki Shrestha
09 June 2008Faizabad, Afghanistan: When I found out about the UNV programme, I was most impressed with the idea that by being a volunteer, I could contribute and learn simultaneously. In 1998, I was selected as a UNV specialist by the Afghanistan programme. Notwithstanding a few periodic intervals, I stayed there until December 2007. Out of my UNV assignments covering six and a half years, I worked with the World Food Programme (WFP) for about four years. As a UNV volunteer, the most valuable achievement for me was simply the great sense of satisfaction. I think I contributed whatever I was capable of with the profound desire to help people in great need of support. In retrospect, despite people's struggles to survive, the happiness seen on their faces were rays of light; and their 'never-say-die' attitude still makes me dream of Afghanistan.I remember a mission to Faizabad in the north-eastern part of Afghanistan with my team in the spring of 2006. The province is famous for its panoramic views and the virgin beauty of its landscape. After a half-hour drive on the rough road from the airport, we reached the WFP Faizabad Area Office. The Area Office was supporting food insecure areas, targeting vulnerable people from the most remote districts. Due to the rugged mountainous terrain, logistics management was a nightmare, especially during the snowy winter and rainy season. The width of the trails was just enough for one vehicle at a time to pass. Food supplies for the winter usually started from the month of June. If they were delayed, they faced lots of challenges due to vehicles being blocked by landslides, vehicles stuck on muddy roads etc. On 25 May we proceeded to Sohada District. Our objective was to observe the impact of the WFP school feeding programme. Arable land was limited there, and the people were extremely poor. Most depended on subsistence farming and labour work.We saw many schools. We talked with teachers, students, parents and communities. It was really a pity to see the learning conditions. Most schools did not have buildings at all. Even furniture was a luxury for these innocent children. Those schools which had buildings offered benches and desks, but these were not available to most children in the area. Many had to sit inside tents provided by UNICEF during the Back to School Campaign, probably in 2002. The children in the tents used to sit on plastic sheets, if they had not carried sacks from their homes. Instead of backpacks for their books, the children used to come with plastic bags and a few even carried bags made from empty fruit juice cartons. When numbers of children carried such cartons, it was very colourful.The WFP Faizabad Area Office had been supporting the school feeding programme for about 131,700 school attending children, out of which over 60,000 were girls. They received wheat as a take-home monthly ration. This had the objective of encouraging them to attend school. To bridge the gender gap the girls received oil incentives too, so that parents were encouraged to send their daughters to school.As most of the schools did not have a building, managing data or keeping records of the children’s enrolment, attendance and success rates were nearly nonexistent. When asked, the teachers and headmasters simply estimated from their heads. The lack of female teachers in the remote areas meant girls dropped out of school after class 5 as parents did permit them to attend classes taught by male teachers. We visited one pilot school in Sohada built with WFP support. This building, at least, gave us hope that things could become better by partnering with communities. The District Governor was active in bringing communities together. The plot of land was donated by one of the religious mullahs, who was also a teacher at the school. The communities around that school were more open to send their girls there, and community members had also participated in GAIN (Green Afghanistan Initiative) activities by planting trees around the school compound. At least, the children were lucky enough to attend the class inside rooms. They had the pleasure of sitting on benches and putting their books on desks. It was revealed during my tour of the area that WFP support had been a positive factor for increased enrolment and attendance rate for both boys and girls. People had become aware of the importance of education. The additional food support had encouraged needy parents to send their children to the school rather than sending them to work. Most had started to send their children even at the younger ages of five or six, which was not common practice before. Another visible change was that communities accepted mixed classes of boys and girls up to class three, which was not possible during the time of the Taliban regime. Most community members and teachers said that the food aid should be continued at least for another couple of years until the enrolled students completed their primary level, to reduce the chance of dropping out. Although the children had to attend classes in tents, they were happy to come to school. There were smiles on their faces. Perhaps this was the most telling impact of the programme.
Devaki Shrestha is a Nepali national qualified in social development. She graduated with social development diploma qualification from Coady International Institute, Canada, in 1988.
www.unv.org/en/perspectives/doc/smiles-on-their-faces.html June 2008.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Northern-Southern NGO Relationship
Devaki Shrestha
The northern NGOs and the multilateral agencies had been busy discovering a phrase to define their relationship with the southern NGOs. They energized NGO professionals, social development consultants, multilateral corporation executives, NGO leaders, journalists and academics to participate in this search process. The exercises to define the relationship encompassed seminars, meetings, research studies, consultations and writings. There were loud talks, popular mobilizations, serious studies, ritualistic conferences and numerous workshops. In the search campaign that took about four decades, several lofty phrases surfaced that included contractual arrangements, alliances, solidarity, partnership, collaboration, cooperation etc. However, most of the people in the NGO world preferred to use the term ‘partnership’. They thought that the popular term ‘partnership’ would impress northern individual as well as corporate donors. In addition, that term would give some relief and a sense of pride to the southern NGOs. By default, that also might contribute to humanize the relationships between northern and southern NGO bureaucracies in general and functional level employees in particular. Therefore, it has been accepted as a useful word to use in all billboards, be it in professional writings, evaluation studies, project documents, appeals asking for donations and speeches. Of course, the term ‘partnership’ mesmerized many development pundits. Therefore, ‘partnership’ topped the list of NGO jargons and vocabularies. It happened not only because of the reasons mentioned above, but also by accepting this lofty word, there was no practical obstacle to continue the northern NGO’s existing relationship behaviours and characters that included domination, distrust and subjugation.
Words do not produce behaviours; rather practices and behaviours create glossaries. The spin-doctors can corrupt the uses and meanings of the words, phrases or sentences. The same happened to ‘partnership’. The most important factor in defining relationships is the power equation. Robert Chambers (Ideas for development: reflecting forwards, Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, England, 2004: 28, website: www.ids.ac.uk/ids/bookshop) says, "Power and relationships are intimately interwoven. ..... Partnership implies collegial equality but aid agencies with funds often call the shots." Of course, aid agencies including northern NGOs dictate terms because they have the control over funds.
The term ‘partnership’ has been widely used in business to define a form of relationship. It has three important factors – investment of capital, management of an enterprise and sharing of risks. All partners share common goals, basic management culture and mutuality of risk-taking attitude. Whilst adopting the same word to define their relationship, the not-for-profit agencies’ guiding-lights did not critically examine its applicability to describe their reality.
Northern NGOs harvest funds. They are the farmers of fund raising. They position themselves strategically as the champions of humanitarian cause or as advocates of human wellbeing, which includes but not limited to elimination of hunger, education and basic health for all, peace, justice, rights and people’s empowerment. Both, humanitarian cause and the human wellbeing are nothing more than the cosmetics for a large number of northern NGOs as they are private non-profits and not voluntary agencies; they are professionally run social marketing enterprises and not the representative people’s organizations. Therefore, they need funds to maintain their own bureaucracies and sustain their own organizations. They need practitioners and implementers to ensure the continuation of their existence by playing an intermediary role and getting a slice of the pie to cover their administrative and operating costs. The need of funds creates compulsions to invent numerous ornamental statements (visions, missions, strategies and so on), to find out implementers (southern NGOs, community-based organizations, consulting firms etc) and, to launch image-building exercises, continuously. These are their basics. This is applicable for a large number of northern NGOs, though there are exceptions.
On the other side, most of the southern NGOs exist by mixing idealism with creation of opportunities for the promoters and functioning as the processing enterprises, which package poverty, marginalization, injustice, deprivation, etc. They process poverty and generate funds. In the same way, they process funds and provide services. They have mastery of processing, packaging and repackaging. Southern NGOs talk loud to their service recipients and wag their tails in front of donors, including northern NGOs.
Northern NGOs insert most of the ideas, strategies and program philosophies in any ‘partnership’ programs according to their donor’s wishes followed by their own organizational mandate. The relationship, though, might be camouflaged by ideals of equality and mutual respect, is no different from the relationship between donors and recipients in a contractual arrangement. Irrespective of some signs and symptoms of mutuality, the relationships have been dominated by the wishes of the donors. In all designs and applications, the southern NGOs play the role of a marginalized junior partner, if at all.
Northern NGOs talk loudly about transparency, accountability and sustainability of the southern NGOs. It sounds that the talk is all about an infant who is at the verge of departure from this world to say "Hello!" to God. Northern NGOs behave in an unjust, disrespectful and unequal manner with their southern cousins when the issue is that of utilization of the funds. Their auditors play the role of an accuser or that of an investigating official. The southern NGOs not only fear the auditors but also most of the time they have to go beyond irritation and unnatural shivering. The second factor to add salt to their injuries are the bureaucrats of northern NGOs, as most of them think that southern NGOs are run by the spin-doctors, manipulators and crooks in disguise. For most of the southern NGOs, the third load is none other than they, themselves – full of contradictions, double-speak and questionable intentions and acts. As the fourth factor, there are program evaluators, mostly the consultants, who often play the role of a villain. Many of them focus on finding faults. Although, they are much better than the humiliating auditors, northern NGO bureaucrats and southern NGO promoters, they also contribute to lower down the morale of southern NGOs. All these actors push the lager southern NGO family in a defensive mode. This phenomenon is not limited to the management of a particular agency but also it has influenced the southern NGOs in formulating standards of relationships with their donors.
Another critical factor that influences relationships between northern NGOs (donors) and southern NGOs is the role of the donor’s donor. Nearly, all northern NGOs play the role of an intermediary and their donors expect certain ways in utilizing their funds. Their approach determines the behaviours of the northern NGOs. Hence, the range of inspections, overseeing, accusing, supervisions, investigations, suspicions, etc gets larger spread. The same is applicable to other bilateral as well as multilateral aid agencies and the transnational corporations. Therefore, the loud talk of partnership in this business of grant funding for a humanitarian or a social cause has become an ornament with some exceptions.
This is high time to examine the relationship objectively and give it a name that reflects the underlying ethos. Partnership among northern NGOs is perfectly possible as more or less, they are in the same core business of raising funds for social or humanitarian cause. Similarly, partnership among southern NGOs could flourish as they also are in the same core business of supplying services for social or humanitarian cause. Both arrangements have sound foundation of commonality of the core business. However, the northern and southern NGOs differ fundamentally in the core business, forget that both of them are called "NGOs". Somebody might argue that both types of NGOs are linked with similar motivation, and that connects them for a larger social or humanitarian cause. Therefore, they are in the same business. Remember, department of roads builds roads by employing the services of road construction contractors. Both of them are in the same larger business of road construction. However, they are not partners. Broadly, there are three options available to define the relationship between the northern and southern NGOs. First, call it service contract, if in a specific arrangement that reflects the reality and throw away all pretensions. Second, if the particular relationship could be best explained as an alliance, say it alliance, and give it the character and respectability the relationship deserves. Third, if you dare to say the relationship as partnership, then prove it with evidences, facts, logical reasoning and profound conviction. Primarily, bring equality into practice, particularly in the critical area of power sharing. Are the northern NGOs ready to accept "collegial equality" in dealing with their southern cousins?
The Telegraph, Weekly, Kathmandu, Wednesday, 16 February 2005
The northern NGOs and the multilateral agencies had been busy discovering a phrase to define their relationship with the southern NGOs. They energized NGO professionals, social development consultants, multilateral corporation executives, NGO leaders, journalists and academics to participate in this search process. The exercises to define the relationship encompassed seminars, meetings, research studies, consultations and writings. There were loud talks, popular mobilizations, serious studies, ritualistic conferences and numerous workshops. In the search campaign that took about four decades, several lofty phrases surfaced that included contractual arrangements, alliances, solidarity, partnership, collaboration, cooperation etc. However, most of the people in the NGO world preferred to use the term ‘partnership’. They thought that the popular term ‘partnership’ would impress northern individual as well as corporate donors. In addition, that term would give some relief and a sense of pride to the southern NGOs. By default, that also might contribute to humanize the relationships between northern and southern NGO bureaucracies in general and functional level employees in particular. Therefore, it has been accepted as a useful word to use in all billboards, be it in professional writings, evaluation studies, project documents, appeals asking for donations and speeches. Of course, the term ‘partnership’ mesmerized many development pundits. Therefore, ‘partnership’ topped the list of NGO jargons and vocabularies. It happened not only because of the reasons mentioned above, but also by accepting this lofty word, there was no practical obstacle to continue the northern NGO’s existing relationship behaviours and characters that included domination, distrust and subjugation.
Words do not produce behaviours; rather practices and behaviours create glossaries. The spin-doctors can corrupt the uses and meanings of the words, phrases or sentences. The same happened to ‘partnership’. The most important factor in defining relationships is the power equation. Robert Chambers (Ideas for development: reflecting forwards, Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, England, 2004: 28, website: www.ids.ac.uk/ids/bookshop) says, "Power and relationships are intimately interwoven. ..... Partnership implies collegial equality but aid agencies with funds often call the shots." Of course, aid agencies including northern NGOs dictate terms because they have the control over funds.
The term ‘partnership’ has been widely used in business to define a form of relationship. It has three important factors – investment of capital, management of an enterprise and sharing of risks. All partners share common goals, basic management culture and mutuality of risk-taking attitude. Whilst adopting the same word to define their relationship, the not-for-profit agencies’ guiding-lights did not critically examine its applicability to describe their reality.
Northern NGOs harvest funds. They are the farmers of fund raising. They position themselves strategically as the champions of humanitarian cause or as advocates of human wellbeing, which includes but not limited to elimination of hunger, education and basic health for all, peace, justice, rights and people’s empowerment. Both, humanitarian cause and the human wellbeing are nothing more than the cosmetics for a large number of northern NGOs as they are private non-profits and not voluntary agencies; they are professionally run social marketing enterprises and not the representative people’s organizations. Therefore, they need funds to maintain their own bureaucracies and sustain their own organizations. They need practitioners and implementers to ensure the continuation of their existence by playing an intermediary role and getting a slice of the pie to cover their administrative and operating costs. The need of funds creates compulsions to invent numerous ornamental statements (visions, missions, strategies and so on), to find out implementers (southern NGOs, community-based organizations, consulting firms etc) and, to launch image-building exercises, continuously. These are their basics. This is applicable for a large number of northern NGOs, though there are exceptions.
On the other side, most of the southern NGOs exist by mixing idealism with creation of opportunities for the promoters and functioning as the processing enterprises, which package poverty, marginalization, injustice, deprivation, etc. They process poverty and generate funds. In the same way, they process funds and provide services. They have mastery of processing, packaging and repackaging. Southern NGOs talk loud to their service recipients and wag their tails in front of donors, including northern NGOs.
Northern NGOs insert most of the ideas, strategies and program philosophies in any ‘partnership’ programs according to their donor’s wishes followed by their own organizational mandate. The relationship, though, might be camouflaged by ideals of equality and mutual respect, is no different from the relationship between donors and recipients in a contractual arrangement. Irrespective of some signs and symptoms of mutuality, the relationships have been dominated by the wishes of the donors. In all designs and applications, the southern NGOs play the role of a marginalized junior partner, if at all.
Northern NGOs talk loudly about transparency, accountability and sustainability of the southern NGOs. It sounds that the talk is all about an infant who is at the verge of departure from this world to say "Hello!" to God. Northern NGOs behave in an unjust, disrespectful and unequal manner with their southern cousins when the issue is that of utilization of the funds. Their auditors play the role of an accuser or that of an investigating official. The southern NGOs not only fear the auditors but also most of the time they have to go beyond irritation and unnatural shivering. The second factor to add salt to their injuries are the bureaucrats of northern NGOs, as most of them think that southern NGOs are run by the spin-doctors, manipulators and crooks in disguise. For most of the southern NGOs, the third load is none other than they, themselves – full of contradictions, double-speak and questionable intentions and acts. As the fourth factor, there are program evaluators, mostly the consultants, who often play the role of a villain. Many of them focus on finding faults. Although, they are much better than the humiliating auditors, northern NGO bureaucrats and southern NGO promoters, they also contribute to lower down the morale of southern NGOs. All these actors push the lager southern NGO family in a defensive mode. This phenomenon is not limited to the management of a particular agency but also it has influenced the southern NGOs in formulating standards of relationships with their donors.
Another critical factor that influences relationships between northern NGOs (donors) and southern NGOs is the role of the donor’s donor. Nearly, all northern NGOs play the role of an intermediary and their donors expect certain ways in utilizing their funds. Their approach determines the behaviours of the northern NGOs. Hence, the range of inspections, overseeing, accusing, supervisions, investigations, suspicions, etc gets larger spread. The same is applicable to other bilateral as well as multilateral aid agencies and the transnational corporations. Therefore, the loud talk of partnership in this business of grant funding for a humanitarian or a social cause has become an ornament with some exceptions.
This is high time to examine the relationship objectively and give it a name that reflects the underlying ethos. Partnership among northern NGOs is perfectly possible as more or less, they are in the same core business of raising funds for social or humanitarian cause. Similarly, partnership among southern NGOs could flourish as they also are in the same core business of supplying services for social or humanitarian cause. Both arrangements have sound foundation of commonality of the core business. However, the northern and southern NGOs differ fundamentally in the core business, forget that both of them are called "NGOs". Somebody might argue that both types of NGOs are linked with similar motivation, and that connects them for a larger social or humanitarian cause. Therefore, they are in the same business. Remember, department of roads builds roads by employing the services of road construction contractors. Both of them are in the same larger business of road construction. However, they are not partners. Broadly, there are three options available to define the relationship between the northern and southern NGOs. First, call it service contract, if in a specific arrangement that reflects the reality and throw away all pretensions. Second, if the particular relationship could be best explained as an alliance, say it alliance, and give it the character and respectability the relationship deserves. Third, if you dare to say the relationship as partnership, then prove it with evidences, facts, logical reasoning and profound conviction. Primarily, bring equality into practice, particularly in the critical area of power sharing. Are the northern NGOs ready to accept "collegial equality" in dealing with their southern cousins?
The Telegraph, Weekly, Kathmandu, Wednesday, 16 February 2005
Education Promotion through Food Aid in Western Afghanistan
by Devaki Shrestha
July 2003 - On 23 March 2002, Afghanistan's schools for girls and boys were officially opened with the "Back-to-School" slogan after the fall of the Taliban regime. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) led the campaign. The World Food Programme (WFP) strengthened the programme with the "School Feeding" project for food deficit areas affected by drought all over Afghanistan. WFP started its "Food for Education" component during the emergency operation to support the transitional government of Afghanistan. Later it was extended under the "Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation" with effect from 1 April 2003.
The percentage of girl students in the schools in Hirat is around 55 percent (Department of Education, Hirat), whilse the figure is very low in the remote districts and provinces. WFP strongly believed that food aid as an incentive will increase participation in education and will help to rebuild educational infrastructure, enhance knowledge and skills and will motivate teachers. The WFP programme covers all four provinces of Western Afghanistan -- Hirat, Badghis, Farah and Ghor. The enrollment of girls was very low in Badghis, Farah and Ghor. At the same time the number of female teachers is also very low in these provinces. The girl student enrolment in Hirat city was quite reasonable but the school authorities were handicapped with the limited absorption capacity and unavailability of school space as enthusiasm shown by the parents to send their children to school was astonishing. The education authorities managed to have classrooms in the tents with the support of agencies like UNICEF and IOM. This helped to make space for primary school students. The willingness shown by the parents to send their daughters to school after the lifting of ban imposed by previous regime was extremely encouraging.
In 2002, the WFP Area Office in West started theschool feeding programme with bread distribution produced by the women from low income groups in Kohsan district of Hirat Province. Later the bread feeding was replaced by the biscuit feeding programme. Currently, the WFP Hirat Area Office has been successfully implementing school feeding project in the target area covering around 38,000 school children against the country wide target of reaching over I million children. Among them, girls are 21 percent. About 6,137 girls (21 percent) are receiving four liters of oil for attending at least 22 school days in the class as take-home-ration incentive to the family as a whole.
Most of the schools are lacking minimum level of school facilities. Many NGOs, bilateral agencies, UNICEF and WFP have played a significant role in creating a favorable environment by providing educational, motivational and material support to bring all these children to schools from food insecure areas and also from districts with low enrolment of girls. These districts include Bakwa and Balabuluk, where there was zero girl enrolment. After the start of "School Feeding" project and distribution of oil incentive to the girls, there was a positive initial response from some parents to send their daughters to school. Under WFP's school feeding project, every student gets one packet of fortified biscuit (100 grams) per school day. The projects for Badghis and Ghor provinces are in the process. In those provinces another 50,000 students will be covered by the project.
In addition, WFP helps young girls (who were out of schooling during the previous regime) and ex-combatants to enrol in the formal school system. This will be done by offering them functional non-formal education courses and linking the graduates of such bridging courses to the formal school system. Food Aid has been provided to the teachers and participants of such courses to support their living while attending the classes.
The women organizations and the women in the community are supported with a food incentive to participate in vocational training courses. The skills they learn will help them to start micro income-generating activities at their house-hold or community level. Around 1,200 young women have completed the courses recently and 1,408 young women and men are still taking their courses.
WFP signed a "Memorandum of Understanding" in 2002 to support the transitional Government through the Ministry of Education under "Protracted Reconstruction and Recovery Operation" and has shown its commitment to help for retaining the teachers by providing edible oil incentives (10 liter per month/teacher). The incentive will continue for the next two years. About 3,350 teachers already received the oil-ration since February and additional 5,759 teachers will receive in June. In total, about 8,750 teachers from the western province will be supported through the salary supplement to boost their morale as they are receiving minimum amount of salary. Their monthly salary is about US$ 45.
WFP, in participation with UNICEF, is supporting teacher training. The opportunities to receive the training especially for the women teachers will help them to retain their jobs and also will enhance their teaching skills contributing to better quality of education for the children. There is a plan to support all 14 government teacher training institutes across the country with food incentives, either on-site or as a take-home ration.
July 2003 - On 23 March 2002, Afghanistan's schools for girls and boys were officially opened with the "Back-to-School" slogan after the fall of the Taliban regime. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) led the campaign. The World Food Programme (WFP) strengthened the programme with the "School Feeding" project for food deficit areas affected by drought all over Afghanistan. WFP started its "Food for Education" component during the emergency operation to support the transitional government of Afghanistan. Later it was extended under the "Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation" with effect from 1 April 2003.
The percentage of girl students in the schools in Hirat is around 55 percent (Department of Education, Hirat), whilse the figure is very low in the remote districts and provinces. WFP strongly believed that food aid as an incentive will increase participation in education and will help to rebuild educational infrastructure, enhance knowledge and skills and will motivate teachers. The WFP programme covers all four provinces of Western Afghanistan -- Hirat, Badghis, Farah and Ghor. The enrollment of girls was very low in Badghis, Farah and Ghor. At the same time the number of female teachers is also very low in these provinces. The girl student enrolment in Hirat city was quite reasonable but the school authorities were handicapped with the limited absorption capacity and unavailability of school space as enthusiasm shown by the parents to send their children to school was astonishing. The education authorities managed to have classrooms in the tents with the support of agencies like UNICEF and IOM. This helped to make space for primary school students. The willingness shown by the parents to send their daughters to school after the lifting of ban imposed by previous regime was extremely encouraging.
In 2002, the WFP Area Office in West started theschool feeding programme with bread distribution produced by the women from low income groups in Kohsan district of Hirat Province. Later the bread feeding was replaced by the biscuit feeding programme. Currently, the WFP Hirat Area Office has been successfully implementing school feeding project in the target area covering around 38,000 school children against the country wide target of reaching over I million children. Among them, girls are 21 percent. About 6,137 girls (21 percent) are receiving four liters of oil for attending at least 22 school days in the class as take-home-ration incentive to the family as a whole.
Most of the schools are lacking minimum level of school facilities. Many NGOs, bilateral agencies, UNICEF and WFP have played a significant role in creating a favorable environment by providing educational, motivational and material support to bring all these children to schools from food insecure areas and also from districts with low enrolment of girls. These districts include Bakwa and Balabuluk, where there was zero girl enrolment. After the start of "School Feeding" project and distribution of oil incentive to the girls, there was a positive initial response from some parents to send their daughters to school. Under WFP's school feeding project, every student gets one packet of fortified biscuit (100 grams) per school day. The projects for Badghis and Ghor provinces are in the process. In those provinces another 50,000 students will be covered by the project.
In addition, WFP helps young girls (who were out of schooling during the previous regime) and ex-combatants to enrol in the formal school system. This will be done by offering them functional non-formal education courses and linking the graduates of such bridging courses to the formal school system. Food Aid has been provided to the teachers and participants of such courses to support their living while attending the classes.
The women organizations and the women in the community are supported with a food incentive to participate in vocational training courses. The skills they learn will help them to start micro income-generating activities at their house-hold or community level. Around 1,200 young women have completed the courses recently and 1,408 young women and men are still taking their courses.
WFP signed a "Memorandum of Understanding" in 2002 to support the transitional Government through the Ministry of Education under "Protracted Reconstruction and Recovery Operation" and has shown its commitment to help for retaining the teachers by providing edible oil incentives (10 liter per month/teacher). The incentive will continue for the next two years. About 3,350 teachers already received the oil-ration since February and additional 5,759 teachers will receive in June. In total, about 8,750 teachers from the western province will be supported through the salary supplement to boost their morale as they are receiving minimum amount of salary. Their monthly salary is about US$ 45.
WFP, in participation with UNICEF, is supporting teacher training. The opportunities to receive the training especially for the women teachers will help them to retain their jobs and also will enhance their teaching skills contributing to better quality of education for the children. There is a plan to support all 14 government teacher training institutes across the country with food incentives, either on-site or as a take-home ration.
Women mobilization in Afghanistan
- Devaki Shrestha/UNV specialist
The evolving spirit of Voluntarism among Afghan women:
Women's participation in the community work was one of the most sensitive issues during Taliban regime. After the collapse of the regime, the new transitional government initiated some positive steps to create and expand opportunities for women. As a result, some organizations started to encourage women to come out. I have had interactions with a few women's groups and organizations. They were full of enthusiasm. Once, we had a meeting with one of the NGOs in Badghis province. They decided to start some literacy classes for women. We met several times in the process of preparation. Finally, the group succeeded to plan literacy classes for 119 illiterate women. The classes were running. Seeing women in the classes, the school teachers got motivated to help their less privileged sisters. They started literacy classes for 227 women participants. They started to help their sisters in the community as volunteers. This was a small but significant beginning. Also in the towns, the educated women started to take initiatives. They formed women councils. They encouraged womenfolk to come out and participate in vocational activities. They also motivated the women to participate in social functions and self-help activities. The council members are contributing their time and energy as volunteers. Now, the following changes could be observed:
- the women in the community have started to discuss their problems together,
- the woman organizations have developed confidence to take responsibilities,
- the brigade of prospective voluntary teachers and facilitators is expanding, and
- some of the women in the community have started to come out just covering their head (Hejab) instead of wearing veil (Burqa).
This is the humble beginning of a new Afghan society. During my discussion with the women teachers and council members, I have noticed that, they feel immense satisfaction. Perhaps, that is the wonderful feeling of serving the humanity in need. I think, in essence, this is what voluntarism is all about.
The evolving spirit of Voluntarism among Afghan women:
Women's participation in the community work was one of the most sensitive issues during Taliban regime. After the collapse of the regime, the new transitional government initiated some positive steps to create and expand opportunities for women. As a result, some organizations started to encourage women to come out. I have had interactions with a few women's groups and organizations. They were full of enthusiasm. Once, we had a meeting with one of the NGOs in Badghis province. They decided to start some literacy classes for women. We met several times in the process of preparation. Finally, the group succeeded to plan literacy classes for 119 illiterate women. The classes were running. Seeing women in the classes, the school teachers got motivated to help their less privileged sisters. They started literacy classes for 227 women participants. They started to help their sisters in the community as volunteers. This was a small but significant beginning. Also in the towns, the educated women started to take initiatives. They formed women councils. They encouraged womenfolk to come out and participate in vocational activities. They also motivated the women to participate in social functions and self-help activities. The council members are contributing their time and energy as volunteers. Now, the following changes could be observed:
- the women in the community have started to discuss their problems together,
- the woman organizations have developed confidence to take responsibilities,
- the brigade of prospective voluntary teachers and facilitators is expanding, and
- some of the women in the community have started to come out just covering their head (Hejab) instead of wearing veil (Burqa).
This is the humble beginning of a new Afghan society. During my discussion with the women teachers and council members, I have noticed that, they feel immense satisfaction. Perhaps, that is the wonderful feeling of serving the humanity in need. I think, in essence, this is what voluntarism is all about.
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