Transform Lives of 70,000 Afghan Adolescent Girls

Afghan females are the ones who got left behind and suffered most in the decades of strife experienced by Afghanistan. Now they are catching up and more than that excelling! AIL has over 25,000 students in its Learning Centers (LCs) each year. The women and girls study academic subjects, income generating skills and make friends and form social networks.

Computers are hugely important in the job world in Afghanistan as computing skills are highly desirable to employers. Young girl students are aware of this fact and are also fascinated by computers. Adolescent girls are keen to acquire these skills and they do well in computer classes that teach Word, Excel and Windows.

These classes change lives as one student said,” For poor people in our country AIL is the seashore at the time of a shipwreck and as a poet said, you should take the hand of a falling person when you stand on your feet. In this situation AIL is a boat for the generation of youth and we will never forget their help.”

Many of AIL’s centers offer computing classes and as an example, in September, in Herat Province there were 346 female students studying computing at LCs. There is also a special English and Computing 6 month course offered at a few centers. The latter course is especially popular as it combines two highly regarded skills and makes navigating the internet that much easier.

Thanks for your support. We have included Creating Hope International’s 2014 newsletter which contains information on AIL’s work. We hope you will take a few minutes to read it.

• Newsletter2014_FINAL_v2.pdf (PDF)
  

What is it really like being an AIL student? How does it transform lives? We wanted to hear students’ opinions and thought you would too, so we sent out an interviewer to gather some stories. Here are two perspectives:

My name is Zahra and I am a computer class student in AIL.

Question: How old are you?

Answer: I am  14 years old.

Question:  How long have you been taking the computer class at AIL and what do you think about it?

Answer: I have been attending the class for about 6 months. Everything that we need is prepared.  The teacher is kind and comes to class with a happy face.  She teaches all the computing skills to us. The students love the class and are interested to learn.  I think the class is successfully run. It has positive impact on the life of each student. AIL rescues children like me from a dark future by having these classes.  We are all happy about the class. 

Question: How has computer class changed your life?

Answer:  The class has brought great changes in my own life. I can feel the changes. I learned about the computer’s benefits and I told my family about them. I am able to solve most of my problems with my computer.  I solve the mathematical problems and earn much success. Also I am connected to the outside world by the internet. It has impacted my social communication in society as now I know many more people.  I promised to teach all these things that I learned to my friends. 

My name is Sarah and I am eighteen years old.

Question: Would you please tell us something about your past?

Answer: I was born into a poor family, where we were living in poverty and I was deprived of getting an education. Now I am enrolled in sewing class where I am being trained, while other girls of my age are going to school and they are in 12th grade. Since I have been suffering from joblessness and illiteracy, I asked my father to let me participate in this sewing class to improve myself so I can become a vital member of the family and for my children in the future.

Question: What do you think of your course?

Answer: There are a lot of great things being done in this AIL learning center and our teacher is really successful at executing the entire program practically. He makes us to do the assignments so that we expand our mental and physical abilities.

Question: What kinds of changes can you observe since you have been coming to this course?

Answer: I have learned a great deal of things since the first day I came to this center for instance: cutting clothes, making blouses and other clothes and many other things which are related to this. I am seeing some positive changes in myself. I want to thank the AIL center for providing us with such great classes where we can improve the level of our knowledge and become a positive member of the society.

Thank you for your support of this project.