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| Afghanistan
GIRLS SCHOOL PROJECT • WOMEN'S COTTAGE INDUSTRY • SCHOOL-TO-SCHOOL
Where We Work
Village of Qarquin | Neighborhood of Jacksai | Village of Jangal Arigha | Village of Afghan Teppa | Village of Kak Ear Tak Jar | City of Sheberghan | Khadija Jawzjani School, Sheberghan
Afghan Girls School Project |
 Village of Qarquin
Location: 14 hours from Sheberghan
Population: 50,000
Total Students: 300
Start of Project: February 2003
Completed: July 2003
Total Cost: $25,000
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 Project Notes: Qarquin Village is a dusty, bumpy, daylong ride north from the city of Sheberghan. The town is located on the river that marks the border between Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. In its 2000-year history, there has never been an established school for women.
Of the town’s 50,000 residents, not one woman could read when Solace staff arrived in the spring of 2003. Land for the school was donated after careful negotiations. Five classrooms for girls were competed in July 2003.
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 Neighborhood of Jacksai
Location: City of Sheberghan
Population: 200,000
Total Students: 600
Start of Project: February 2003
Completed: June 2003
Total Cost: $22,000
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Project Notes: Jacksai School is one of several schools inside the city limits of Sheberghan in Jawzjan province. It is the first project completed by Solace International. The girls' school is next to an existing boys' school and forms an "L" shape with the other building. In addition to helping build the school, Solace purchased uniforms for 600 girls, including several uniforms for the choir.
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 Village of Jangal Arigha
Location: Two hours from Sheberghan
Population: 40,000
Total Students: 200
Start of Project: February 2004
Completed: May 2004
Total Cost: $22,000
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 Project Notes: In 2003, Solace staff chose the Jangal Arigha site for a girls’ school. At the time, young women from the village were attending class in a field. Village elders chose to donate a plot for the new building near an already established school for boys. Jangal Arigha is the childhood home of the governor of Jawzjan province, who has taken a personal interest in the project. The governor asked Solace staff to accompany him and a media crew to the site, and arranged a groundbreaking ceremony.
Hundreds of villagers from the area attended the ceremony, where Solace staffer Michelle Winston places one of the first cornerstones. The event was broadcast to over 200,000 viewers of Sheberghan TV News. The school was completed in May. When a Solace team arrived with school supplies in August of that same year, village elders delighted in helping stuff backpacks with new schools supplies for the girls.
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 Village of Afghan Teppa
Location: One hour from Sheberghan
Population: 10,000
Total Students: 550
Start of Project: February 2004
Completed: July 2004
Total Cost: $19,000
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 Project Notes: The villagers of Afghan Teppa started construction of a school without any outside financial support. When a team of Solace staff arrived in early 2004, they found work on the walls mostly completed, but stalled for lack of money to buy wood.
A generous donation from the California-based Society of Afghan Professionals put the project in motion again. In March, Solace team members were able to deliver school supplies and backpacks to students heading to their first day of school in temporary UNICEF tents. Construction was completed at the site in July of 2004.
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 Village of Kak Ear Tak Jar
Location: 15 mi. from Sheberghan
Population: 5,000+ (returning)
Total Students: 150 (coed)
Start of Project: August 2004
Completed: November 2004
Total Cost: $18,000
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 Project Notes: The villagers of Kak Ear Tak Jar who met with Solace staff were a vanguard of returning refugees. During the Soviet occupation, the whole village fled and resettled in Peshawar, among hundreds of thousands living in Pakistani refugee camps. Elders at the site warmly welcomed the idea of a new school for both boys and girls.
Michelle was introduced to a woman who would act as organizer for a women’s weaving cooperative for the village. A feast of fresh watermelon sealed the school and cooperative negotiations. Construction began that day. Solace staffer Ayüb is monitoring the furious pace of building. The returning refugees will come home to a new school by November 2004.
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 City of Sheberghan
Location: Sheberghan
Population: 200,000
Total Students: 500
Completed: December 2004
Total Cost: $24,000*
*with the donation of building materials
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Project Notes: Solace doesn’t yet have a name for the school site in Sheberghan. For the moment, we are calling it the “Commander’s School” after the charismatic former Mujahadeen fighter who has put down his rifle to help returning refugees.
The Commander has agreed to donate all of the 120,000 bricks needed to build the school. The site is in an area of Sheberghan that is rapidly repopulating and where there are no schools. It is an official site of the Ministry of Education and will fill a need for many boys and girls in the neighborhood.
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 Khadija Jawzjani School, Sheberghan
Location: City of Sheberghan
Population: 200,000
Total Students: 4,000
Start of Project: March 2005
Completed: September 2005
Total Cost: $90,000
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Facilities: An eight-room wing with an Internet lab was attached to an existing school of more than 20 rooms. There is a library of some 400 books in Dari that students can check out. This is the first Internet connected public school in Afghanistan.
Technical equipment: Eight computer workstations
Age/grade ability: Split shifts of 4th grade – 12th in the morning, and 1st – 3rd in the afternoon.
Coursework: Dari, Math, Religion, Science, English, and Computers
Staff: 50 teachers, administrators, and staff.
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