October 19, 2009

Picture with the Graduates!

Today was another big day for our Project Afghan Literacy (PAL), because we had a graduation ceremony for our 10 Afghani students. They studied hard for last 7 weeks, including one week break in between. They did extremely well. Two of the students received 100 out of 100 points on the final exam. We were very happy with the result.

When they came to the class on the very first day of the class, they were total illiterates, but now they are not any more. They were extremely proud of the fact that they now can read and write their language, the fact that they can read news papers, the fact that they can write down the information or directions their superiors give out to them, and the fact that they now belong to the 24 % elite group of Afghanistan. They applauded hard to congratulate on themselves for completing the course and expressing thanks to whom have provided the opportunities to them. Few of last graduates showed up on the graduation to congratulate the new graduates. I was very happy to see the familiar faces.

Last night we made nice color copies of the certificates of completion for the graduates and laminated them to make it look even better. =) Dr. Rafi brought small gifts for each of them while on leave few days ago.

Certificate of Graduation

We also prepared 3 special awards and gifts for who has improved the most, and has put the most effort in the course, and has scored the most in class.

Wadafar, one of the graduates, brought a thank you letter that he wrote himself to Dr. Rafi the other day. Dr. Rafi was extremely proud of the fact that the student, who was completely illiterate 7 weeks ago, now was able to write a whole page in Pashto. I was extremely happy as well.

After the ceremony, Commander CPT Kramer asked me if we had a complete syllabus written up for the course. He continued and suggested that we may suggest other military outposts to do the same for their workers and Afghanistan soldiers. Wow, I was thrilled to hear what he just told me. This is what I have been asking to so many people. I wanted to make the course military outpost-wide, so we could really start helping Afghanistan fight illiteracy.

Thank You Letter from Wafadar, a graduate!

After the ceremony, all the graduates took pictures and shared a feast together.

This was a great day!!