October 21, 2009

Today, we started our third Project Afghan Literacy (PAL) class. This time Afghan National Army (ANA) joined us, and we now have 17 students in the class. Among all the gifts everyone donates to Afghanistan, education has to be one of the more important ones for its future. With such a high illiteracy (76%), it is very hard to imagine or predict its future. In my opinion, we should try harder to convince Afghans the importance of getting educated. Getting them out of illiteracy is the very first step; after that we have to continue educate them with higher knowledge and skills. This is the only way to ensure their success as a country in near future.

PAL now has five students from Afghan Security Guards (ASG), four from local workers, and eight from the ANA. Dr. Rafi, Asad, and I were very happy to see more students decided to join us. The class meets at 7 A.M. every morning for 6 days a week for 6 weeks. Every day they have homework.

To them this is a intense course. However, at the end of the course, everyone is very pleased that they can now read and write their language. When we hand them out the certificates of completion, students become very proud of themselves that for the first time in their lives, they have finished a course in school. For most of them, this is the only school they have ever attended. This is, of course, overwhelmingly emotional for the teachers, too. Dr. Rafi, Asad, and I are very proud of our students.