Help Afghan Boys Trade Guns for Books

Dear Friends,

AIL has always included males in its programs. Males need the quality healthcare that AIL provides, they also need the health education.  On the education side, Learning Centers (LCs) provide places for boys to catch up on their schooling so they can reenter school at the right grade level. In 2016, 8,398 males attended LCs under AIL management in Herat and Kabul Province and Peshawar, Pakistan. AIL always operates to provide what the local community requests and so some of the LCs are for men/boys only including at a boys orphanage.  One such center is for street children and has 108 male students who are taking 9 month course in literacy, math and English.

Another is a computer center in Kabul which has 16 male students who study computing and are currently concentrating on MS Word. The teacher recently changed the time of the course to be more convenient for the students who are also in school. A Kabul center manager said, “AIL provides great opportunity for Afghan people, you should gain great benefits from this opportunity.  In other courses you pay fees and learn, but AIL provides free courses to all people.” One of the students said, “My name is Hewad, I am a student of the computer course. I have finished the Access program and I am now in the 14^th grade. After finishing this course I want to be a teacher in one of the schools. I have learned computer programs in a perfect way from this Learning Center. I am thankful for AIL office for providing this opportunity.”

Thank you for supporting this project which helps boys stay healthy and gain education, which changes their lives for the better.

Dear Friends,

When a community asks for AIL to set up a Learning Center (LC) it is a requirement that the community are supportive of the idea both theoretically and practically. Only with community involvement will poorly educated boys and young men be able to achieve success in learning new skills. Learning to read and acquiring marketable skills helps these boys feel hopeful about their future and prepared for doing a job. Keeping them on track and out of the way of drugs and petty crime is what is important so they can lead productive lives. Here is the story of how one community supported its center and its students in 2016.

“One of the local people who lives near the center is called Khalil. He has helped the center a lot. The center did not have a telephone line and we had internet problems so Khalil voluntarily gave his house phone line to the center and helped by holding internet classes and seminars and these continue today. Another man named Naser who has a house on the same road has helped too. He offered to put the course’s advertisement board on the roof of his home because it would be seen more easily. The board is still there today. One of the other neighbors allowed the center to use his house's wall as a board and to advertise its programs. Other families gifted useful informative books in Arabic to help students learn the language.”       

This is truly a community effort! This operational approach is what creates sustainable opportunity for boys and young men. In 2016, 8,398 males attended LCs under AIL management in Herat and Kabul Province and Peshawar, Pakistan
Please read our year end newsletter.

Thank you for being part of the support for these centers and the students who rely on them.

• 2016_YearEnd_Update.pdf (PDF)