Help Afghan Boys Trade Guns for Books

Afghanistan has been stunned by recent developments and people are adapting as best they can, to a new situation which remains both unclear and uncertain as to the future.  AIL’s current priority is to provide urgently needed assistance to the thousands of displaced families who have flooded into Kabul and Herat. Some centers provide a staging point for aid. Our staff are all working, though offices currently are men only with women working from home.

The centers are all female and await instructions from the Taliban with regard to procedures required for reopening centers to our students. Our schools are fully functioning. We are still able to provide the service of education to boys, but without access to the learning centers, we have been forced to cancel the educational classes for men. We feel very lucky that our boys only Street Children facility is still running. These young men have no one else to care for them, and in the coming weeks and years, directing their energy into education will help our country and them far more than closing the facility.

Though AIL’s focus has been on women and girls we have always provided both education and healthcare to boys and men. In the first half of 2021, the Learning Centers reached 15,310 people including 5,392 males. Boys and men who have missed out on learning come to the centers to catch up and to gain new skills such as computing and English.  AIL also runs a boys-only Street Children facility which educates and cares for boys who otherwise would have no educational resources. This center offers classes in literacy, computing, English, Arabic and painting.

Our clinics have expanded their capacity to cope with the large numbers of refugees that are in the area.The Yacoobi private schools are open and operating under the rules that have been given such as dividing male and female. It is exam season and students are studying hard and sitting their exams as usual. It is a great credit to them and their teachers as everyone has heightened levels of fear, stress and anxiety. The private TV and Radio Meraj are not broadcasting but awaiting instructions in how to recommence and staff are creating content and archiving materials for broadcast at a later date.

We have been touched by the outreach of support and outpouring of donations to help the Afghan people. We thank you for standing by Afghanistan as it faces another humanitarian

Thank you for your support.

AIL has the goal to develop the next generation of young leaders both male and female. Boys are encouraged to develop leadership and social skills from an early age. AIL provides training in  human rights, women’s rights, leadership, peace, democracy, good citizenship and other capacity building topics.

AIL’s leadership training takes place in two ways.  AIL holds in-depth leadership workshops and also integrates the teaching of leadership into every workshop and every class at AIL centers. So far in 2021, 122 people have attended leadership workshops.  AIL also supports a special 2 year leadership course for 30 students (15 boys) at the Yacoobi high schools.

Boys gain leadership skills through classes at Learning Centers including the boys only MBK computer center and the street children facility.

Leadership workshops include topics such as what makes a good leader, management, listening skills, self- confidence, public-speaking, building good relationships, politics, democracy and peace. In the centers, leadership concepts are taught by teachers who have taken the AIL leadership workshops. AIL’s Leadership training seeks to help boys and girls understand that anyone can be a leader and to enhance the participants’ ability to take a variety of leadership roles in their lives and community stressing the democratic core values of liberty- personal, political, economic freedom, common good, justice and equality. 

Thank you for your support.

Covid-19: AIL continues with its relief efforts providing food aid, PPE and running a Covid-19 hospital. All health clinics are operating and Learning Centers and schools are holding classes. Radio Meraj continues to broadcast the latest Covid-19 information.