For my second dispatch I managed to get a picture uploaded. I will try a couple more as I write this. If you want to see what I wrote for my first, go here.
Well folks, this is an example of our tax dollars at work reconstructing Kabul's roads:
With an estimated 40,000 taxis, private cars, donkey carts, men pushing carts, and bicycles, traffic here is unbelievable. And travel is not only dirty due to all the dust and dirt, but can be painful if you have to ride on these roads very long.
Almost 20 percent of the U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) $5.9 billion in assistance to Afghanistan has been for roads*.
And this is a typical road in Kabul.
Roads that are built are falling apart due to shoddy construction (likely from one contractor hiring another and another with money disappearing each time, and the end product not up to the planed quality.) Afghanistan has no money to maintain them once built.
While USAID planed to maintain about 1,500 kilometers of roads it built, it did not meet its 2007 target to maintain [even] 100 kilometers of reconstructed roads.*
Now to be fair, most of the money is for highways and this is a city street. But as the previous paragraph shows, we don't seem to be doing a bang up job at the highways either.
Enough about roads, let's talk education. My main concern here and why I volunteer with Afghans4Tomorrow.
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I will write several times about education. Today I will talk a little bit about higher education.
There are 16 universities in Afghanistan. The Ministry of Education's entire annual budget for all of them is $2 million (of which 80% goes to feeding the students in the dorms!). So, you can imagine the the schools are not going to be maintained either. Not to mention a lack of every basic necessity you can imagine.
I remember Bush and his wife going on and on about how much they (US tax payers) were doing for education in Afghanistan. Don't believe them.
Today one of the places I visited was Kabul Education University. The future educators of Afghanistan (the future of Afghanistan period). This is a typical classroom in this university. The entire structure was built by the Soviets long ago and is solid concrete. It is filthy, has only 40 computers for 5000 students, a library that is smaller than our elementary schools have (and containing so many outdated books they are often useless), and is so overcrowded some classrooms like this sometimes must fit up to 80 students.
I went to one class where some students were trying to learn how to use computers with a photocopied booklet, and NO computers. The 40 computers the university has are hardly ever available with so many students. There are internet cafes here of course, but the students cannot afford to rent them.
Our organization donated text books and cash to build 4 classrooms out of a huge unused storage room to help out a bit. These donations were targeted to the students in the Afghanistan Higher Education Project. This project offers a graduate degree in education. It is the only graduate program in the entire country and students are begging to get into this program.
Here is an example of what a small group of people (15 volunteers) have managed to due for elementary education. These girls are all around 18 years old, but they are in 7th grade at one of Afghans4Tomorrow's schools. Our organization provides elementary education for girls of any age. The government schools would not have allowed them in 1st grade as they were already too old. Though that is where their education level was due to so many years of missed education opportunities thanks to the Taliban.
I first met these particular girls on my first trip to Kabul. It was so fantastic to see them still there and hear their dreams to become pilots, teachers, engineers, politicians and journalists.
Our small, all volunteer group manages to raise funds and operate three schools and other projects with a small budget (in the low 6-figures). Our classrooms have more blackboards (dry erase boards actually), carpets in the classrooms, we provide all supplies, and we are awaiting a confirmation on a potential donation of 20 computers and cash to hire a computer instructor.
My bottom line here is that I am a huge fan of individuals coming together to do even smallish projects that really make a difference.
Well, it is almost time for my dinner. So I will leave you with one of my favorite quotes:
A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead
*US GAO-Afghanistan Reconstruction July 2008