Schools for Peace
26th June 2019, Mazar-e-Sharif. Every day is a struggle for these girls to achieve their primary education, as they study in crowded tents. Located in an informal district of Mazar-e-Sharif, the Sayed Yahia Omari school has been running with open-air tents for many years. In addition to the challenging security situation in Afghanistan, these children make an additional effort to achieve their right to education in peace. A year ago, community members decided to address this issue by building hard walls to host part of the students. The new five-classroom school host three shifts of 600 students per day making an immense impact on the quality of their education.
The Principal of the school, Mrs Shukria Ahmadi, expressed her gratitude to “UN-Habitat for promoting a safe and secure environment for our students”. UN-Habitat, the UN agency focal point on sustainable urbanization, in partnership with Municipalities, the Ministry of Urban Development and Land (MUDL), the Ministry of Interior Affairs (MoI) and the Deputy Ministry of Municipalities (DMM) assisted this community to institutionalize their Community Development Council (CDC), a sub-local governance structure democratically elected by which men and women decide where to spend project funds and the district budget. Thanks to an inclusive participatory decision-making process, members of this CDC voted for the construction of this five-classroom concrete structure. This initiative has immensely changed the lives of these students who do not have to suffer anymore the adverse weather conditions, especially in cold winters and hot summers. Parents allow the girls to go to school now that the new hard wall structure has brought safety to them by not being exposed in open air tents.
With a total budget of $ 33,333, this project is part of the Afghanistan Urban Peacebuilding Programme (AUPP), funded by the government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation ($30,000) and the community members of this district, with a $3,333 contribution.
Despite the great impact of the initiative, the team leader of this programme, Dr Shir Shah, “insisted on the remaining challenges as there are still many kids who go to school in tents”.
The AUPP programme has continued its works in Mazar e Sharif and other Afghan cities addressing the safety and security challenges of vulnerable sectors of the population, especially girls and women, through the implementation of a diverse range of projects in several Districts of the city, under the name of Afghanistan Urban Safety and Security Programme (AUSSP).
The Principal of the school, Mrs Shukria Ahmadi, expressed her gratitude to “UN-Habitat for promoting a safe and secure environment for our students”.
Kids of Sayed Yahia Omari school in Mazar
UN-Habitat advisers visiting the new hard wall school assisted by Afghanistan Urban Peace-building Programme
For more information, contact Mr Koussay Boulaich, UN-Habitat’s Head of Communications in Afghanistan