In Baghlan Province, Afghanistan, a staggering 89 percent of women are illiterate, leaving many villages void of a single woman that can read or solve basic arithmetic. Facts such as these do not bode well for the economic future of Afghan women. These women will be plagued by a life of helpless reliance.
One day, during a visit to Dahanpul in Baghlan Province, Afghanistan, a team of Christian Children's Fund workers spoke to Aminullah, who recounted her struggle to learn how to read.
Aminullah's Story: Simple Words in the Sand
"My father did not have very much education but he always spoke to us about the joy of being able to read and the eternal gratitude he would always have for the mullah in his old village who taught him. When I was 8 years old, I asked my father to teach me to read. At first he refused and said that girls didn't need to know how to read butI asked him so often and with all my heart so that eventually he agreed to allow me to sit in on lessons he gave to my younger brother. Every evening, after our work was finished, we would sit together and draw letters and simple words in the sand.
One night during this time, my lesson was interrupted by some armed Mujahedeen criminals who came to our house looking for money. When my father explained that he didn't have anything to give them, they beat him up mercilessly. There was no hospital near our village to treat his wounds. My mother tried to take care of him but he died two weeks later in our home.
After my father's death, the evenings were quiet and long and we stopped drawing words in the sand. For six years, our time was spent in the fields, trying to grow enough wheat to sell in the market. The nearest school was a three hours walk and we could not leave our chores or risk walking alone so far from home. For so many years, I thought I would never learn to read and write."
ChildFund Afghanistan Teaching the Basics
To help girls like Aminullah, Christian Children's Fund, operating as ChildFund Afghanistan (CFA), has established literacy courses in places like Dahanpul. These courses are created in close cooperation with the Afghan Ministry of Education with the aim of helping children and youth in the many places where the Afghan government still does not have schools.
In the areas in which schools exist, children similar to Aminullah, who represent an older group of children robbed of an education, must utilized accelerated learning techniques in order to enter the formalized schooling system. In Baghlan and hundreds of villages throughout northern Afghanistan, CFA provides the opportunity for children and youth to learn to read, write and achieve basic math skills.
It has been nearly seven years since Aminullah received her first lesson from her father. Next week, at age 15, after nine months of an accelerated literacy course, Aminullah will receive her official diploma from the Ministry of Education. This diploma will enable her to enter the fourth grade. She has not decided if she will continue with formal school due to responsibilities she feels to her family, but is determined to improve her reading skills and teach other girls and women to read.
"This is something I will do forever," Aminullah explained. "Even if we don't have pens and paper, we can still draw in the sand."