Schooling for Afghan girls remains a focus of Germany's reconstruction aid.Six hundred girls will now be taught in the new building of the Mario Keller Girls' School in the village of Shuduj in Northern Afghanistan's Shegnan District. The school was named in memory of a German police officer killed in Kabul in 2007.
The new school building was opened with a moving ceremony on 10 October 2009. In future girls from the region can have lessons in a proper environment rather than in temporary buildings and tents.
Not only the girls themselves but the whole village celebrated the long-awaited move into the eight large and well-lit classrooms.
In their speeches, all those present paid tribute to the special engagement shown by Mario Keller's family, without which this school could not have been built.
Reconstruction and security – Germany's commitment in Afghanistan The commemorative plaque (GTZ/Daume)
In memory of a fatal attack
The name of the girls' school commemorates Mario Keller, a German police officer who, along with two colleagues, lost his life in a bomb attack in Kabul on 15 August 2007.
Shortly before his tragic death, during a duty visit to Badakhshan Province, this young man had been deeply moved by the people and their living conditions. Following Mario Keller's death, his relatives asked his friends and colleagues for donations.
With the support of "Lachen Helfen e.V.", a private initiative by German soldiers to help children in war and crisis areas, this appeal has collected around 57,000 euro for the new school building.
The Federal Foreign Office assumed the remaining costs for the project, carried out by the Aga Khan Foundation, of about 108,000 euro. The local people, with the support of the provincial governor, had previously requested help with building the girls' school from the German Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Feyzabad.
The Federal Foreign Office has made available a total of approximately 11 million euro for education projects in Afghanistan in 2009.
