Greetings!
The Taliban banned women from attending public and private universities on Tuesday, effective immediately. We don't as of yet know whether that ban will prevent girls from using our libraries. I've received several emails asking what we will do if it does. What we won't do is abandon making education accessible to girls.
Before the Taliban took over, our libraries were used by boys and girls. The Taliban insisted that women not be able to teach boys and men not be allowed to teach girls. Our libraries were all run by women. That's what led to the libraries being utilized only by girls. We've always been interested in educating boys. It's important and an educated man is much more likely to support rights for women. Mujeeb will advise us regarding using existing libraries for boys or establishing other locations.
As I wrote in the newsletter sent before the Taliban's ban, we had already decided to make education accessible inside homes. This can be achieved offline by providing tablets or computers loaded with the educational software we already have. Our educational software contains everything a child would learn from the first grade through the twelfth and more.
I have been focusing on offline learning due to the cost of access to the internet. Afghans who have access to the internet can learn over the internet. We'll find out the cost of internet access. When the Taliban were first in power, starting in 1996, girls were secretively educated in homes. That will surely occur again.
I spoke a week or so ago with the executive director of Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan, Lauryn Oates. They have been doing incredible work in Afghanistan since 1996. Check out their website
https://cw4wafghan.ca. They created a website loaded with courses and educational material that Afghans can access and download online. Send this link to anyone you know in Afghanistan
https://darakhtdanesh.org/en. She said that we were welcome to add to the website. I sent the link to Mujeeb. He responded immediately that there was material we could add to our libraries. There hasn't been time to determine what we might add.
Our family sponsorship program will continue. Seventy nine have been sponsored. Several sponsors have already written letting us know that they will continue supporting the family they have been supporting. I'm sharing three photos of families who recently received their one hundred dollar bill. Mujeeb delivers good news to their homes every month. These photos are sent to their sponsors.
As I wrote previously, Mujeeb is assessing what vocational training we might provide and employment we can help create, including knitting the baby clothes pictured in my last newsletter. Mujeeb sent Nabi a proposal yesterday to train men how to repair cell phones. Mike Whipple, Chairman/CEO of International Orphan Care, has been providing this training in Jalalabad for years. He told me that it's one of their best vocational training programs. According to Mike, "Cell phones break down and many Afghans often don't know how to use them". Knowing how to use and fix them is a valuable skill.
I am, as is everyone, very troubled by the Taliban's oppression of women. Fifty three street children are still reaching their monthly support, thirteen of whom are girls who were attending a university on Monday. Eight were studying to be a midwife, two were becoming economists, one was majoring in accounting, one was studying therapeutic medicine and one was studying the Dari language and literature. The doors to their universities were closed to all thirteen on Tuesday. The Taliban continue to close doors for girls and women, making it even more critical that our doors remain open. They are and will for as long as we can. That was the promise made to them when I first went to Afghanistan in 2005.
Budd
