IF has supported education projects in the village of Borjegai since 2003. The village of Borjegai (population 36,000) is located in a mountainous area of central Hazarajat in Nawor District, Ghazni province.

Initially IF provided funds for school books and since then has provided $5,000 per year for teachers salaries and contributed to the building and operational costs of a new girls’ high school for 750 students. IF has also contributed to the construction of a primary school building for 750 girls and boys who had been attending school in tents.

Results have been outstanding. Girls now attend and finish high school and students of the village have achieved remarkable results in the national university entry examination since IF commenced its support. Today the village has more than 90 students, including 7 girls, in universities in Kabul, Mazar Sharif and Heart. In the university entry examination, the village performed better than the national and Ghazni Provincial averages with 19 out of 20 students successfully managing to get to university in 2007 and 2008.

In terms of schools, the Provincial authorities ranked the Borjegai schools as the best both in terms of quality of its buildings but also their outstanding achievements.

Context

Afghanistan lacks the foundation of a quality education system. Currently, 80 percent of the population cannot read or write and half of school age children are out of school. In 2001, after the fall of the Taliban, an estimated 80 percent of school buildings at all levels had been damaged or destroyed and a large number of qualified teachers had fled the country, taken jobs outside of education due to low wages for teachers, worked in refugee camps, or had been killed. Despite significant investment in education since 2001, current funding for education remains unable to meet the demand for schooling across the country. Further, the government still cannot deliver education services to all areas of the country.

The Hazara population of Borjegai, like the other parts of Hazarajat, has been the victim of institutionalised discrimination by Afghanistan’s central governments in the past.

The harsh geography and historical discrimination have made it difficult for Borjegai’s population to access the socially valued resources. The current Afghan government took some steps to provide the basic needs of the Afghan people. It signed the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG) in 2004 and committed itself in the International Conference on Afghanistan, held in Germany in the same year, to set targets in order to initiate “intensified state-building agenda” and to “strengthen Afghanistan’s human capital” Despite these efforts, the remote villages, such as Borjegai, are left out from the post-Taliban reconstruction process.

The existing infrastructure in the village is very poor. Most of the living conditions in Borjegai remained as they were before and during the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The village does not have access to electricity, to the health facilities, to clean drinking water and to proper roads. Before IF’s support its education infrastructure was almost nonexistent, with most students being taught in tents.

Partner since: 2003
Project Manager: Sarah Kelly
Project Advisor: Salman Jan
Management Committee Rep: Stefan Knollmayer

The Project

Initially IF provided support to the Hazara community in Sydney, through some young Hazara refugees who wanted to teach English and provide community development services to newly arriving Hazara refuges on temporary protection visas (who could not access federal funding or support programs for English lessons). Through this relationship, particularly with Salman Jan (who is now the IF Afghanistan Project Advisor, and is an Afghan-Australian refugee) IF sought to provide support to a community in Afghanistan. Salman outlined the needs of the Borjegai people and the education needs of the children in the villages there and proposed that IF support the community to improve education services.

IF was particularly supportive of the project for two reasons. Firstly, the elders of all three tribes had agreed that education was the priority for the community, and was the only viable escape from poverty for its children. Secondly, the tribal elders in agreement with the mullahs (religious leaders) agreed that girls – for the first time in Borjegai’s history, would be provided equal education opportunities.

There are currently a total of five schools in the village that provide education to the village 4000 students. Of this, 1500 students study in Girl’s High School and Primary School built by the IF, 800 students study in the main Borjegai school, 700 students study in a school built by villagers and the remaining 1000 students study in three sub-village schools under tents and mosques.

A Commitment Agreement was developed between IF and the people of Borjegai. It outlined the framework of the partnership between Borjegai and IF, including the need to work within the IF Guiding Principles framework of community ownership, sustainability, transparency and equity. Since 2003, IF has provided 5,500 school books; $5,000 per year for teachers’ salaries; and contributed to the building and operational costs of a new girls high school for 750 students. IF has also contributed to the construction of a primary school building for 750 girls and boys who have been attending school in tents.
Although all the existing Borjegai schools are part of the national education system, the funding for a quality education is limited. There is need for extra support to make the education system effective in the village. Therefore, IF provided teachers’ salaries to employ qualified teachers from Kabul and provided teacher training classes for local village teachers. This extra support alongside the operational costs of AU$ 3500 per year for the girls high school transformed the quality of education because it enhanced the quality of teachers who are the only available resources for learning.

The girls school (originally conceived of as a high school but now extending from grade 1 to 12) has been operating for almost three years and provides a vital opportunity for adolescent girls to continue their education. Under the new April 2009 commitment agreement, IF has agreed to continue its support for this important service, providing $3,500 towards the operational costs of the school for a further 3 years.

University Students

Students from the main co-educational school have obtained extraordinary results. Nineteen of the twenty high school graduates who sat the national exams in 2008 were accepted into university (an unheard of success rate in the regions). The village is justly proud of its students and this has prompted the community to discuss with IF ways in which the students might be assisted to complete their university education when they move to the ‘big smoke’ of Kabul.

There are now about 90 students from Borjegai studying at university. About 30 have been there for 2 or 3 years and have managed to find part time jobs (with non government organisations or teaching English) to support themselves. A few students come from families that can support them. This leaves about 50 students who have not yet found jobs and are finding it very hard to support themselves. Most of them took a year off after school to teach at the Borjegai school and saved some money that way, although not enough.
Many of the students live in a large house together which is used during the day as an ‘office’ of the small Association that they have set up. Initially the students found it difficult to agree on how they could help each other through the Association and how IF might assist them. The level of cooperation, however, has improved. Interestingly, one of the ways they have settled on to sort out their differences is to include some of the tribal elders living in Kabul as members of the Association too.

As a result of the community consultation, IF has entered into an agreement with the Association to provide $6,000 per year for 3 years for the university students. The Association will identify the students who need help based on the students having recently arrived at university, their lack of employment, and their lack of financial support from their families. The payments will essentially be a ‘bread stipend’, helping the more needy students to cover the cost of bread for a few months. Bread is the staple for most people in Kabul, since meat and vegetables are expensive. Three serves of bread costs about 30 Afghanis a day (roughly 80 Australian cents). Only two years ago the same amount of bread cost 10 Afghanis and the students are finding the increased costs very hard.

Funding: $AUD70,500 since 2003

Successes

• Building a girls’ high school and training teachers has enabled girls to study and has increased girls’ literacy rates from a very low base to a situation where the majority of girls in Borjegai attend school from yrs 1-12 and are now literate.
• Teacher capacity building program, that has increased quality of teaching significantly (many teachers in the beginning only had primary education).
• In 2008, 19 of the 20 high school graduates who sat the national exams were accepted into university (an unprecedented success rate in the regions). A provincial survey rated the Borjegai high school as first in Nawor District.
• There are now 90 students from Borjegai attending university in Kabul (including 7 girls).
• The ongoing support that IF has provided has brought significant cultural shifts in the village, so that fathers are now supporting their daughters to continue their education. These outcomes are important and will grow with continued support.
• The villagers of Borjegai have provided land, labour and tools to construct the school buildings, an important indicator of their support for their children’s education. This “in-kind” support has also reduced the costs of building the schools.

Challenges

Lack of communication and transportation facilities and widespread poverty is deeply felt in Hazarajat. Added to this is the government’s diversion of development resources from more secure areas to insecure areas of the “Pashtun belt” are further isolating Hazarajat. Military incursions by the Kuchis (nomads belonging to the Pashtun ethnic group) are also a threat.

Lessons Learned

IF has relied substantially on a trusted individual to act as a Financial Trustee for the project to ensure delivery of IF funds to the village of Borjegai; to accompany IF on monitoring and evaluation visits in a dangerous and insecure environment; and for purchasing, ordering and delivering construction materials. The Financial Trustee has proven to be a stalwart and the success and impact of the project owes much to his contributions. He is passionate about the importance of education for young Hazaras and is willing to take great personal risks to see the project succeed.

• Small but significant cultural shifts are happening in Borjegai as the result of girls being able to go to school. Although many families still marry their daughters very early, or keep them at home to help with household chores, there are fathers who are prepared to ignore ‘the talking behind their backs’ and allow their daughters to continue their schooling.
• An unforeseen outcome of the village’s children being educated is that there is now greater cooperation between formerly exclusive tribal groups who can see the advantages of working together.
• Lastly, long term support bears results. IF’s commitment since 2003 is now having an ongoing impact on the lives of children, young people and their families in Borjegai.
  

If you would like more information please contact project manager Sarah Kelly at indigo.foundation@bigpond.com.