Aschiana - Charity for children of Afghanistan

By Angus Watson

12 year-old Khalida Agha Mir’s family were overjoyed when the Taliban were routed in 2001. Finally they could leave their Pakistani refugee camp and return home to Afghanistan. Celebration soon turned to misery. The Agha Mirs, parents and six children, found themselves living in a derelict building in Kabul, barely able to feed and clothe themselves, their bathroom a tent shared with hundreds of others.

Khalida’s parents grew up under the Soviet occupation of 1979 to 1989, when a million Afghanis were killed and education was negligible. Refugee camps in Pakistan were similarly bereft of schools. Back in Kabul, without a GCSE-worth’s of education or training between them, salaried employment was impossible. Neither could the children go to school. State education is free in Afghanistan, but they could not afford the books, stationary or uniforms and besides, the children had to keep the family afloat by making filled pancakes called Bolanis from dawn, and selling them in Kabul’s dangerous streets until after dusk.

The Agha Mirs’ poverty cycle seemed certain to roll on. One day, however, while Khalida was selling Bolanis outside the zoo, a man persuaded her to enrol in a part-time school that fitted round her day job, run by a charity called Aschiana. Aschiana aims to educate younger children, perhaps to a level where they might attend normal school, and to train older children in money-making trades. Khalida decided to give it a go.

“War destroyed Afghanistan”, explains Engineer Yusuf, Aschiana’s Director and Founder. As a result, 60,000 children work on the streets of Kabul. Most live without running water or electricity. Most have lost at least one parent, so the ‘family’ they work to support is comprised of uncles, cousins and neighbours. As Aschiana supporter Rula Ghani, wife of Afghanistan’s Finance Minister from 2002 to 2006 reports, “There’s no welfare state. People care for each other. If you know somebody, you feel obliged to help.”

When Engineer Yusuf explored Kabul in 1993, street children were an overlooked underclass, living dangerously and dying young: “I met a shoe-shine boy. I told him he needed education. He said – “What are you thinking? My parents are not educated, I have never thought about it.” I said: “I can tell you are clever. If you go to school you will help your family and others.” But he had to work, and had no time for school.”

The encounter stayed with Yusuf. In 1995, just 25 years-old, he founded Aschiana, meaning ‘Nest’, to educate street children. The Taliban imprisoned him for educating girls, but he persevered. Now Aschiana helps around 10,000 children a year.

For their schools, they provide all equipment and food. “The children are so excited to learn!” exclaims 58 year-old Elinor Edmunds from Montana, an English teacher at Aschiana. “They are very different from American children. They appreciate the smallest things, like a hot meal.”

Last year, 1,200 children graduated from Aschiana to state school. Many more gained employment after Aschiana’s training. 15 year-old former street urchin Sayed Fahim, for example, found permanent work in a furniture factory after an Aschiana carpentry course.

Schooling is only part of the panacea for street children. Aschiana also offers life skills lessons (landmine and chaotic traffic avoidance), counselling for children who have witnessed war’s horrors, and medical services. “Most teachers are only slightly better off than the pupils,” says Rula Ghani, “so they really understand their lives and can give advice.”

After several months at Aschiana, Bolani-seller Khalida’s life is looking up. She’s achieved her first goal of being able to read street signs, and now wants to be a doctor or teacher. As Elinor Edmunds explains, however: “There are many more destitute children. We’ve opened Aschiana in three other provinces, and recently a centre in a refugee camp, but it is still difficult to reach all, especially girls who have never been so school.”

Aschiana’s obstacle is the same as every charity with attainable, worthwhile goals and committed staff: finding enough sustainable funding. To this end Friends of Aschiana UK was set up in 2002. With no administrative costs, it currently funds teaching staff and a one-hot-meal-a-day programme at the Aschiana centres.

See www.aschiana.com, or www.friendsofaschiana.org.uk, tel 0208 743 7493 Copyright The Financial Times Ltd