Providing Education for at-Risk Children

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In 2015, ROAWC singed a partnership agreement with GoodWeave, an international non-governmental organization that works to end child labor in the carpet industry, to launch its project in northern Afghanistan. The project was aimed at removing children from work and preventing at-risk children from becoming victims of child labourers which is a recurring phenomenon in the carpet industry. 

In partnership with GoodWeave, ROAWC established early-childhood education classes in Camp Balkh Bastan, a remote neighborhood in Mazar-e-Sharif City, Balkh Province. The majority of Bastan’s residents are internally displaced people (IDPs), who had fled their villages due to war and drought. Being among the poorest people in the country, the residents of Bastan mostly depend on income from weaving handmade carpets for sale in the local market. Carpet weaving is their only means of income without which they cannot feed their family, let alone sending their children to school. In fact, even if they could afford to send their children to school, they would not have been able to do so because there is no school in the area which is why the idea of establishing community-based education classes were very welcomed by all the residents. 

As a pilot project, ROAWC established two early-childhood education classes with the capacity of 50 students. By the end of its first week, the classes were full – 50 children were enrolled and were attending classes with many more parents requesting the admission of their sons and daughters. The level of interest among the people for education was truly in stark contrast to the conventional wisdom which dictated that people in rural Afghanistan do not value education. Here people were begging ROAWC to admit their children.   

From there the Balk Education Program grew and covered more villages, established more community-based education classes, daycare centers and early childhood education centers.