Morning Star’s Tangi Saidan Community Center (TSCC) in Kabul, Afghanistan offers classes in Literacy, English, Math, Science, Social Studies, Computer, Internet, etc. Out of the 16,000 people living in this community, only a small percentage of school-aged children are educated. At TSCC, 200 students per month attend the educational programs offered. Through these classes, student’s lives are being radically transformed. Darya, a former student of TSCC, is just one example.
Darya, who is now 20 years old, attends a local university in Kabul. While at TSCC, she took all the classes she could that were being offered. Along with one of her friends, she took a course on the Basics of Journalism and dreamed of becoming a journalist one day. This course was designed in 2008 by a short-term expat worker. Although her parents had a low-income, they paid the 200Afs ($3) for their daughter to attend the two-month course.
Morning Star’s Tangi Saidan program director saw Darya’s father (a local community elder) at a tribal meeting. From their conversation, he found out that Darya is planning on pursuing Journalism after graduating from college. This man thanked our director for all the education Darya was able to receive at TSCC. He believes that his daughter’s dreams of becoming a journalist are becoming a reality due to TSCC and its impact on her life.
Girls, like Darya, seldom finish high school–let alone pursue college. In rural Afghanistan, up to 85% of the girls are not educated. TSCC is helping to change this statistic, and shape a better future for many young girls like Darya. 44% of the students at TSCC are girls. This year, Morning Star would like to see that number increase to 50%.
Nelson Mandela once said, “Children are our greatest treasure, they are our future.” Imagine a world where every child in Afghanistan has the opportunity to learn. We believe Afghanistan, indeed, would be a very different place.
