New Kind of Care Package

I've officially given up on counter insurgency. Now I'm all about helping people. And I've been meaning to post an entry on the school situation for a long time, so here it is.

It seems like in Afghanistan when you go to school, you either have a roof over your head or school books. You can't have both. The conditions that these children attend school are amazing. They walk several miles, their teachers do not receive a salary, they have no books, no pens, no paper. The girls risk their lives to attend school and if the school does not have a privacy wall, parents will not send their girls to school after a certain age. The classrooms are bare except for a blackboard and some chalk. I've gone out to two schools that the PRT has completed to inspect the buildings for warranty items. I have been able to see the children in their classroom and it breaks my heart.

I have received several boxes of school supplies from my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Mike. But I would like to but the request out for more supplies. Instead of sending me a care package, use that money and send these kids some paper and pens!! Here's a list of things they could use:

- Chalk (white and colored)
- Blackboard erasers
- Maps (World maps, maps of Afghanistan or the region)
- Paper
- Pens
- Pencils
- Notebooks
- Folders
- Crayons

It's been a while since I was in school, so anything else you can think of would be great. Nothing in Afghanistan goes to waste.

And I want to share some pictures. The first set is of an open air girls school in Jalalabad City.


These next set of pictures are from a site visit earlier this week. It was an all girls school, grades 1-9. There were many younger girls, about 30-35 in each class. But as we toured the different classrooms, higher the grade, the less girls that were present. It was interesting because all the teachers were male. Yet I could see how much they cared about the girls' education and how they thought it was important.