Tents to Khadijat-tol-Kubra Girl’s School
Introduction
This project provided Khadija-tol-Kubra school with tents to be used as classrooms. It helped them to break down one of the main barriers that prevent girls there from continuing their education. Khadija-tol-Kubra high school is located in a remote village that does not get any government’s or non-profit organizations attention. The school does not have any building and even did not have tents to be used as the classroom. On September 1, 2018, Go Campaign awarded a one-time grant in the amount of USD $5,400 to Hode Educational and Social Services Organization (HESSE). The project was implemented successfully and the following activities took place:
- Purchase and transport tents for the school
- Install tents and carpet
- Labor costs to install the tent and carpet
Background: Khadijah-tol-Kubra Girl’s School
It is Located in the Daraiem district of Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province The school hosts around 350 female students from five or six surrounding villages. It is a public primary and lower secondary school (grades 1-9) registered with the Afghan government. Student suffers a variety of difficulties including the absence of female teachers, quality education, books, chalks, and blackboards. The absence of a building troubles them and the parents used to not allow many of those students to regularly attend their classes mainly during the hot summer and cold winter make it difficult for students to attend classes regularly.
In addition, the students had to use open space or shade of the trees as the class where people pass through there. It did not only disturbed their classes but also put them at risk of sexual harassment. Therefore, many of those students were leaving school as they got older.
Purchase and Transportation
The Khadij-tol-Kubra Female School has a total of nine classes, one class for each grade. HESSO provided the school with 9 tents, carpet humidity insulation, carpet, and Tarpaulin. The tents were purchased from Kabul as we could not find them in Badakhshan. The carpet and insulation were purchased from Faizabad, capital of Badakhshan, and transported to Daraiem district.
• Tents: they were purchased from Kabul and transported to Daraiem district of Badakhshan province. Each of the tents cost $250 with a total area of (7X5) = 35 sqm. The purchased tents were the standard tents used by organizations like UNHCR or ICRC fit for use both in hot and cold climates. It should have at least a lifespan of one year, maintaining its sheltering and waterproofing capacities in all types of climates.
• Carpet & Carpet Humidity Insulation: it was very expansive to equip them with chairs so HESSE put carpet in the tents instead. As the tents are installed on clay solid, an additional humidity insulation under the carpet. Total of 400 sqm carpet and insulation was used to cover the floor of 9 tents.
• Tarpaulins: a total of nine tarpaulins was bought too. they are left in front of each tent in a way to protect the tents and accessories from dirt and moisture.
Installment & Launch
The tents were installed and opened for students use successfully. It took 10 workers two days to properly amend the rocky soil area and transform it to a suitable patch for installation of the tents. The local people helped with the installation of the tents. In the launch event, the mayor, director of Education Department, and local elders of six surrounding villages were present. Surprisingly, Taliban who is active in Yamchian village, located on the mountains on the east side of the school accepted to not shoot or disrupt the launch event.
The school did not have a watchman or guard because they did not have any building or classes. The mayor accepted to pay for one person to be there as watchman or guard to make sure no one steals the carpets or tents. And the director of the Education Department said that they will include a watchman in their coming year budget. He said, there was no need before as there was no building but we make sure to have it in the coming year.
Annex A: Before the project
Annex B: After the project
