Visit to Oriakhail School, Paghman – 22 July 2011

I visited Paghman yesterday.  Paghman district is about 20 kilometres from Kabul with a population over 100,000 people. The majority of the population are from Pashtun background. I went to Oriakhail School which is a sister school with Cherrybrook Technology High School in North-Western Sydney.  We met with principal Fazelullah and some of the teachers. They were very grateful for the sister school support.

I visited every classroom and I arrived at 1pm just in time for an exam. The classes were full with 60 children in each classroom, though the girl’s had already gone home for the day having had their lessons in the morning. Altogether there were around 500 boys attending classes in the school that day.

The kids were especially happy when I shared some treats with them.  

Mahboba’s Promise has provided chairs and tables for many classrooms and there were about 8 classrooms where the children, mainly the younger primary students, still sit on the floor. Unfortunately, because the floor is made of concrete, many of the children who have to sit on the floor during classes develop some pain in their joints.

We will order some chairs for the rest of the classrooms with the funds we have. The school also needs a surrounding wall which is estimated to cost $US600. They also need to remove soil from the front yard in order to flatten it and make it useable for the children to use. That will cost $US1,000. I was very impressed by the level of appreciation the principal showed and he did mention that he was grateful for the support from Australians. I will bring some cards back from the school for the sister school.

Land in Paghman for Islamic Relief

The community have a good understanding of the concept of permaculture and there is in great need for it in this area. The community has set aside 3 giribs of land for this use – that’s about 6,000 square metres.

It’s known that the area has water however, the community is poor and cannot afford to dig a well. As I understand it, digging 70 to 100 metres will allow them to tap the water for use in growing crops and other household uses.

Most of the people here are working on their land and growing their own crops, mainly wheat and potatoes.

Cultivating crops has been difficult for these people as a result of too many years of war and the level of pollution here which has changed the good yields they use to get in the past. Crops have many diseases and as result the community has not been able to produce potatoes in recent times. After meeting with the local community and understanding and demand for the water the Permaculture project will be very much needed in this area.

Kind regards

Mahboba