Kindergartens – all change!

In March we once more very proudly released 80 students from the kindergarten to start school readily equipped, ensuring that they were mentally ready as well as handing them a bag with some of the necessary things.

Many other students stayed ’behind ‘, either because they were late starting or because they have learning difficulties. Students with difficulties are integrated into one of the 5 classrooms and get an hour of specialist training a day. Kiwi Occupational Therapist Julie Zwies has been training the a local teacher (Maryam) in how to assist these children with special needs. Julie left this February and Maryam said “I received such good training and insight into the problems of these students. Afghans just think these children are crazy but now I know we can help them. My knowledge is still limited and I need at least another year of training.” It would be great to have another special needs teacher or OT join us!

Ute Glatthaar (from Germany) also left this month after many years of excellent and dedicated work leading the Kindergarten. A huge THANK YOU to JULIE and UTE for such great work! Cleides (from Brazil) has now taken over to lead the ASET Kindergartens into the next phase and we are very glad to have her aboard with all of her experience and expertise.

If you are a special needs teacher, Occupational Therapist or teacher with a heart to work in Afghanistan we would love to hear from you! Please contact Sophie at enquiries@aset-uk.org

Women’s Training Centre

We have now seen hundreds of Afghan women come through the doors of the Parwaz Centre to learn English, computing, using the internet and other vocational skills to help them be better placed to make a difference in Afghan society.

One woman said “Finally there is a safe place where we can go to study and learn”. The hope is that it will help Afghan women to be better able to participate in Afghan society and build a better country. The ladies have named the centre “Parwaz” which means “flight” in Persian. It is their hope that through the training offered they will be able to ‘take off’ and fly over the obstacles facing them. One Afghan writer said that if women are not able to participate in the building of Afghanistan it is like a bird trying to fly with only one wing!

Due to its unexpected popularity we are still £500 per month short of the necessary operating costs for the centre, so please let us know if this is something you would like to support financially. £10 per month will pay for one woman’s training.

There will also be opportunities for women to visit and work there for between 2 weeks – 2 months teaching English, computing or any other skills they may have. For further details please contact Sophie at enquiries@aset-uk.org

Another 4 wells completed

We have now dug a total of 16 wells in and around Mazar e Sharif and conducted 5 hygiene and sanitation programs for the local communities.

Water, sanitation and hygiene awareness in the above mentioned streets would benefit from additional attention and community development work. It would be good to continue to work and develop links with those in the community who are open to learning and realize the importance of knowledge over money. Ultimately, the hope is that communities will influence each other as they change and improve their behaviour, resulting in healthier, happier lives for the Afghan people.

BLiSS training course

BLiSS stands for Birth Life Saving Skills.

At the end of April ASET finished their first training for the Kuchi women of the famous old city of Balkh, near Mazar e Sharif.

Many women and children die during pregnancy, delivery and after birth due to a lack of simple knowledge, as most of them still deliver at home. The 6 week BLiSS training course lead by Daniela Koerner, a German midwife, equipped the participants with very helpful basic knowledge and skills to prepare mothers. This will reduce complications and mortality in pregnancy and during/ after delivery and will change the lives of many families as they share the knowledge and skills they have learned within their community.

Medical English for medical students

As most advanced medical literature and training programmes are not available in either of Afghanistan’s two official languages, Dari or Pashtun, medical students have a huge need to learn English.

In the Medical English course Dr Matthias Koerner, a German physician, not only introduced medical language, but as a medical professional was able to adapt it to real life within hospitals and private practices in order to empower the students to draw correct conclusions and to make wise decisions. Another emphasis of the course was on good communication with patients and colleagues. Surprisingly 60% of the participants were female students. Having completed part 1 this Spring, part 2 is planned in the Autumn.

ASET Dinner and Auction 2011

The annual ASET dinner and auction was held this year at Hatherley Manor Hotel on Saturday 12th March. We had a fantastic night and through your generous support raised £12,500 towards our projects – thank you so much.

Farewells!

Sadly last month we said goodbye to Thomas and Ute Glatthaar and their children Janina, Yannik, Yael and Jedidje after nearly 5 years with ASET in Afghanistan, as well as the children’s teacher Kirsten. As mentioned above Julie Zwies has also left. They will all be missed and we am sure you will join us in wishing them all the best for the future and a huge thank you for all their incredible work.

Kindergarten Special Needs Project

Over this past year several projects have been developed at the kindergarten, including one for children with special physical and/or educational needs. We have added an extra class and are in the process of training one of our teachers to specialise in this area.  This teacher has shown a lot of initiative, motivation and enthusiasm and is eager to learn and has reached the point of feeling confident at teaching the children independently with only our supervision.  The news has spread by word of mouth and now we have children who have varying degrees of learning difficulties.

In the past the students have struggled with their classes, becoming discouraged and having difficulty learning and retaining information, but currently they are all working on individual goals and making positive progress. Due to our training, we are able to provide small group sessions, give individual attention and also integrate these children into regular classes. We are thrilled with how this project has progressed throughout so far and look forward to seeing our students grow and develop further this year.

Well, Well, Well….

ASET has completed ten more wells and a hygiene sanitation course in some of the poorest districts of Mazar e Sharif, providing clean drinking water to thousands. The villagers report that the wells are in constant use.

 ASET helps a boy with clubfoot

Farschot came to our Kindergarten last year. He is older than most of the others and bright, but he has suffered from club foot. We heard that a doctor coming from the UK to Kabul, specialized in the operation for club foot!

We were able to use some money from a special fund to send Farschot and his mum to Kabul where his foot was operated on and six weeks later they returned to Kabul to have the wires taken out. Just then two of his brothers broke their elbow and arm. We took them to the German hospital where they both received casts! What a blessing to be able to help a family of at least 8 people living in two rooms.

Holy Trinity School, Cheltenham links up with Khaliqdad School in Afghanistan

During Global Awareness Week in May 2010, Holy Trinity C of E Primary School launched its link with Khaliqdad School in Mazar-e-Sharif in Northern Afghanistan. Dan Browne spent an afternoon in school talking to pupils about the partner school, sharing what life is like in Afghanistan and explaining the work his team is doing. School Council representatives then interviewed Dan posing questions raised by each class. Parents also had a chance to find out more about the work of ASET after school. School is joining others in raising money for Khaliqdad School. All classes now have a ‘Small change, big difference’ pot for children to put in what they want when they want. It was great to welcome Dan back into school in July. As well as admiring our display focusing on our new links, we presented him with a cheque for £175. This money was raised by our oldest pupils who organised their own sponsored kite flight and sale of hand-made goods after being touched by Dan’s first visit to school. Dan was also given pictures and letters from each class to take in person to the Afghan school when he returns there in August. This is a very exciting partnership providing superb opportunities for our pupils whilst directly benefiting children in Afghanistan. We look forward to receiving our first letters and seeing the link develop over time.

Alison Tugwell, Headteacher

Farewell to Steve and Natasha

Sadly Steve and Natasha left ASET last month. After nearly two years of devoted and hard work with us they feel it is time to move on to pastures new. Originally they only came to help out with a few projects for a year when we needed some help but have served far over and above the call of duty. We are very grateful for all they have done at ASET and although sad to see them go, want to wish them all the very best for the future.

 Khaliqdad School Completed

This spring has seen the completion of the Khaliqdad School buildings. The school has up to 1500 children who are now able to sit inside for classes, where previously they were taught in large tents.

To complete the project £3500 needs to be raised to fit the classrooms with desks and chairs. If you would like to donate towards this, please click here.

 90 Kindergarten Kids Graduate

In March over 90 children graduated from the ASET kindergarten. The teachers then went out into the local neighbourhood looking for new students, checking their ages and financial state to ensure that those from the poorest families were given the opportunity to join.  The new children have now begun and are currently being introduced to the kindergarten rules and getting to know each other. We are happy to be starting another cycle of giving hope to these children and enabling them to see further than their own little world.

New Kindergarten opens in Turkmanabad

Turkmanabad is a district in Mazar e Sharif that is home to around 550 families, most of whom are of Turkmen ethnicity. There are narrow alleys instead of streets and the community is poor, with high rates of unemployment and no school for the local children to attend. The opening of a kindergarten in this area is a real blessing to the children and local community.

When the property for the kindergarten was first rented it was in a very poor state, but renovation works have been completed by local workers using local materials and the building has now opened.

The kindergarten will run three mornings a week for 35 of the poorest children in the community, who are aged between 3-6 years old. The curriculum is going to be consistent with the main ASET kindergarten curriculum and will include educational games, knowledge based exercises, learning about the world, literacy and mathematics with basic English included for the older children. There are currently three local teachers and an assistant and the hope is that more local women can be trained to become teachers in the future, enabling the running of the kindergarten to be transferred to the local community.

“I gave opium to my baby…”

In March a midwife from London travelled out to visit the team and to see the work ASET is doing; here is a small report from her trip.

‘’My baby didn’t breastfeed very often because I gave him opium which made him sleepy.  That’s why I fell pregnant again so quickly.” This was a comment made by a woman in a self-help group which I visited during my trip to Afghanistan. Although I’d read about family-wide opium use, it was quite different hearing of it firsthand.  As we sat drinking tea, the women in the group were discussing family planning, and the importance of breastfeeding frequently as a means of increasing the gap between subsequent children.

Afghanistan has some of the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in the world, and it was a privilege to see ASET’s Midwifery Consultant working patiently to improve education around pregnancy, birth and family planning as she negotiated the setting-up of similar groups for women to the one that I visited.

Help to raise £40,000 for a new kindergarten

ASET has recently been asked to build a kindergarten for the children of female teachers at one of the biggest girl’s schools in Mazar e Sharif.

At present many of the teachers do not turn up as they need to be at home looking after their own children. Building a kindergarten will provide the school with more female teachers, which will drive up the standards of education for the girls. This will prove vital in a country where the current literacy rate amongst women is somewhere between 9 – 18%. In order to achieve this we need to raise £40,000 for the kindergarten building.

If you would like to donate towards this project please click here.

Help to raise £25,000 for Well Digging Projects

We are proposing to launch another water project and to do this we need to raise £25,000.

Current statistics state that 1 Afghan child dies every 23 seconds as a result of inadequate water supplies and related diseases. The aim of the project is to contribute towards a decrease in the infant mortality rate and chronic malnutrition found amongst children in the areas that we serve by providing clean drinking water, as well as basic hygiene and sanitation and well maintenance training. Five wells will be dug and training programmes provided for five neighbourhoods, which will benefit over 1500 people. We believe it will make a dramatic impact in the area.

If you would like to donate towards this project please click here.

Kindergarten news

The kindergarten continues to go well, although there can be a steady change in children as it is placed in the poorest of areas and many parents are not able to afford rent and have to move on. During the summer the kindergarten had some outdoor toys created and the children are now able to enjoy a seesaw, a balance beam and ‘walking tins’.

Each Saturday creative games are introduced to the teachers, which they can then play with the children during the week.

Julie Zwies, an occupational therapist from the UK has recently joined the team and plans to work with children with cerebral palsy whilst training teachers about their special needs.

Khaliqdad School

Construction of the Khaliqdad school expansion and enclosure wall in Baba Yadgar community on the outskirts of Mazar-e Sharif is proceeding well. Work is on budget and on schedule.

Quilt making Project

A new $10 000 Quilt Project started in Dawlatabad this month. 20 poor women selected from the mullahs of the town will be paid to make 1000 quilts for needy people for the coming winter. This income will help at least 20 families during the cold winter to cover expenses for their basic needs such as food & fuel.

Team news

After 2 breakdowns and a 9 hour minibus ride, our new team members Sarah Turner, Chris and Megan Le Master arrived safely in Mazar e Sharif. Sarah will be doing the accounts, while Chris and Megan will be teaching computing and English.

Also joining the team in Mazar are Dr Matthias Koerner and his wife Daniella who will be helping with the quilts & medical projects, particularly focusing on Nomadic groups (Kuchis) within the area.

Dan Browne (ASET Director) will be returning to the UK in November for a sabbatical/furlough while the rest of the team remain in Afghanistan and carry on the work out there.

From the Trustees

The annual report for 2008-9 is in the process of being prepared. The trustees are delighted with the work of the team in the field, & the fundraising & dinner & auction teams in the UK.

During the year large sums have been raised for the new hospital in Dallan, the well and water tower in Dawlatabad, the quilt making project & many education projects, focusing on girls & women. We are so grateful to our many sponsors, & feel relieved & blessed that the money has been donated for the new school building.

Dan, Thomas & the team continue to give their all to improve the lives of the needy in Afghanistan, in every way possible.
We also thank Veronica and Jean for the wonderful work they do on the accounts, in three different currencies across the world. This becomes ever more challenging as the work and budget increases.

Please continue to support ASET in 2009-10. We will do the work with your support & involvement.

Thank you all so much for your continued support.

 Dan Browne, International Director writes:

Against the back drop of increasing threats, violence and people having to leave the country we have seen the volume of our work grow and the numbers on our staff increase. Steve and Natasha Palubinski (USA) joined us at a crucial time to help with the building of a hospital clinic, 2 wells and a water tower in addition to a $55,000 quilt making project helping the most vulnerable people in the villages of Dawlatabad District.

Gildeon and Lidia (Brazil) joined us and after various health problems have returned to their home country for 6 months. They are doing well. We look forward to welcoming new staff members Chris and Megan LeMaster (USA) and Sarah Turner (UK) in September.

Elections take place in Afghanistan during August and it is uncertain what they will bring; we eagerly await the results and ask that you think of us, as many foreigners will be out of the country during that time for security reasons.

We hope to see 4 classrooms and a surrounding wall for a girl’s school built over the next year and many other projects are ongoing. Once again thank you so much for your continued support.

Best Wishes

Dan

Water Supply Improvement Project

ASET has begun to mobilise the Water Supply Improvement Project from the Dawlatabad office. The project entails hygiene promotion in homes and schools, working with the community to prepare water supply safety plans, and the construction of two water wells. Preliminary surveying has been completed and tentative neighbourhoods have been identified as potential beneficiaries based on need. Funding has been provided by TearFund UK through SERVE Afghanistan, their partner organisation, and the project will run through to April 2010.

 Dalan Clinic

The official opening of the Dalan Basic Health Centre was held on May 27. There were nearly 50 attendees including the Sholgar District Governor, the Ministry of Public Health, the donor representative from the German government, several local political figures, and the leaders of the local community who ASET has been working closely with during the project. ASET has been well received by the MoPH and the community because of the quality of work maintained on the project and involvement of the community. Dalan is an ethnic Hazarara village that relies on rain-fed crops for income. The extensive drought of the past decade has crippled the local economy and resulted in many hardships. This year the rains returned and the new clinic was completed – a time for celebrating.

Kindergarten news

The kindergarten is now in its second year and it is exciting to see it all coming together.  News has spread about how well the children have done in their first grade, and members of more fortunate families are asking why their children cannot attend the school just because they are not poor enough!

Julie, an occupational therapist, has become involved in weekly training sessions for the teachers, with the aim of developing their skills to help those children with disabilities.  One goal for the coming year is to open a special needs class.

Mount Eiger Challenge

Earlier this year a team of 25 took part in a sponsored climb at a London climbing centre. The challenge was to climb the equivalent of Mount Eiger (3970 metres), but an amazing 6512 metres was climbed in total and over £5000 raised for ASET. Thank you to everyone that took part and to all who kindly sponsored them.

ASET Dinner & Auction

The ASET dinner and auction took place on March 14^th 2009, with over 100 people enjoying a great evening and an amazing £10,000 being raised. ASET would like to thank all those involved in organising the event. We would also like to thank all those who came along, those that donated auction lots and all those who gave so generously.

Hospitals & Wells!

We have now raised over $100,000 for the building of a hospital and two wells and a water tower. The work on these is underway and we hope that they will be completed by May 2009. Dan Browne (ASET Director) recently visited the site of the hospital and one well, a journey that took 4 hours each way over very bumpy road, covering just 83 miles in 8 hours of driving!

The water tower will be built in Dawlatabad where ASET built a hospital last year. This will enable water to be distributed to both the hospital and the local school of over 1000 pupils.

Quilts

A new project has begun which will train 100 vulnerable women to make 6,000 quilts to provide them an income and their own bedding. The remaining quilts will be given to other needy people during the winter.

Dawlatabad Office

The house, office and training centre in Dawlatabad are completed.

For 6 months 200 teachers are receiving Teacher Training two days of the week in the District centre of Dawlatabad.

There are also English classes running in the nearby village of Qaragujula with 220 students taking part.

Women’s Literacy Project

Eight courses have now been set up, providing basic literacy to Afghan women within their own neighbourhoods. One of the students who lives in a refugee camp on the outside of Mazar had been severely traumatized by war before her family fled to the area and greatly lacked confidence. When she first came to the course she was always afraid and her hands shook too much to even hold a pencil. Now, one year later she is becoming literate, has gained much confidence and is happily engaged to be married.

In November, Amy Nelson ran a three day training course for the literacy teachers. Teachers created their own training materials including paper clocks for telling time and Dari alphabet posters. They were also encouraged to become familiar with reading common signs in the cities and made pretend signs, in this way they can teach their students to practice reading the words that they will encounter on the streets, such as signs for the hospital, pharmacy, hamam [bath house].

Seminars were also run to encourage the teachers to try and solve their own classroom problems. These included students who think they are too old to learn, students who arrive late, or do not do their homework. The teachers discussed these issues and prepared and performed dramas to help address them.

Kindergarten

The ASET Kindergarten continues to be a great success. It takes 120 children off the streets, giving them a purpose as well as a chance to develop and learn. Rather than learning simply by repetition, the children are encouraged to be creative & are able to play within a safe & educational environment.

Dalan Clinic Project

Steven & Natalia Palubinski have recently joined the ASET team to supervise the Dalan Clinic Project and local community development work. They are old friends of the ASET team having managed the ASET team house in Kabul while attending language training. For the last 18 months they have been working for another agency 100 km west of Mazar-e Sharif managing a WATSAN project which included the construction of tube wells and large underground water storage tanks.

From the Trustees

The trustees are delighted at the way that those out in the field have endeavoured to meet the aims and objectives of the charity. A special mention must be made of the work of Thomas Glatthaar, The Regional Director, who has done such sterling work on the administration, accounts, building the hospital and so many other things. Many of our supporters have been most generous and our income has again risen.

Many projects are continuing, or have been started, during the period. The kindergarten continues to flourish with 45 children having graduated during the year, & a programme for training teachers has been introduced. The hospital building has been undertaken and a brand new hospital completed in Dawlatabad to serve 100,000 people. Dr Keng is to be congratulated on her fantastic work. An HIV and Aids awareness programme, to prevent an impending epidemic, has been completed, with 192 Civilian Health Workers (CHW) trained. The Women’s Literacy Programme enrolled 128 women and is having pleasing results. One woman was able to save a sick baby because she was able to read a book about mother and infant health. The Threads of Hope Project allows widows and other vulnerable women to make products to sell to foreigners. The exciting development is that it has become self financing, as we not only train women to make the products, but also to set up their own businesses to produce and market them. Several new businesses have been launched making slacks, skirts, dress shirts, for school children, and suits for men. Alongside this, 80 women have been trained in business development. Teacher training has continued with 260 teachers having graduated. A further programme has now started in Dawalatabad district.

At Ghazni, down in the south, the Community Health Care Projects have saved women’s lives, especially from maternal mortality, through health care & education. We also trained 10 Civilian Health Workers (CHWs). Our team of Doctors has seen 10,000 eye patients & performed 1,000 eye surgery procedures. 2000 women have benefited from their EFL programme. A wind turbine project has also been started. Poor people have received funds to get through the Winter.

ASET continues to be run and administered by volunteers and the trustees wish to publicly recognise their work and thank them.

For the future another hospital is planned and a women’s literacy programme is to be set up in Dawalatabad, where English and computer courses have been run and 200 teachers trained.

ASET opens a new office

We have opened a new office and house in Dawlatabad. It is the market town in a district of about 85,000 people, around 80km north-west of Mazar e Sharif. There are currently no foreign workers living there so we are glad to be moving there and starting a new work.

In an area that has been severely hit by drought, there is a lot of need especially for education and training and just about anything that will improve the standard of living. We will open a Computer and English teaching centre and continue to develop the training of school teachers throughout the district, while also looking for other ways to help.

Kindergarten

On March 5^th, 45 of our older students graduated. Students took turns to read stories, perform poetry and plays, tell jokes, and show off their maths and writing skills to the parents. Each student was awarded a certificate and a school bag with their file of work inside, and a new notebook and pencil to begin school with. The mothers were amazed by the progress the children have made, and some parents who weren’t going to send their children to school have now been persuaded to do so! Children that would have had a very hard time at school are now prepared with the skills and knowledge they need for a successful and enjoyable education. In many of these poor families they will be the first to go to school & become literate, which will hopefully pave the way for younger siblings.

Women’s Literacy Project

The running of these courses over the next few months will enable up to 200 women in neighbourhoods around Mazar-e-Sharif to learn to read and write in Dari for the first time. Several of the women have shared that being illiterate makes them feel blind, having to rely on others for even basic information such as reading signs and medicine bottles. The aim is that they will gain confidence and skills that will help them to improve not only their own lives, but also those of their families.

Suit-making Project

This has now been completed and achieved its main objectives by improving the tailoring skills of all students, many of whom have translated these skills into income generating work at home. We were also able to launch 3 fully independent and financially successful small businesses, owned & operated by Afghan women & employing workers from outside of their immediate families. Providing business skills training to some of the women has led to 20 valid business plans being submitted to the MicroCredit Bank, which are currently under review.

Ghazni Nomad Project

This pilot project has involved the training of 10 men from Kuchi nomad families as Community Health Workers under the supervision of the Ministry of Health. These Kuchi people are treated with contempt and mistrust & historicall,y very little has been done to reach out to & include them within mainstream Afghan society.
The students are highly motivated and the second phase of the project has seen the introduction of a new course called BLiSS (Birth Life Saving Skills) which was initially developed for mothers, but has now adapted for men. Much fun has been had using role plays to learn about antenatal and perinatal care. Following this training one of the students has much more appreciation for his 2 women. The third phase has begun and is currently focusing on treatment of children.

Wind Turbine Project

After months of preparation the ASET Ghazni workshop is ready and work has begun on the first turbine. The aim is to train Afghan craftsmen to build them from scratch, using locally sourced materials. The turbines will initially provide electricity to schools and clinics, & then to individual homes. Most of these buildings outside the city are without electricity and it is hoped that the newly lit schools may lead to night classes in literacy and skills training.

Hospital Clinic

ASET have started work on a hospital & well building project near Sholgara, an area north of Mazar e Sharif. Currently the locals have a 12 hour round trip by donkey to get clean water but the well, along with the hospital, will serve around 30,000 people from the surrounding villages.

HIV & TB Prevention Programme

The HIV & TB prevention programme is well under way in Sholgara, providing basic health education to 30,000 people & training Community Health Workers to sustain the support & new knowledge gained within their local communities.

Women’s Literacy Project

A new programme has begun amongst the poorest areas of Mazar e Sharif, aiming to teach another 100-200 women how to read & write. This will enable them to live more independently, give more support to children that are at school or kindergarten & raise their levels of self-confidence.

Kindergarten

The ASET kindergarten now supports 10 teachers & almost 100 children. The Afghan trainee teachers are developing well under the tuition of our Project Manager, Faith, & it is a joy to see the enjoyment on the children’s faces as they attend from day to day.

Ghazni Feeding Project

ASET are currently assisting with a feeding programme for malnourished children in Ghazni, as well as supporting the neo-natal department of the local hospital. We are expanding this to include English teaching for hospital staff & also at the girl’s high school nearby.

Widows Suit Making Project

The aim is to train up to 50 women to make men’s suits and trousers, with the hope that 3 of the women will eventually be able to own, run & operate successful businesses whilst employing other seamstresses from their local communities.