Deputy Minister Visit of Literacy Courses

Literacy education has a huge impact on refugee families settled close to Kabul

 The Deputy Minister for Literacy and Nonformal Education Dr. Sardar Rahimi visited the literacy education courses located at Shahrake Etefaq, in District 13, on August 22.

The literacy courses are organized and conducted by the Afghan National Association for Adult Education (ANAFAE)

The nine-month literacy courses are part of a project to create a sustainable livelihood for internally displaced and returning families in the Kabul province. The project is funded by Welthungerhilfe (WHH).

On this visit, ANAFAE and WHH key staff were also accompanying the Deputy Minister.

Dr. Sardar Rahimi, the deputy minister checked and evaluated the technical parts (learning environment, visibility) and methodology (teaching and learning processes) of the literacy and poultry training of the project.

The Depuy Minister and his monitoring team interviewed the teachers and learners of the classes. They asked lots of questions directly to learners and to the teachers and looked at the literacy books.

But what are the results after 9 months of literacy education?

Mrs. Benafsha Sadat one of the ANAFAEA literacy organizers said:” In the literacy courses participants learn reading, writing and numeracy, the learners, most of them are young married ladies, reflect on their role in the family and community, gain valuable new knowledge to deal with health problems at their home and to improve the health and hygiene within their families.

In addition to the literacy courses, they develop ideas for their own economic activity. In this case, they do poultry raising. Learning has a direct, positive effect on the family, health, and school attendance of children. Literacy education programs of ANAFAE strengthen the capacities of individuals and of the communities and support their empowerment from vulnerability to resilience.”

Altogether this is an important impact not only on the personal life of the literacy learners but this will influence also other family members and the development of the refugee community in this location.

The Deputy Minister was very impressed with the professional set-up of the literacy education courses and proposed to make these successful courses of ANAFAE a model that should be applied by other NGOs by other actors working in literacy education in other parts of the country.