Improvement of Social Infrastructure

Consisted of 278 families, the Haji Shah Muhammad village is located in Karukh district of Herat province. Considering the river flowing close to this village, most of the lands around this community are arable. This is why the villagers largely depend on agricultural activities in order to meet their basic needs in their normal life.

Let’s reveal that this community has been given very little attention in terms of social infrastructure improvement over the past years. Fortunately, the view of the community has immediately changed by constructing a concrete school building with financial support of the Citizens’ Charter National Priority Program of the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD/CCNPP) under the Education Quality Reform in Afghanistan (EQRA) Project.

Said, Bismillah, who performs as a teacher in this school: “We used to teach children in a mud-school built with financial assistance of the villagers in the past. As far as the classrooms were not suitable for learning, most of the parents didn’t want to send their children to school. We usually shut and call off the school during the rains because the classrooms’ roofs or ceilings would usually leak through and drip onto the students while they were learning. In addition, piles of mud would accumulate inside the classrooms after the rain stopped and it would take us days to clear the mud off the classrooms to resume the tuitions to students. Fortunately, our children will have a great opportunity to study in an appropriate school building constructed by the MRRD/CCNPP. Now, the parents will highly be encouraged to send their children to school where they would learn with greater ease and interest.”

“The villagers won’t have to repair the school buildings’ roof and walls, as they did in the past, prior to the start of rainy season. Nearly, 300 male and female students will keenly attend the school on a daily basis next season with a hope that they would serve their country after they complete their education. Meanwhile, 20 skilled and unskilled laborers from the village were provided with job opportunities every day during the school building project implementation over the past five months,” revealed Ramazan, the school principal.

The school building constructed at a sum of AFN 3,456,000 funded by the MRRD/CCNPP within the framework of the EQRA Project has six classrooms, one office and three restrooms. The school building indeed will pave the way for around 300 students to learn in an appropriate learning environment without any tension inside their community.