Welcome to FemAid

For as little as $ 82 upwards a month, you can sponsor an individual teacher help Afghan women and fight Fundamentalism.

Despite the overthrow of the Talibans , the situation has not changed for women in Afghanistan. Do not be deluded, fundamentalist misogynist ideology is still dominant in this country where women's rights have been ruthlessly trampled upon. Despite the TV display of beard shaving and singing in the streets, remember that women are still shrouded in their veils, because they are afraid. Tribal law mixed with a fundamentalist interpretation of Islamic law still prevails in its most ruthless form.

The situation is beginning to improve in the larger cities, but is desperate in rural areas
Which is why it is urgent to continue to support RAWA's programmes.

Today in Afghanistan women from rural areas cannot receive education
Today in Afghanistan women still do not receive proper medical care: maternal mortality is the highest in the world
Today in Afghanistan women still cannot work
Today in Afghanistan women children and the aged are dying of malnutrition, poverty and the lack of the most elementary health care.

Through education, women become aware of their rights and try and participate in social change by voting actively and trying to take part at their own level at the establishment of a centralised, democratic government which will free them from tribal law .

This situation constitutes a global threat to the whole world, children, teenagers, men as well as women.

You can help in very simple, basic and effective way:

By sponsoring a teacher a Pakistani refugee camp or in Afghanistan or (where about 90% of the female population is illiterate) whose purpose is to teach women to read, write, and acquire information for themselves and their families.

Since 2001, we at FemAid have been working with RAWA (the Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan), an independent secular women's group based in Afghanistan and Pakistan committed to equal rights and democracy In Taliban times, they sent teachers into Afghanistan to work with women in urban and rural environments. They run literacy and health courses and encourage the women who’ve followed the curriculum for about a year to start teaching themselves. In Pakistan, RAWA has established schools, orphanages, dispensaries for desperately poor Afghan refugees otherwise deprived of any real assistance from the Pakistani authorities which in itself has been overwhelmed by the presence of three million refugees. This situation has worsened recently with the establishment of a government backed by the West in Kabul

Up till early till 2003, we supported costs in three schools. Because of lack of funding, we can no longer afford to support schools as we used to. Any donation marked specifically for teachers will henceforth be given either to the girls' school in Khewa refugee camp or to RAWA schools within Afghanistan. Apart from that in the educational field, we support specific students and vocational projects in orphanages run by RAWA.

I wish to sponsor one teacher's basic salary for 68 € or $82 a month , (6 months minimum = 408 € or $ 492)

I wish to sponsor one pupil for a year for 42 € or $52 a month , (6 months minimum = 252 € or $ 352)-

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PLEASE BEAR IN MIND THAT BANKS POCKET A SUBSTANTIAL PERCENTAGE OF WHATEVER YOU SEND SO ADD 15% TO COVER COSTS.

For your information, RAWA has similar teaching projects going on in refugee camps in Peshawar and schools in Peshawar, Rawalpindi and Haripoor. Costs here are comparable.

We will provide, by email, any additional material you require to make this an issue in your school or teaching establishment
Just write directly for information to Alia at RAWA (rawa@rawa.org)
or to Carol at FemAid ( ) who will help you organise funding.

This low-cost project can be implemented in schools as each class could work on supporting a teacher

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Click here to check out our missions to RAWA in Pakistan (March-April 2005, December 2001, May 2002, January 2003, November 2003)

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This is based on a visit to the three schools described below in Rawalpindi which we supported until early 2003 We have kept these reports on the site because they offer relevant information on the situation.

Some of these schools have now shut because their staff and students have returned to Afghanistan. Because of lack of funding, we can no longer afford to support schools as we used to. Any donation marked specifically for teachers will henceforth be given either to the girls' school in Khewa refugee camp or to RAWA schools within Afghanistan

Background:
School is not obligatory in Pakistan and besides it is not free. Afghans (and other foreigners) have to pay around 200 rs per month (60rs= $1) and as most families have at least 5 children this means that few can afford such expenditure. At any rate, boys will be given the priority as they are deemed the breadwinners.
The literacy rate in Pakistan is, as a result, very low (25% of the population can read) - but in Taliban Afghanistan it became one of the lowest in the world, down to 5% for the women according to some statistics.

RAWA(Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan) has always made education a priority in underground schools for women and girls in Taliban Afghanistan as well as in the poorest areas of Pakistan where Afghan refugees live.

Apart from literacy classes, RAWA runs three schools in the slums of Rawalpindi and three more in Haripoor, Peshawar and a refugee camp in the Peshawar region. These are unregistered as are many private schools in Pakistan.
These are unusual institutions in that they provide
- 4 hours of free schooling for girls and boys
- a mainly Afghan curriculum to prepare for a return to Afghanistan
- Urdu and English as foreign languages
- One class in religious studies ( as opposed to five in fundamentalist run schools of which there are many catering to the refugee population)
- some notions of human rights, especially women’s rights
- books, stationery

The schooling provided is very basic and can only equip pupils with the most basic skills- but it is a real alternative to illiteracy and perceived as a privilege. Nevertheless, such a programme is perceived as totally radical and these schools operate with the utmost discretion. There are RAWA posters in the classrooms and gradually discussion take place
This report is based on a visit to the three schools in Rawalpindi as well as the school run by RAWA in Jalozai II camp (which is NOT the notorious Jalozai camp an hour away and has been described in another report on the www.femaid site)

Student background:
The background of the refugees is varied, from an educated professional middle-class to peasants and one-time civil servants. Whatever economies the families possessed have run out fast as life is more expensive in Pakistan than Afghanistan. Poverty is the great leveller, and as a result children of once (relatively) privileged backgrounds – generally one-parent families where the men have been killed- find themselves picking rags alongside children who have been brought up to think this normal.

These refugees have fled Soviet (1979) invasion, fundamentalists of every shape (including Talibans), oppression and poverty. Opposition to fundamentalism does not necessarily entail liberal attitudes in this part of the world, except in more educated and progressive backgrounds.
However bad the situation in Pakistan, whatever these people have fled is even worse than what they are experiencing now.And some places are even more terrible than these slums, mainly hell-hole refugee camps like Jalozai . Which is why a growing number of single-parent families try to put their children in orphanages where they know their children will at least eat once a day and may not be obliged to labour.

Schooling may represent different things. To the more educated parents, this may be the beginning of a career, possibly the way to a scholarship into a Pakistani school. It keeps the dream going and family self-respect. Here girls are a little more encouraged than boys.But poverty and pragmatism rapidly overcome their hopes and resources, as no-one can afford the unbelievable fees the Pakistani high schools and universities charge.
To the majority of poor and impoverished people, school may mean a better job for their boys- from sifting through garbage, they may be able to go on working indoors in a shop, counting stock.
Nevertheless, when you ask children : What do you want to do later, they invariable chant ”doctor”, sometimes ‘engineer’ and ‘teacher’ for girls – in some kind of ideal and never-never land Afghanistan.All of which are impossible in view of the education they are getting, the necessity to bring in money as soon as possible and mainly the fact that they are excluded from any inroad to changing their abject living- conditions.
So, in the meantime boys, from the age of 7 work as rag-pickers, collecting paper from garbage (one kg is paid one rupee), make wire-wool wads for scouring (25 dozen= 1.5 rs per dozen, sold locally 8 rs apiece), make shoes, sell vegetables, carry heavy loads in bazaar, weave carpets. Some work with their fathers, others are farmed out to employers. Girls are expected to help as home, but some work as domestic servants, stitch, embroider. If there are no boys in the family, girls are sometimes disguised as boys, their names changes (I met a Khaleda with shorn hair who had been selling vegetables as Khaled) in order to work.They work on average 8 hours a day and eat one main meal (mainly lentils, bread, tea- meat, fresh fruits are exorbitant luxuries).As a result, children look about three to four years younger than their same-age Western counterparts. I visited during the month of fasting Ramazan: most children, even the youngest, were proud to be fasting- admittedly on their diet, this could not have been very difficult for them which made the situation even more heart-breaking

It must never be forgotten that this is a most conservative society. Despite RAWA (and so-called Internet cafés in some parts of town), most of these girls will be married off in their teens to boys they hardly know and they will submit to their fate because that’s how they have been brought up, burqa or no burqa for centuries. RAWA has to negotiate with fathers and then husbands for these girls to be allowed to come to literacy classes and sometimes food bribes are necessary. Widows may sometimes be more amenable as far as their daughters’ future is concerned. The situation is very hard to imagine in the West but cannot be minimized.

In view of the crushing poverty, families just cannot afford to keep their children away from work.What is a moral question for us is merely one of survival in this part of the world.The problem needs to be tackled from a much broader economic angle, not by further victimising those who are already victims. In fact, the bottom line is that childhood as we know it does not exist for the poor. As soon as an infant can walk, he becomes a diminutive adult who is prepared for the hardships of adult life: scrounging about for survival for boys/men and producing children (future labour force) for girls as soon as their bodies permit them to. Whereas the rural background allowed for some degree of autonomy as far as housing and resources go, in city slums families are crammed into tiny rooms alongside streets with open sewers, no running water (but Internet access in some parts), lead a hand to mouth existence. In the city as well, notions of dignity, identity are completely crushed but mothers hang on to scraps of respectability. All the boys I met wore impeccable white shirts to class:their mothers and sisters wash them painstakingly every day… School indeed represents four hours of solace for these children.

Teachers have variable qualifications, but certainly less than their Pakistani counterparts, simply because they themselves have been deprived of education. Many of them have gone through RAWA schools and are passing on their skills to the younger generations. The more privileged ones have benefited from the Pakistani schools where English is taught as a main language. Many young girls dream of going to a Pakistani university- but higher education would cost 5000rs ($83) a month + 100 000 rs ($1 666) inscription fee.
RAWA keeps an eye on the level of the students. Whenever possible, the brightest students are given further education as they sponsor their studies in Pakistani high schools.

Running schools

Afghani teachers are paid far less than Pakistani teachers (average 1 200 rs, a month, $20, a quarter of a Pakistani salary), but that’s all RAWA can afford in their global budgets which are being stretched at the moment by the latest crisis. School directors are paid a bit more (1 500rs a month, $25) and all have to supplement their income by other work. Whenever possible, they are also paid in kind (especially food)- which is why FemAid has been trying to collect more important sums to finance these teachers. A cleaner, a guard is also on the payroll. In Afghanistan, the teachers are paid more as board, lodging and risk factor have to be taken into account.

The premises are rented from Pakistani authorities and are all too small classes are also held on terraces when necessary which poses a problem during the monsoon. Sometimes an old school is hired (Hewat II), often an apartment (Mariam), where the rent is on average 10 000- 12 000rs per month, and the electricity + bills work out to on average 6000rs, per month but naturally all this is variable.Books and stationery/pencils come to about 60 000rs a year.. One has to remember that books are cheaper in Pakistan and there is a whole industry of photocopied books.

As far as facilities are concerned, toilets (one per establishment) are dank ‘holes in the ground’ with a pitcher of water nearby, there are no other facilities, no first-aid kits, no snacks available, just rudimentary schooling.

NEEDS
FemAid’s policy has always been to ask people what they need and want rather than impose and send what we think they should have.
After lengthy conversations, we came to the conclusion that money is needed to finance:
- more books and stationery (children are issued one set to last them all year)
- teaching aids: maps, posters, visual documentation, flash cards (with English , Urdu or Farsi)
- T.V. + VCR for educational films
- Snacks for the break ( a new FemAid project as this is unheard of in other schools: children who walk along way may wait for 4 hours while their siblings have school in the second shift))
- A computer facility
- New courses (music)
- Refurbishing of premises
- Salaries of staff
- Teacher-training (including language courses)

One could send teaching materials such as maps, anatomical charts, and other such material. In which case, one should try and find a humanitarian organisation sending material or else find out through P.I.A. (Pakistani International Airlines) if something can be sent to Islamabad by air freight and at what cost. In Islamabad, I was told the charge was 11 Euros per kilo
Another important feature would be financing badly needed teacher training
Additional courses such as music would be welcome with the idea of having children in schools form a choir. Upon enquiry, it seems that music teachers want to be paid 4000rs a month , $67 which is beyond anything RAWA can afford. But this can be a project for a donor.
I was surprised at the directors asking computers: it seems that the conditions are so squalid that there must be other priorities. Nevertheless, as computers mean modernity to them, this has a strong symbolic value- and presumably some practical one as well. But programmes have to be sent with the computers and in working order.
However in one school I saw unused toys carefully displayed on an otherwise empty shelf, probably given by a well-meaning donor: this culture has no need for Western-style toys and consumership.
These countries do not have a tradition of having a visiting doctor/nurse but could be something we could think about

Conclusion:
RAWA does not run a vast amount of schools and orphanages but is trying to be efficient in each situation. FemAid has decided to sponsor specific needs such as paying salaries to keep these places going and enable RAWA to open further schools. Donors who get involved in our schemes can donate very specifically and know that their gifts and donations will really be used.

Three schools visited in Rawalpindi (near Islamabad)

HEWAT II
Mrs Okala principal + 15 teachers (female)+cleaner and guard
350 children aged 6-19 (boys generally up to age of 12, the older students being the girls who often start their schooling as young teenagers, on RAWA’s insistence)
Provides primary education: children of different ages in a same class because most of the girls go to school later than boys and are generally keep back.
4 hours of schooling a day (and an average of 6-8 hours outside work for most) in two shifts
Also a literacy class for women of 14-29
No heater- it gets cold in winter and a diminutive fan for summer (temperature soaring to 40-50°C in the summer); lighting is a neon strip which often goes on and off due to uncertain electrical supplies
7 small, dank classrooms, ill-lit with nothing (or nearly) on the walls. Geography is taught from a tiny world map

MARIAM SCHOOL
Mrs Rahimi (principal) and 12 teachers )+cleaner and guard
200 children 6-17 (boys generally up to age of 12, the older students being the girls who often start their schooling as young teenagers, on RAWA’s insistence)
Provides primary education: children of different ages in a same class because most of the girls go to school later than boys and are generally keep back.There are no girls studying maths past the 7th class
4 hours of schooling a day (and an average of 6-8 hours outside work for most) in two shifts
No heater- it gets cold in winter and a diminutive fan for summer (temperature soaring to 40-50°C in the summer); lighting is a neon strip which often goes on and off due to uncertain electrical supplies
This is a ground floor apartment with cubicles, some do not have windows. But it has just been painted a bright yellow.
The daughter of the director, Rubina, 17 graduated from a Pakistani school last year and teaches English basics in this school as well as Hewat II. She needs teaching aids of every kind (flash cards, charts, to help her work)

HEWAT I
Mrs Abida, (principal) 8 teachers+cleaner and guard
130 children 6-15 (boys generally up to age of 12, the older students being the girls who often start their schooling as young teenagers, on RAWA’s insistence)
One literacy course for women between 15-35
Provides primary education: from 1-3rd class, but age groups here are a bit more coherent than in other schools
4 hours of schooling a day (and an average of 6-8 hours outside work for most) in two shifts.
Premises are too small: one class in held outdoors on the terrace- presumably cancelled during the monsoon.
No heater- it gets cold in winter and a diminutive fan for summer (temperature soaring to 40-50°C in the summer); lighting is a neon strip which often goes on and off due to uncertain electrical supplies.
Despite the extreme poverty of this squalid neighbourhood (open sewers, rubbish tips where kids rummage), a number of the children come from families where parents had some education as civil servants, teachers and engineers. The director’s story is typical. Ages 31, she was a teacher in Afghanistan and teaches Pashtun, history and maths. Her husband, once a radio journalist and teacher now sells vegetables from a vegetable cart, helped by his sons. They have 7 children and Mrs Abida is distressed that she can’t let their oldest daughter go to school as she has to look after the youngest children whilst their mother is away at work.

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STOP PRESS: FEMAID PHOTOGRAPH EXHIBITION 'ONE WOMAN'S WARS' IN TORONTO CANADA SEPTEMBER 2005. This fundraising exhibition is being held to commemorate the 4th anniversary of 9/11