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KABUL, Afghanistan - The newly-built classrooms for Sir Asyab Girls High School in Kabul, Afghanistan received new desks this week as the school prepares for a grand opening ceremony early next month.
A new building, which is adjacent to the existing three school buildings, was funded by Joint Engineer’s Commander’s Emergency Response Program funds.
CERP funds are used to provide humanitarian relief and reconstruction projects that will assist the civilian population. Due to the need of the communities and the number of students, this project qualified, said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Thomas Nguyen, contracting officer, Central Command Contracting Command-Afghanistan.
Splintered and broken, the old desks were replaced with new, three-person desks that are expected to be used by more than 3,600 students this coming school year.
“The school has 3,600 students, mostly girls, but they have some boys as well,” said Nguyen. “The school staff has to hold several shifts each day to accommodate all the students.”
The new school was a priority for the Afghan Ministry of Education, who requested a two-story building.
“During the construction of the project, the engineers recognized the area was an earthquake zone,” said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Daniel Ooley, engineer, U.S. Forces-Afghanistan.
So instead of building two stories, USACE designed a one-story building with a safety corridor.
“This corridor has extra-reinforced concrete quarter walls that will withstand an earthquake or fire,” said Ooley, “so the students can leave their classrooms and get safely out of the building.”
The construction was accomplished by the Afghan Jamal Faquiri Construction Company over a period of eight months.
“I am very happy to see the girls have a new school,” said Jamal Faquiri, main contractor.
Monday, Nguyen and Ooley conducted a final inspection of the new school and an inventory of all the new desks in preparation for the first school day in March.
Projects such as this one, funded by coalition countries, help give Afghan children a future.
In Afghanistan, only six percent of girls attended secondary education in 2008, according to a UNICEF national household survey.
Coalition counties have supported more than 2,000 education projects throughout Afghanistan since 2005. The projects range from building brand new schools, walls to protect the children, water wells, and playgrounds to purchasing textbooks, school supplies, furniture, blackboards and whiteboards, said Mr. Scott Dussing, CERP program manager, Joint Engineers.
In 2010 alone, more than $26 million has been committed toward education projects in Afghanistan. Over 150 schools have been built, refurbished, repaired or expanded. Thousands of new desks and tens of thousands of books, pencils, erasers and pencil sharpeners have been purchased for Afghan schools, said Dussing.
Among the hundreds of projects are a poultry training program in Khayr Khot, Nursing and Midwife Institute in Kandahar, trade school in Merkazi Bensood District, and a high school in Marjah City.
| Date Taken: | 01.17.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 01.19.2011 05:57 |
| Story ID: | 63782 |
| Location: | KABUL, AF |
| Web Views: | 175 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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