Afghanistan has been a war playground for different vicious political groups and a safe heaven for terrorists for more than three decades. Therefore, it led Afghanistan to have the second lowest score on the United Nation’s Human Development Index. Afghan Youth Leadership founders believe that more than 30 years of war and devastation is caused by the lack of mutual understanding and ignorance where Afghan young men are recruited to hate humanity. Thus, we believe that the right quality education is one the most successful way of bringing cultural understanding and investing to the future of Afghanistan. An education system where unites people of Afghanistan than divides, where it connects Afghanistan to the rest of the world than disconnects, and where it teaches to tolerate and understands one another’s differences whereby will lead the youngsters to understand the international community. Unfortunately, today, the Afghan education systems don’t encourage these values in their curriculum.

Afghan Youth Leadership with realizing the urgent need of tolerance and understanding in Afghan society today executed a Youth Summer Camp for Peace in Afghanistan in summer of 2007 with the generosity of the philanthropist Kathryn Wasserman Davis. We selected twenty students aged from 11 – 15 years from three schools in Kabul though well designed selection process, and another twenty students were selected from a newly registered Sultan Mohammad Shah middle school located Talakhtan village in Baghlan province of Afghanistan. A total of forty students from different backgrounds and lifestyles were brought to live, learn, understand one another, and work together under the Youth Summer Camp for Peace in a small village of Dahni-Lahli situated in the district of Dowshi. The Youth Summer Camp for Peace carried out activities such as community services, cultural days, village tours, career planning, storytelling and story making, and other socializing activities which involved team working. These activities were designed to provide the opportunity for Afghan youths to interact and understand one another.  

For more information you can view our initial proposal and report at http://kwd100projectsforpeace.org/project.php?project=52 . You can also read the newsletter published regarding this particular project at http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=283005 .

Endorsement of Education:

 The Eskar village located in district of Dowshi, Baghlan Afghanistan has never had schools in its history since 2004. The people of Eskar village have been living an agricultural and nomads’ lifestyle for centuries. Only after the fall of Talibal some local people have put some efforts to propose Afghan government to construct schools in different parts of esker village.  The Ministry of Education has registered only names of these schools to receive more aids but have not built the school infrastructures yet. The young villagers with tremendous amount of patients and hope to become doctors and teachers study under trees. After successfully completing the youth Summer Camp for Peace, we have also provided three newly registered schools in the Neckpay village with one year of stationary supplies to over 1500 students as way of encouraging students to continue learning under any circumstances.