Kind Hearts

     Written by: Mir Aqa Etibar

Most Afghans enroll their children in government or private schools. literate parents could help their children in school lessons at homes or by sending them to learning courses but what are the problems of those children whose parents are not educated and nor have enough money to send their children to learning courses?

AEPO’s writer/producer has talked to some students and their parent about this issue.

Tawab, a fifth-grade student, a resident of Kabul city says: “I am shoe polisher and living in a poor family. I do not have time to study my school lessons and could not answer any question at school. There is no one at our home to help me in my school lessons and I don’t have enough money to go to a learning course.”

Another student, Zikrullah says: “My father has died and I am the only breadwinner of my family. There is no one educated in my family to help me, therefore I always face difficulties in my school lessons. I wish if my father was alive and I also could go to a learning course.”

How people could solve this problem?

Masoud Stanakzai, a teacher at one of the learning courses says: “during my teaching at the course, I found that some students could not pay their monthly fees and the director of the course decided to dismiss them. I remembered my past time that I had also faced the same problem. I convinced the director that I would teach those students with paying to me.”

Farahnaz, a teacher says: “one of my students was not doing his homework. I asked him the reason. He was a shoe polisher and his hands were black with shoe cream and said that he does not enough money to buy a notebook. He had problems in his school lessons too. The next day, I gave him a notebook and found that he and some other students had problems in their lessons. I opened a learning class in my home and started to teach school lessons to poor students for free during the winter vacations.”

Shukria Rahmani, a teacher at a religious school says: “I found some poor families that they could not buy school uniform and other school necessities to their daughters. the government pays my salary and I do not use it myself. I buy their uniforms and stationeries and I also pay their school fees. When my sister and her husband got aware, they promised to pay for my university expenditures.”