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School bags instead of rubbish bags: how Afghan girls defied their destiny

by Terre des hommes | Terre des hommes (Tdh) - Switzerland
Monday, 25 January 2016 15:34 GMT

* Any views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Basmina* is 12 and Shukria* 13. They both live in a remote village near Torkham, at the Pakistani border with Afghanistan. When identified by Terre des hommes (Tdh) social workers, the two girls were collecting rubbish and fire wood to support their families. They couldn’t go to school.

The two girls remember seeing other girls attending school, carrying nice bags and uniforms. They dreamt of being part of them one day, even though there were no school in their village and none of their mothers ever got education.

Enrolled in Tdh’s programme, Basmina and Shukria soon got the chance to access education. Thanks to Tdh advocacy, a girls’ school opened in their village and has now enrolled 22 girls. It was like a dream coming true. Tdh provided them with school bags which were designed by girls attending a tailoring class at the Child Protection Centre in Kabul:“The school bags provided to us are sewn by other vulnerable girls in Kabul. Thanks to their gift, we changed our rubbish bag to go to work for a school bag to go to school! We are so happy and thankful to those girls even if we don’t known them. It tells us that we in Torkham should also support other girls”.

Basmina and Shukria hope to get higher education and open a girls’ school, in order to give back to children deprived from education. “Having received the school bags from the girls in Kabul really motivated me to encourage other girls from my village to attend school. I wish I could also give gifts to other girls but I have nothing to give… However I see education as a really valuable gift to all girls“.

They both would like to thank once again the girls from the tailoring class in Kabul who sent the school bags: “I hope they can get good education as well”.

Interview done by a Tdh social worker in Torkham, December 2015.

*Changed name

Terre des hommes improves the lives of more than two million children and their relatives each year. Find out more about our projects in Afghanistan.

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