Building Schools in Afghanistan

Building Schools in Afghanistan
I believe one of the biggest causes of the situation in Afghanistan is a lack of education and schools. When I was traveling through the countryside near Jalalabad in 2004 I was amazed by the site of hundreds of children sitting in fields studying in makeshift open air classrooms. Where all the schools had been destroyed, the kids still wanted to learn. Below is a photo I took of one such classroom. 
       
 One of the things Davies-Reid and Indigo have worked to do with our rug production is help the children of the Afghan Refuges get an education. In the past ten years we have helped build two schools in the tribal borderlands between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Below is a good segment that Christiane Amanpour just produced for CNN on the problems with schools in Afghanistan.

                                                                                                          Girls School, Afghanistan 2004 Daniel Sullivan
This is a photo I took of one of the first girls schools built in Afghanistan after the war in 2002. During the rule of the Taliban girls were not permitted to attend school. One of the scary things about the rise of the Taliban again is many of these schools are being blown up. Greg Mortenson who has built many schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan wrote Three Cups of Tea which is an excellent story of the challenges of working to build schools in Central Asia. 
If you would like to read more about our Refuge Rug Project and the schools we support, please visit us online at
www.indigopaia.com.

 ----- EXTENDED BODY:  ----- EXCERPT:  believe one of the biggest causes of the situation in Afghanistan is a lack of education and schools. When I was traveling through the countryside near Jalalabad in 2004 I was amazed by the site of hundreds of children sitting in fields studying in makeshift open air classrooms. Where all the schools had been destroyed, the kids still wanted to learn. Below is a photo I took of one such classroom.  ----- KEYWORDS: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Afghan Refuges, Davies-Reid, Indigo Paia, Christiane Amanpour, CNN, Greg Mortenson, Three Cups of Tea, Daniel Sullivan, Building Schools in Afghanistan ----- --------