For some girls and women in Afghanistan, their literacy class is their only escape from a restricted life.
One of our workers is teaching literacy classes. Here she tells of a situation where disaster was narrowly averted.
We have 100 very poor female students in four classes of 25. These girls, as most of them are teenagers, are not allowed to travel outside of the immediate area around their homes. Their families insist that they stay at home until they are married, then their husbands insist that they stay at home and look after the house and children. This week we lost the rooms where we have been teaching literacy classes since March. At this news some students cried, some were distraught, all were concerned that their literacy classes would not be able to continue to the end of the course.
All week my teachers walked the area searching for other rooms to use as classrooms. For four days they walked from house to house asking if anyone had, or knew of, any vacant rooms. The afternoons were so hot that on the fourth day they started at 6.00am when the temperatures were still cool. They asked the community leader who suggested two or three places, none of which were suitable. They asked shopkeepers, people on the street, anyone they could find. Some of the students offered their own homes, but when the teacher went to see them they were too small for 25 people to sit on the floor and also so overcrowded anyway as the rest of the families were there all day and would interrupt or interfere with lessons. Some of the homes were also dirty or unsuitable in other ways. Sometimes there were three complete families living in just a few rooms, and spare space was just non-existent. Every day my teachers came back to the office distraught and saddened saying that they hadn't been able to find alternative classrooms. I was devastated too.
The father of one of the students telephoned the teacher every night to ask when classes would start again. He explained that before his daughter started attending classes she was depressed, miserable, slept all day, had no energy or interest in anything and just existed from day to day. Since starting to learn to read and write she had completely changed. She was bright, alert, happy, interested and smiled all the time. He had realised that literacy is important for girls whereas before he had forbidden her to go to school.
We had other fathers last year who realised the change literacy made in their daughters' lives and allowed them to go to classes whereas before they had refused permission. They have to see it before they believe it.
Eventually another student offered two rooms at her house. These were clean and the teachers helped her move everything out of the rooms to prepare them for lessons. Word was sent around that classes would restart the next day. Everyone was happy again.
This story illustrates that we are not only teaching literacy, we are changing attitudes, one drop at a time. One by one, bit by bit, little by little. These girls have a better chance of achieving their full potential with the support of their families. One thing is certain, they will make sure that their daughters, if and when they have any, learn to read and write. That is real change. Change in society. Change in attitudes towards female literacy. Change in families.