Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
What you see here is a graduation ceremony.
But what makes this one special is that it celebrates the graduation of women in an Afghanistan
that – not even a decade ago – did not allow women to go to school.
This is the Afghan Canadian Community Centre located in Kandahar City.
Since 2007, some 1,000 Afghan women have had the opportunity to take
courses in business management, information technology, health care and English at the Centre.
On November 2, 2009, more than 120 Afghan women from across the province graduated from the Center.
10 of the women completed a new on-line Business Management program
through the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT), one of the Center’s major Canadian partner.
Afghanistan has one of the lowest levels of education and literacy rates in the world.
More than 80% of Afghan women can’t read or write.
Courses offered by organizations such as the Afghan Canadian Community Centre
give graduates the technical knowledge they need to practice a trade and help them find jobs.
Having this opportunity to learn new skills that can be used in the workplace is
especially important for women who until recently did not have access to school and
who would otherwise have no option but to live in poverty.
According to the Afghan Canadian Community Centre, every student who completes a course
and finds a job provides financial support for six family members on average.
In a region where job opportunities are limited—particularly for women—
these help lift these women and their families out of poverty.
Not only are these women now able to support their families;
they are also contributing to their community and to the local economy.
Around the world, the evidence from such institutions as The World Bank show that
developing countries with greater equality between women and men have lower levels of poverty and greater economic growth.
Helping women have access to more opportunities and a better quality of life
is central to the Government of Canada’s development programming.
Moments like these mean hope and real options for a more secure future.
Their voices can help bring Afghanistan closer to sustainable peace and prosperity for all.
The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) supports projects dedicated to help Afghans, particularly women, go to the school. This commitment helps the Government of Afghanistan provide improved basic services for its citizens.
With Canada’s support, the ACCC has been able to hire more teachers and to move to a much larger 15-room facility that houses a computer room specifically for women. In addition to having more space to teach more students,
the new ACCC facility is located in a much safer area than before. Since then, hundreds more students have enrolled in school. Today, more than 700 Afghan women and men take classes at the ACCC.
For more information on this project and others, please visit the development projects page at afghanistan.gc.ca.