Implementing partner: Afghan Women's Education Centre (AWEC)
Countries: Afghanistan and Pakistan
Dates: 2002-2005
Donors: Reed-Elsevier, Doughty Street Chambers.

The Afghan Women's Education Centre (AWEC), formed in Pakistan in 1991 by female Afghan refugees and based in Kabul, is a national Afghan NGO working for vulnerable women and street children. AWEC implements a range of projects to promote their rights, education, health, peace education and socio-economic development.

In Kabul, LfL and AWEC created and delivered an intensive catch up programme for more than a thousand girls during the winter holidays to compensate for years of schooling lost under the Taliban regime.

In Peshawar, Pakistan, LfL and AWEC have provided much-needed services to the Afghan refugee population by supporting their primary education programme. This project reached some 300 vulnerable children aged 6-13, providing literacy, civic, health and vocational education - including basic reading, writing, mathematics, sports lessons, health education and hygiene practices and recreation. At the same time, the counselling department offered long-term and group counselling to children and their families, while the centre's vocational programme assisted students by teaching them literacy and employment skills. The centre's health clinic also provided treatment and education for many patients.

In June 2004, the Peshawar programme was moved back to Kabul as part of the reintegration of Afghan refugees, and the programme continued there until 2005.

Beneficiaries

Peshawar Children educated - 110
Children in vocational programme - 175
Health clinic patients - 1,065
KabulGirls educated - 1,120
Teachers trained - 22
TOTAL - 2,492

Testimonials

Lialuma is 14 years old and came to the centre to attend the education classes when she was 11. She used to collect wood on the streets of Kabul and tended animals in order to earn money to pay for food and rent for her 5 sisters and 3 brothers. Her father was killed in the war under the Mujahadeen and her mother earned money by washing clothes. She heard about the CSCW through the social workers who found her working on the streets. They persuaded her to attend the education classes and thereafter she attended for three years, learning to read and write. She did so well in her studies that she was able to move into a formal school. The CSCW have helped pay for her books and uniform. She continues to attend formal school and visits the CSCW to attend vocational training classes to learn tailoring. In the evening she helps her mother to wash clothes. She says that she has learned a lot from CSCW, gaining not only an education but also confidence. She hopes one day to become a doctor.