14 October 2010 - The locals and their children were all smiles on Tuesday as senior United Nations officials reached a small village in eastern Afghanistan called Nala Bidak, an arid desert until a few years back.

The occasion was to inaugurate the only school in the village that the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) helped build with funding from the Government of Japan.

UNICEF Country Representative Peter Crowley inaugurated the “cost-effective” primary school that now has 250 students, with an impressive enrolment of 124 girls, in Nangarhar’s Surkhrod district which has about 300 returnee families.

When the school was established in 2007, it started with just 30 students (16 boys and 14 girls) from 28 families who returned from Pakistan, leaving behind their life as refugees.

“When we first came here, there was nothing – no water, no school and no other facilities,” said Haji Abdul Gaffar, a local elder. “UNICEF dug wells and also constructed this school, calling on all the families living there to send all their children to school,” he added.

Over the years, humanitarian agencies helped develop the desert into a thriving hamlet with school, running water and roads, among others.

While inaugurating the school, Mr Crowley said he was impressed by the high number of girls enrolled in school, but noted that it was not 50 per cent yet. “Next time, I would like to see all the girls and boys of this village in school,” he said.

Before the construction of the 12-room school at the total cost of US$ 86,281 (about 4 million Afs), the children used to take classes under the sun.

The occasion of the school inauguration was also seized to spread the message on children’s rights. Members of the Kabul-based Parwaz Theatre, contracted by UNICEF, entertained the children through their puppet shows on five themes of child rights – identity, protection, participation, education, health and hygiene.

UNICEF has been supporting children’s education, among other activities, in Afghanistan through Government bodies and civil society organizations.

By Tilak Pokharel, UNAMA