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Kids in Afghanistan attending school outside before A Better World Canada was able to build them a new school. (supplied/A Better World Canada)
Different Taliban than 2001

A Better World Canada cautiously optimistic about Taliban-led Afghanistan

Oct 6, 2021 | 4:29 PM

When the Taliban took over Afghanistan this past summer, one central Alberta organization was worried all their important charity work would be in jeopardy.

A Better World Canada, based out of Lacombe, works with charity groups all around the world to provide sustainable solutions which help alleviate poverty. Clean water, essential healthcare, and a quality education are all part of their programs. Since founded in 1990, they’ve worked in over 15 countries, including Kenya, Rwanda, and Afghanistan.

Eric Rajah is the co-founder and Director of A Better World Canada, and says when the Taliban first took over Afghanistan in the summer, the schools they helped build were closed. However, they were reopened a few weeks ago, which Rajah says was a big change from the last time he was in the country in 2001 when the Taliban was in power.

“The difference is they didn’t destroy or take over the schools. So that is good news. We can continue to work with the communities and negotiate to keep the schools open.”

A Better World Canada helps build the schools and then turns them over to the local ministry of education. However, they are operated and staffed by members of the local community. It was the ministry that decided to first close the schools citing safety concerns, especially for the girls.

Rajah was surprised when the Taliban allowed them to reopen, at least in the northern part of the country where they built their schools. He said the situation could be different in other parts of the country.

He says while the Taliban is in charge at the top, it’s the same people living in the communities who helped him build the schools in the first place. He says they put their own blood, sweat, and tears into these schools, and they want to protect them.

“I think that’s one reason why all of our schools have survived because the communities protect them. They decided they wanted the school, not us. This is a good thing for us when the local community takes leadership and protects their own investment.”

While it may seem the Taliban are more “progressive” than they were in 2001, Rajah says they also restricted school access for girls, only allowing them to attend school from Grades 1-6. Boys are still allowed to go to Grade 1-12 and beyond to university.

Rajah says the universities are also opened and cater to both sexes, but there are now large curtains in classrooms to separate the genders. He says some of their students who graduated from schools are now in those university classes.

“The Taliban realized that if they didn’t have educated women, the countries can’t move forward. They realized, even when we were building schools, the communities realized they need schools for their girls. There’s no nurses, there’s no hospital people. “

He’s hoping the Taliban will allow girls to finish school to Grade 12 in order for them to advance their skills at their universities.

Rajah says in his opinion, the Taliban are currently trying to exert their power and control over the country. But once they start having to actually lead the country in a direction, they’ll realize the importance of an educated female population.

“I’m assuming all of these things partly because of the fact they quickly opened the schools for girls and the fact they didn’t burn up the schools like they did in the 1999-2001 days. I’ve seen it all when I was there in 2001 before we started the project. It was one of the saddest things to see all these wonderful buildings built by Russians and others, places of education all burnt down. At least that’s not happening.”

The Baba Ali Girls School in Afghanistan. (supplied/A Better World Canada)

A Better World Canada was able to open their most recent school in Afghanistan in March of 2021, and it’s thankfully still open. For now though, Rajah says they have halted all donations and projects in the country as things get sorted out.

“People are being cautious. We can’t invest there right now, because we would have to be able to negotiate for land, we don’t know the make-up of the ministry of education, so sending money right now is a problem for us. We probably won’t be doing any new ones this year, we’ll be happy to just keep the ones we built running”.

More information on A Better World Canada can be found here at abwcanada.ca.