Dear Mr. Oliphant,

I am a constituent of Don Valley West, and am concerned about the state of a school in Kandahar, Afghanistan — the Afghan-Canadian Community Centre (ACCC) — which is supported by a charity, the Canadian International Learning Foundation (CanILF). As you may have read in today’s Toronto Star, the ACCC is in serious financial trouble, due to its inability to secure continued funding from the Canadian International Development Agency.

I am a high school teacher in Scarborough, at a school which has a very large Afghan-Canadian population. In addition, two Afghan-Canadian teachers at my school have started an program, the Canadian-Afghan Student Success Initative (CASSI), which seeks to connect Afghan-Canadian students and their parents more directly with the school. This sort of program is necessary in Canada because the transition between the shoddy educational infrastructure in Afghanistan and our excellent system is often a difficult one.

A few years ago, I had a student named Mariyam. She was 16 and in a Grade 10 Science class, and a really sweet girl. We’d talk all the time about life, and school, and the transition from Afghanistan to Canada — she’d grown up in Kandahar and moved to Toronto maybe a year or two earlier. Her written English skills were very shaky, so I asked about how much English she’d learned in school back home. “Oh, I never went to school back home,” she replied — which completely knocked me over.

“Never went to school, ever?”

“No, I just stayed at home with my mom and helped look after the house.”

I hadn’t even considered this to be an option for children, but as I learned more about what life was (and is) like in Kandahar, it is sadly not that surprising to me anymore, especially for girls. Mariyam ended up passing the course, improving her science knowledge and lab skills, and improving her English — but the main lesson I took away from teaching her was that there was a part of the world where children, mainly girls, simply do not have the opportunity to get any sort of education whatsoever.

Education is a basic human right. We all have the right to learn, to better ourselves as people and to acquire the skills to improve our lot in life, free from threats and harassment. The ACCC provides this vital service to the young people of Kandahar, mostly girls, who desire nothing but this basic right. I can’t understand why CIDA would choose not to support this modest yet extremely important initiative, which not only accomplishes the direct goal of helping to educate girls in Kandahar, but also serves to form a good impression of Canada in the minds of the vast majority of the citizens in that hardscrabble city. I humbly request that you use your position as my Member of Parliament to impress upon CIDA the importance of the ACCC, and CanILF’s role in supporting it.

Thank you in advance,

Jason Law
Toronto

On behalf of the volunteers at CanILF and the staff and students at the ACCC, I would like to thank Mr. Jason Law for taking the time to write his Member of Parliament, and for sharing his letter with us. It’s easy to forget that not everyone has the same kind of educational opportunities as we do in Canada but, as Jason proves with his letter, this kind of oppression also affects our fellow Canadians, such as Mariyam and her family.

Want to help? Please click here to learn more, and for a sample letter to send to your Member of Parliament. Please also feel free to share your letter with us at staff@canilf.org.

CanILF NR-0901 November 2, 2009 OTTAWA - Despite recent insecurity, more than two hundred students at the Afghan-Canadian Community Center (ACCC) in Kandahar, Afghanistan graduated on November 2, 2009 from a professional education program funded largely by the Canadian International Development Agency.

“Through the education and support provided by the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, the Government of Canada and the Canadian people, the Center has given us hope for a better future,” said Class Valedictorian Bibi Zhilla, “Now it is our responsibility to share this precious gift with others in  need.”

The ACCC provides professional education to approximately 1,000 students in Kandahar, more than half of them women. A group of 30 students have had the opportunity to study Business Management with the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) via the Internet.

ACCC Director Ehsanullah Ehsan travelled to Calgary to receive an honourary degree from SAIT in June 2009. ACCC students had planned to accompany Ehsan during the trip, but were unable to do so for security reasons. This group of students received graduation certificates from SAIT during this ceremony.

The ACCC was founded by Ehsan in early 2007 with the support of the Afghan School Project, which sponsors student scholarships and provides the Center with educational equipment, such as computers and textbooks.

The Project is managed by the Canadian International Learning Foundation (CanILF), a registered Canadian charity. The Foundation also provides Canadians with the opportunity to communicate with students in Kandahar via www.theafghanschool.org and an online Pen Pal program.

“We are incredibly proud of what our students have achieved under such difficult circumstances,” said Ryan Aldred, President of CanILF, “With the assistance of the Government of Canada, we have helped the people of Kandahar to create a vibrant and thriving school which has made a lasting difference in the lives of thousands of people.”

Several hundred students and graduates of the Afghan-Canadian Community Center have obtained long-term employment with local businesses and international organizations. On average, each employed student provides economic support to more than seven family members.

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Notes to the editor: Further details regarding the Afghan-Canadian Community Center (ACCC) are available online at www.theafghanschool.org. Photos of the ACCC and its students are available at www.canilf.org/gallery/. A link to video footage from the ACCC is available upon request. Further information regarding the Canadian International Learning Foundation is available at www.canilf.org.

For more information, please contact Ryan Aldred, President of the Canadian International Learning Foundation at 613-614-5349 or e-mail staff@canilf.org.