A representative of Takhar’s Youth Parliament, Mr Nader Qaderi, commented: “Respecting children’s opinions and giving them the chance to speak up, give them the confidence to share their problems affects their families and society.” The journalist Ms Setara Sulaimanzada added: “Such programmes contribute to decreasing violence against children. Children and young people are facing different challenges in today’s society.”
“This has been an excellent opportunity for Afghan stakeholders to take an in-depth look at their process, take note of their progress and identify priority areas for further work”, Eddie Rich, Deputy Head of EITI, says.
In 2016, RoL and the Ministry of Interior Affairs’ Police Mardumi (PeM) Department jointly printed and distributed similar notebooks to thousands of school students in Balkh province. The notebooks offer information about the police’s responsibilities, competences and how to properly cooperate. In addition, they contain important facts, such as the phone number for emergency calls (119). These activities contribute to deepening knowledge about police activities amongst the population.
Topics covered during all workshops: equality, transparency and the consistent application of social and legal procedures for resolving conflicts in Afghanistan. Each training lasted three days. The participants came from seven districts of Samangan and seven districts in Baghlan. Thanks to the newly gained knowledge, they are now able to formally offer and conduct conflict resolution for anybody suffering from disputes and they know how to seek support outside of their jurisdiction if necessary.
The Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Professor Abdul Tawab Balakarzai opened the event, saying “We appreciate the almost 15 years of support by the German government to the MoHE and Afghan universities in order to enhance our capacities in the field of geology and mining. This support should not only address Kabul Polytechnic University; it should address universities all over the country.”
Opening the event, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr Abdullah Abdullah, highlighted: “Electricity is the base for the security, education, health, transport, infrastructure and economic development. Afghanistan has huge offer of renewable energy, even to export to other countries. Until we can use these, we need to save energy and use it efficiently and wisely: not for lightning, cooking and heating only. Let’s try to use it for productive purposes, too, in order to contribute to the development of our country”.
The new engineering college offers its future students programmes in masonry, road construction, civil engineering, water supply engineering, and IT applications. The neighbouring Technical Teacher Training Academy (TTTA) and the Agricultural Regional Institute (AVI) are located on the same campus and were both opened in March 2016. They serve as modern and well-equipped teaching and training facilities. In total, German investment on site rises to AFN 708 million.
One of the participating lecturers, Mr Iqbal, commented: “The joint training by the Geological Survey of Finland and the Afghan-German Cooperation was very useful. Some topics, especially airborne geophysics, were new to us. We hope that such scientific cooperation can be extended in the future.
This year’s exhibition focusses on women-owned enterprises. Many female owners of small and medium-sized companies display their products in trade booths and promote these to the public, especially to attract potential investors and buyers.
During the past two months, the participants enhanced their understanding of how important it is to properly maintain public schools. School staff from all of Baghlan’s 15 districts enhanced their skills on how to take care of the schools they work in.
