#Enough! Afghan Street Kids want a good education!
7th October, 2015
By Dr Hakim
On the 2nd of October, 2015, about 60 Afghan street kids told their 12 Afghan Peace Volunteer teachers that they loved them!
Afghan schools celebrated Teacher’s Day three days later, but it was Friday, and the International day of Nonviolence too, so at the Borderfree Nonviolence Centre, the volunteer teachers and their street kid students took the opportunity to have fun, to enjoy each other’s company, and to learn again that they’ve had #Enough! of the same, bad education.
Sakina, about 10 years old, stood up confidently, read a poem and said, “Malalai Yousafzai shared that ‘if there’s no war for 8 days, we can have a good education for 12 years’.
Sakina was not only quoting a Nobel Laureate, or not only speaking for herself. She was speaking for the children of the world!
#Enough! Afghan Street Kids want a good education!
Friday, another day in Afghanistan,
but today was going to hold a different lesson.
A new experience,
despite a war on fire in another province, Kunduz.
In a corner of Kabul,
the street kids washed, cleaned, said ‘Yes!’ as soon as they arrived,
as if this school was the very street they were familiar with,
blowing balloons,
putting up simple decoration.
Their teachers were coming!
They sensed a fresh pulse to this Teacher’s Day celebration,
especially since their young minds
had been opened to other fascinating struggles,
about Gandhi’s birthday and assassination,
about understanding nonviolence
not with our hardened minds,
but with our tiny hearts,
about another kind of literacy.
What? Even adults have a hard time
believing that radical change can come
from a small group of teachers and kids
determined to open windows
and borders that have blinded them
and us.
“Of course we understand what Malalai Yousafzai said!
It’s simple.
8 days of no war,
12 years of education.”
Meanwhile, we sincerely busy ourselves
around the UN ideals,
trying to figure out
how to achieve the Sustainable Goals,
which don’t include abolishing war for 8 days.
“What we want is
not only to fill our faces with flour
so others can break out in laughter,
or to tell our volunteer teachers that we love them,
or to play ‘follow the leader’ as equals.”
We don’t want to go to school
just to please the adults
by regurgitating
our ‘winner-takes-it-all’ histories.
What we want,
is good, decent education.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Love can open any border
The volunteer teachers and their students enjoy tea and cake together
Sakina was ready to read a poem
The street kids arranged simple decoration for the teachers
It was a different day for everyone
They played like good, old friends.
They had such fun!
There was much laughter.
The students said, “I love my teachers!”
The teachers received gifts from their students.
Mursal drew and wrote, “We want a school of nonviolence.”
#Enough! We want a good education!”
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