photo : UNHCR
The United States is in the wind down phase of its operations in Afghanistan. Unfortunately with the draw down there will also be a diminishing availability of protection for girls who want to go to school in Afghanistan.
Angelina Jolie, now a seasoned veteran in aid and assistance to poor and war torn countries, has decided to fill in the vacuum that is the black mark of Afghanistan's reality. She has opened a school in Kabul, the capital.
Afghanistan is a place where girls are no longer supposed to go to school. In many cases, the only schooling some of girls received was through programs set up by foreign NGOs or the UN in the refugee camps. Many girls are beaten if they go to school though, since their attendance is considered shameful and an insult to their strict Islamic tenets.
When the US leaves, those schools will disappear.
The school that Ms. Jolie has opened would only cater to girls in the primary school age. She is in fact, picking up the where the UN would leave off once they cut funding to the existing programs. The timing could not be more fortuitous. In fact the school site is near the largest refugee camp in Kabul.
The school can educate around 200 to 300 girls. The impact of the school, although new, is already being felt in the community.
Ms. Jolie has also initiated plans to open other similar schools. She plans to fund the schools through the sale of her exclusive jewellery collection, called The Style of Jolie. The new line of jewelry will be available for sale this week and it is expected to do very well. Ms. Jolie has expressed her joy in being able to use her creative abilities and put them in the service of such a great cause.
The profits of the jewelry line will go entirely towards the school charity.
Source: NBC 4.2.13
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