Rotarian's reflect on the future of the Rotary school in Afghanistan

 

Dianne Bell/Columnist
May 6, 2021

When former nurse Fary Moini and lawyer Steve Brown broke ground for a school in Afghanistan in November, 2002, it was the beginning of a commitment that has spanned nearly two decades and still runs strong.  At the time, the San Diegans were reaching out to children in a country torn by tribal warfare, especially to girls whose rights had long been suppressed.

With the generosity of their Rotary Club colleagues in University City and elsewhere, some hard-won public and private grants, and gifts from donors big and small, they built a school that now enrolls more than 7,000 boys and girls.

They also set up computer labs in 13 public high schools. At Nangarhar University, with the assistance of San Diego State University, the San Diegans created an internet-connected learning center that has provided English as a Second Language and information technology training since 2009 to about 6,000 future teachers. All these programs are in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

But what will happen to this academic network that has thrust Afghan youth into the 21st century — and opened a new world through computers and cellphones — now that President Joe Biden has announced the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, 2021 — 20 years to the day after the 9/11 terrorist attacks?  Some fear the worst, suggesting that the Taliban waits in the shadows to seize control and suppress the hard-won freedoms of the nation’s citizens.

Afghan female rights activist and politician Fawzia Koofi, who survived two assassination attempts, has openly expressed her fear that recent progress toward women’s equality will erode after U.S. troops depart.
In San Diego, Moini remains optimistic about the aftermath of the U.S. withdrawal. Brown is less positive. “I’m hopeful, I’m not optimistic about the programs going forward,” he says.

“These are not the children of 2002,” explains Moini. “Technology is taking over their lives ... A new generation is in charge.” She says those overseeing the schools today know what is going on, and teachers are more educated than ever before.

She prays the United States doesn’t renege on its commitment of an extra $300 million in civilian aid to Afghanistan this year, announced on April 21 by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Blinken said the funds would bolster economic projects, anti-drug programs, health and education, women’s empowerment and other “civil society” programs.

“I’m hoping the State Department, USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development) and the U.S. Embassy will use the $300 million to sustain what is happening in the lives of females,” Moini says.

While San Diegans living 7,800 miles away founded and built the Afghan school and continue to pay for its maintenance, along with IT instructor salaries, the school is operated by the Afghan people under the Ministry of Education, with the involvement of parents and community leaders.

“Tribal elders are very much involved and pro-education for the females,” says Brown. “We’ve had zero push-back for the 19 years we’ve been there.”

“Yes, the military is leaving, but our presence will remain there,” stresses the former nurse, who has been dedicated to this project since working with Afghan refugees in two camps in Pakistan in early 2002.

She and Brown have made 35 trips between them to Afghanistan since 2002, and their involvement has become a full-time job. They work from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. every weekday at Brown’s office in Del Mar Heights.

There are nonstop emails, Zoom conferences, relationship-building calls, speaking engagements, fundraising, grant proposals, program details to iron out and new projects, such as starting female sports programs, hospital screening for cervical cancer and arranging for surgery in India for Afghan infants with life-threatening heart conditions.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Afghanistan, triggering a lockdown and paralyzing the economy from June through August of last year, Brown and Moini learned that some families faced starvation, so they arranged to get food delivered to 280 families by their teachers.

Brown gives about $100,000 a year of his own money to the projects and worries about future funding as grants and donations are much harder to come by in today’s economic climate.

“What does the troop pullout mean?” Brown asks, rhetorically. “No one knows, but the fact that there is broad-based local support is encouraging. It’s a different society than 20 years ago.”

A communication system is in place that didn’t exist before, and there’s a higher education level throughout the country, he says. Forty thousand students have gone through their high school computer program since 2008, about 40 percent of them are girls.

Another 6,000 students, many from rural areas, have been enrolled in their English and IT teacher training programs at Nangarhar University since 2011.

Brown notes that 25 percent of the Afghan population are youths who never lived under the Taliban and won’t be anxious to roll back in time. If the Taliban take over the country, it probably will not revert to what it was 20 years ago, he says. “I think that’s impossible.”

But move to the next question. If the government of Afghanistan collapses, what happens to successful programs like theirs? The answer is unknown.

ABC News correspondent Martha Raddatz interviewed Brown about the pullout, along with Secretary Blinken, on the April 18 edition of “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.” Raddatz had visited the Rotary Club-sponsored school in 2009.

“It’s a short-sighted decision,” Brown said about the pullout, “but I fully understand that the American people have war fatigue.”
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