Small nonprofit, big goal: education for Afghanistan

By Jessica Blanchard
Seattle Times staff reporter

NATE YORK / SOLACE INTERNATIONAL Michelle Winston, business development director for Solace International, gives backpacks filled with school supplies last summer to girls at the new school in the Afghan village of Jangal Arigh. The nonprofit organization raises money to build new schools and repair others.

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They traditionally were excluded from the educational system; during the Taliban's rule, they were banned from schools. The few schools that exist are largely in disrepair.

The United Nations recently estimated that fewer than 1 in 7 women in Afghanistan can read.

Experts say educating the populace — especially women — is key to the country's recovery from decades of war.

That's the goal of the nonprofit Solace International, which last year raised nearly $70,000 in Seattle. The money helped repair facilities and build six new community schools in the rural, isolated northern provinces, where a lengthy drought has increased poverty.

Solace International organizers plan another auction in Seattle tonight to raise money to build six more schools and an Internet-equipped learning center.

While it's too soon to see the impact the new schools have had on literacy rates, there are positive signs. For example, the six new schools have a total enrollment of about 1,200 students, two-thirds of whom are girls, said Stanfill Marcus Stanfill, the group's administrative director.

Fund-raising auction An auction of hand-woven scarves, carpets and fabrics from Afghanistan and Central Asia will benefit the nonprofit Solace International, which helps build schools in rural Afghanistan. Tonight's event will be at The Mountaineers club, 300 Third Ave. W. in Seattle. The silent auction begins at 5 p.m.; live auction and project presentation begin at 7 p.m. Tickets are $20. For more information, call 206-409-2508 or go to www.solaceinternational.org online.

Across Afghanistan, schools are seeing record enrollments, with more than 4 million students in school, according to UNICEF statistics. At least one-third of those students are girls.

The government has estimated that roughly 2,000 schools must be built every year for the next five years if demand is to be met, said Edward Carwardine, a spokesman for the UNICEF Afghanistan field office in Kabul.

Groups like Solace International will play a role in reaching that goal, he said in an e-mail from Afghanistan.

"If education is to be really redeveloped, there has to be sustained commitment from all actors — government, U.N. agencies, donors, nongovernmental organizations and communities themselves," Carwardine said.

With only four full-time staff members, Solace International is one of the smaller organizations working in Afghanistan. Nate York founded the nonprofit in late 2002, after he saw the need for more schools during a UNICEF mission to deliver supplies to children in the region.

MICHELLE WINSTON / SOLACE INTERNATIONAL Local farmers gave up time in the fields last winter to help build a school in Afghan Teppa. They had started building with mud bricks but stopped when they needed wood and had no money to buy it. Solace International brought a load of wood, thinking it would keep the workers busy for a week, but so many came to help that the wood was gone in two days. The school is open now and has 350 students.

The nonprofit has raised about $350,000 this year by staging auctions around the nation. And the group has secured a $30,000 grant from Overstock.com to help build a textile-design center, to give a boost to that cottage industry.

It's planning to branch out with upcoming projects, such as repairing the regional university in the northern city of Sheberghan, Stanfill said. The university, the only one in the region, was virtually destroyed by the Taliban, who shot out windows, left the roof to rot and burned chairs and desks, which they deemed "too Western," Stanfill said. University students now gather in an adjacent building, learning lessons from a small set of outdated primers, he said.

Repairing the facility will cost an estimated $20,000, he said, but could more than pay for itself by turning out highly educated graduates, some of whom could be tapped to help teach in the new schools.

"Eventually, we're hoping to see the full cycle of education develop in the north," Stanfill said. "But it's one step at a time, and the first step is to get the kids in the schools."

Jessica Blanchard: 206-464-3896 or jblanchard@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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