Volunteering in Afghanistan, or not?
Polish Humanitarian Organisation are co-ordinating a project this summer for 3 English language teacher trainers to do a 3 month project in Kabul for local apprentice teachers. I've applied and await an interview date. I've over 3 + yrs. teaching experience and think I have a lot of methodological knowledge to share to creat a good environment for language learning.
I'm interested in hearing any comments from readers about their perspectives on my possibility of going there to volunteer. This is not a ploy to get you to say, "Oh, you're great", nor is it a blog to portray myself as a martyr - but rather a call for constructive criticism on what factors you deem significant for me to consider if offered the post. It may seem a bit premature to ask for advice about something and somewhere which I haven't even being accepted for, but actually the project starts in a just over a month, so even the recruitment process seems a bit rushed. There won't be much time to prepare or process the pros and cons so I've decided to risk getting my hopes up to high and have initiated the process already
On the one hand, there is the prospect of showing solidarity with female teachers who are willing to face the still often fatal consequences of training to be teachers and teaching girls. Education in Afghanistan was severely stifled by the Taliban reign from 1996-2001 when all females were barred from participation. Around half of the country's schools were destroyed under their extremist Islamic regime.
According to a United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) report in 1998, nine out of 10 Afghan girls and almost two out of three Afghan boys failed to be enrolled at school. 2 years later UNICEF reported that only 4 to 5% of Afghan children were being educated at the primary school level. Even a smaller percentage had access to secondary and university-level education.
Your thoughts are very welcome. And even if nobody reads or comments, I guess it's good to think thoughts aloud as part of the consideration process. If I do get chosen, then I hope to change the title of the blog to, 'A Paddy in Afghanistan';))
Comments
This model of training teachers rather than going into classrooms seems like a really good way of contributing to a community since you have far more influence than just the current class of children.
I'm sure you've read up about this organisation. http://www.vso.ie/ A friend was telling me about them. They send people to train teachers also, usually in Africa, but they do expect you to commit for 2 years apparently which is difficult for some people without at least a trial period. 3 months seems like a good length of time though. I know you won't be too fussy about the accomodation provided but with such a hastily arranged project the sort of things I'd be concerned about or want to know more about are: How much English the apprentice teachers will have? Will you have a chance to socialise and live among the locals? (It'd be isolating and defeat much of the purpose if you are lodged with fellow teachers and spend all your free time with them and not have the opportunity to integrate a bit into the community) Is there a set curriculum or do you design your own? If it's an established project they should be able to asess your suitability and level of experience themselves. I'd be concerned though if the project is starting so soon and you haven't even done an interview yet that it might not be well organised and that you'd be just sent into a classroom not really knowing what to do. It does need some structure and planning to be useful to those participating so I'd check that that side of things out. Many of these sort of short projects require you to pay a fortune to take part. I understand paying your airfare if need be but you'd expect food and accomodation to be provided for you so you're not in financial difficulty after the summer.
Of course there's the obvious question of security...I don't have a clue what life is like in Kabul at the moment even though I should. I know you wouldn't want your mother and Dorota to spend the whole three months worrying about you...
I think it's a great idea but it's easy for me to say that when it's someone else that's going. It's an extremely valuable thing to do from an educational standpoint but also from a social and cultural viewpoint, for you as much as for the people you'd be teaching.
They tell their friends and family about you and where you're from and you come back to tell the rest of us what it's really like to live in Afghanistan and plant some ideas for other people to get involved in similar projects.
I've got to find somewhere much, much colder to do some volunteering myself whenever I get my PhD finally done. Most project are obviously in hot countries but as a pasty white Offaly woman I wouldn't last a day in the Middle Eastern heat. If you ever have any ideas or come across any info let me know.
(Still glad you asked for comments? I never know when to shut up!)
Margaret C
PHO is Poland's leading humanitarian org. and not as you correctly pointed out one of the profiteering middle-orgs. that rip you off - the phrase 'poverty pimping' comes to mind.
I've anticipated that there may be a set programme which would be even too American-style democratic indoctrination orientated, formatted so have been reading up on methodologies, theoretical background necessary to provide a challenging, co-operative, critically engaging and non-ideologically based course.
As regards security they have not suffered any attacks to date and are the sort of org. that knows when to call it a day if the threats are too serious.
There certainly are a lot of questions to pose and your comments have been really helpful. Thanks again.