Teaching Rainbows and Radiow Waves Teacher Training Workshops

Afghan Friends Network, Barry Scientific, Ghazni Governor's Office and Ghazni Ministry of Education jointly supported a one week teacher training worskshop in Ghazni City. Four Bay Area teachers traveled to Ghazni City from April 14-April 21 to conduct science and math training, purchase supplies for schools and do further research for future workshops.

These teachers include:

Camilla Barry & David Barry - Barry Scientific

Marianne O'Grady- San Francisco Friends School

Elsie De Laere- Albany Unified School District

The teachers conducted 4 days of extensive training with a science fair concluding the week. There were 120 teachers with around 40 female attendees.

The lessons were designed to illustrate basic science teaching methods in a number of disciplines such as: geometry, physics, astronomy, math, and chemistry .

The teachers were split into 2 group. Group 1) The middle school teachers and teachers-in training (from the new Ghazni teacher-training institute) were in one group. Group 2) The high school teachers were in another group.

The teachers greatly enjoyed and benefitted from the hands-on training and have requested that the US teachers return.

The teachers also purchased science and classroom supplies with funds raised by Afghan Friends Network. The supply purchase and distribution was a coopertive effort between the teachers, the Governor's office and the local Provincial Recontruction Team. The teachers attending the workshops were solicited for input on which schools should get the supplies. Jahan Malika School for girls where the training was being held received extra supplies along with the Teacher Training Institute (TTI) of Ghazni.

Each school chosen got a trunk full of 45 pieces of supplies. Below is a short list of items to give you an idea of the kind of the supplies purchased, for a complete list click here (LINK) :

1 thermos, 12 teaspoons, 10 pencil sharpeners, set of various size tapes, 1 white board, 10 rulers, 1 quart of olive oil, Velum paper, 1 large plastic bucket, 1 gas stove, 1 strainer, 4 nesting tubs, 3 eye droppers etc...

We are thrilled that this training was successful. We are always seeking dedicated and talented teachers who would be interested in working with us. If you are interested in participating in future training programs in Ghazni, please contact us at 1 800-831-2339.

TEACHER TRAINING IN GHAZNI, AFGHANISTAN (2004)

Marin-based science teacher Camilla Barry traveled to Ghazni, Afghanistan in August 2004. Ghazni is a city between Kabul and Kandahar which has received minimal assistance. Camilla uses hands-on experiments to demonstrate scientific concepts. Camilla led a seminar for over 120 science teachers on hands-on teaching techniques.

TEACHER'S REFERENCE LIBRARY

Afghan Friends Network, Ghazni Governor's Office and the US Provincial Rehabilitation Team (PRT) Join Forces

In January 2005, Gina Boden, a representatitive of AFghan Friends Network who is working in Ghazni completed the opening of a reference library for teachers with the help of the PRT who funded this project.

In Ghazni City, the lack of teacher/student libraries presents a great educational handicap. Therefore, a pilot project was initiated for reference libraries starting with the Teacher's Training School. Because of the temporary location of the school and lack of space therein, the teachers at the training school have decided to set up their library at the teachers room at Jahan Malika High School, where there is also going to be an on going English course for the teachers from the Teacher's Training School.

Gina Boden is also providing English language courses for teachers and government employees in Ghazni.

HAYWARD GHAZNI , AFGHANISTAN - SISTER CITY PROJECT

The governer of Ghazni, Afghanistan has asked us to help him establish a Sister City here, and we are organizing particularly to pair Ghazni with Hayward. There are many Afghan immigrants from Ghazni in the Bay Area including some from Ghazi Province. To help us make this a reality and to learn more about this project, visit our Sister City page.

 “GIVE A KICK!” - SOCCER BALL COLLECTION

Afghan Friends Network, Afghans4Tomorrow and SF Soccer Kids teamed up to collect over 100 soccer balls in the city of  San Francisco for the children of Afghanistan. There will be a total of 500 balls and school supplies sent to Afghanistanby the non-profit organization Afghans4Tomorrow which has a warehouse in Kabul that will distribute the balls to schools in Kabul and other provinces such as Ghazni.

It's about time that the Afghan children play with balls rather than mines.

For more information about this project contact Humaira Ghilzai at hghilzai@afghanfriends.net

 

HELPING AFGHAN MINISTRY OF URBAN DEVELOPMENT

Member of AFNI Board of Directors, Mr. Pietro Calogero spent five weeks in Kabul this summer to help Afghan Ministry of Urban Development in modern urban development of Kabul city.

He also organized a social/demographic survey of selected sites across Kabul. He will be traveling back to Afghanistan this fall and sepend one full year and work as a consultant to help the Ministry develop its long term planning and train his Afghan counterparts.

To learn more about Pietro's Trip to Kabul, read his trip summary and view his trip photos

TRAINING MISSION OF HON. RASHID JANBAAZ TO THE U. S.

At the invitation of Afghan Friends Network, Mr. Rashid Janbaz head of Kabul Municipality planning department visited the United States from January 2 to January 28, 2003.

During his visit, he was given orientation and training in modern urban planning by visiting publics works and community development activities of San Francisco, Reno and Irvine cities. Future training of personnel of Kabul Municipality planning department were also discussed.

Afghan Friends worked very closely with Society of Afghan Engineers and Afghan Planners Support Committee to make Mr. Janbaz visit a success.

Following are some links to news articles depicting Mr. Janbaz's visit while in the United States:

Afghan EE toils to rebuild Kabul's infrastructure

Kabul planning department looks at Reno city services

CAPACITY BUILDING OF AFGHAN PLANNERS

In conjunction with Society of Afghan Engineers (SAE), Afghan Friends Network will city planners to Kabul to train their Afghan counterparts in modern city planning and architecture this summer. This will be part of the on going Afghan Assistance Coordination Authority's (ACCA) efforts to build capacity in various ministries of Afghan Transition Government and Kabul Municipality

Afghan Friends Network has also undertaken a major task of developing a curriculum in Urban Planning.

Each Main Topic will begin by a Lesson Plan, in which the Lesson Title, Duration of Training, Class Schedule, Activities, Sub Topics, and supporting documents in Microsoft Word (.doc), Power point (.ppt), Acrobat Adobe Reader (.pdf) and Real One Player (.ram) formats will be specified. To view the class materials, you may download a viewer or the software itself by clicking on their respective URLs above. Each Sub Topic will be linked to a Powerpoint presentation.

Since developing of a curriculum of such a magnitude requires a significant amount of time, the priority will be given to those topics which are either requested by ACCA, SAE or determined by our visiting volunteers to be of priority. All those AFN members who would like to participate in contributing to this important task may send us e-mails to info@afghanfriends.net.

Viewing of Classroom Materials is pasword protected. To apply for a username and password, please send us your name and e-mail address to webmaster@afghanfriends.net.

Please visit this page often to check for newly posted topics as they are being developed. To view the urban planning course syllabus, please click here.

If you have any question or require further information about Urban Development curriculum, please either e-mail us at info@afghanfriends.net or call us at (510) 286-6072.

OTHER PROJECTS

Afghan Friends Network is following on the work of its predecessor organization, San Francisco Bay Area Friends of Afghanistan, in considering others of the many possible projects for helping with the rebuilding of Afghanistan. In so doing, we will seek to provide long-term development assistance, executed through exchanges and partnerships with the People of Afghanistan, consistent with our Mission Statement. Some of these include the gathering and shipment to Afghanistan of older computer equipment for use in schools, and promoting Sister Cities arrangements. We expect that the feedback from Pietro Calogero's upcoming training mission in Kabul will permit us to choose the most useful projects upon which to focus, consistent with our resources -- and one of those most important resources is the willingness of people such as yourself to provide financial support. You may donate directly via our website by clicking on http://www.afghanfriends.net/donation.html.