UK and USAID provide $105 million for Afghanistan girls’ education

KABUL (TCA) — Officials from the British embassy and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on July 17 announced at an event in Kabul that they would provide $105 million to help educate underprivileged girls in Afghanistan, Afghan broadcaster TOLOnews reported.

The British ambassador to Afghanistan Sir Nicholas Kay said this is the second phase of the Girls Education Challenge program which aims to help girls get a secondary school education.

Kay said Britain has provided nearly $80 million and USAID $25 million for this phase of the program.

“The program for the second phase will be nearly $80 million and $25 million dollars from our partner USAID. USAID and the UK together funding the Girls Education Challenge,” said Kay.

According to British embassy and USAID officials in Kabul, around 70,000 girls will benefit from this project.

Jeffery P. Cohen, USAID deputy mission director for Afghanistan said the US has partnered with the British embassy to fund this program so more girls in Afghanistan gain access to high-quality education.

“USAID proudly joins DFID and British embassy … so that more girls can continue their progress in school and specifically reach that early phase of secondary education. We all know in the development community around the world that no single investment more than educating girls has an impact,” Cohen said.

Afghanistan’s acting education minister Mohammad Mirwais Balkhi said at the same event the money would help underprivileged girls get a good education.

Balkhi said they will use every opportunity to send more girls to schools.

“We are looking for different mechanisms and opportunities so that we can take the advantages of this and we can bring children, especially girls into schools and make them responsible, knowledgeable and skilled citizens of this country,” Balkhi said.

The British embassy and USAID hope to eventually help 300,000 girls through this program.

Sergey Kwan

TCA

Sergey Kwan has worked for The Times of Central Asia as a journalist, translator and editor since its foundation in March 1999. Prior to this, from 1996-1997, he worked as a translator at The Kyrgyzstan Chronicle, and from 1997-1999, as a translator at The Central Asian Post.
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Kwan studied at the Bishkek Polytechnic Institute from 1990-1994, before completing his training in print journalism in Denmark.

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