STORY: Afghan youth volunteers promote education among poor children
DATELINE: July 8, 2023
LENGTH: 00:02:42
LOCATION: Kabul
CATEGORY: EDUCATION

SHOTLIST:
1. various of students studying at the Today Child Mobile School
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (Pashto): WAZIR KHAN, Volunteer teacher
3. SOUNDBITE 2 (Pashto): SAFA, Student

STORYLINE:

Over 1,000 students have benefited from a volunteer-run educational center that teaches basic literacy skills to village children from poor families on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan's capital.

The center, called "Today Child Mobile School," was founded by 23-year-old Wazir Khan a year ago in Khak, a destitute village near Kabul. He offers free education to the children of needy families.

Each class is composed of 100 to 200 children, mostly from extremely unprivileged families.

SOUNDBITE 1 (Pashto): WAZIR KHAN, Volunteer teacher
"Today Child Mobile School is virtually a mobile school and has been providing education to children over the past year.
The children didn't have access to formal school and remained illiterate. And that was why I established the school.
I teach them in the afternoon from 3:00 to 5:00. We teach them voluntarily and free of charge.
The children of many elders in this area don't go to school. We have visited their houses, knocked on their doors and discussed with them the importance of education in several meetings, and finally convinced them to send their boys and girls to our school."

Safa, a 12-year-old girl, said that she had learned much and can now read and write after attending the mobile school.

SOUNDBITE 2 (Pashto): SAFA, Student
"I have been attending the school here over the past year and learning a few subjects, including Pashto and English, and it is my dream to become a teacher in the future."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Kabul.
(XHTV)