Projects
The UN Committee of New Canaan meets at New Canaan Library about 8 times a year, depending on the projects at hand. During 2008, the committee will continue to promote and support:
- Aid Afghanistan School Project
- Aid Afghanistan for Education and American University in Afghanistan
UN Committee Buys Computers for Afghan Girls
Through the generosity of six local donors, the UN Committee of New Canaan funded 75 new computers last November, to be used by students from three girls' schools in and around Kabul, Afghanistan. Hassina Sherjan, Afghan Director of AID AFGHANISTAN FOR EDUCATION (AAE), recently informed UN Committee members that the computers had been put into operation (see photo).
According to her e-mail message from Kabul, Ms.Sherjan reported that her students "...love having access to their own computers now. Previously, we had only five old computers which eventually stopped working. With the new computers, we can start our vocational training within the next few weeks. 95 students have decided to attend the training programs to learn office management, basic accounting, graphic design, and more." Ms.Sherjan, who talked with NCHS classes during her visit November 3, 2008, added that "...we would love to put our students in touch with some of the New Canaan High School students."
Aid Afghanistan School Project
Hassina Sherjan is an Afghan woman who left Afghanistan with her family in 1979, before the Soviet invasion. After receiving a degree from American University, she returned to Afghanistan in 1999 with hopes of setting up schools for girls who were not being educated under the Taliban regime. Unable to get Taliban cooperation, she opened five clandestine schools for girls that are still in operation. After the Taliban were defeated by the U.S. and Northern Alliance in 2002, Ms Sherjan set up a non-governmental organization called AID AFGHANISTAN to raise funds for schools to educate girls 12-16, who had been deprived of schooling while the Taliban ruled. She was able to set up three schools for approx. 1500 girls with the financial support of the government of Denmark. After careful research into the background and experience of Ms Sherjan, the United Nations Committee of New Canaan elected to fund a new school for 500 girls under her directorship for a two-year period.
In early October , 2004, Hassina visited New Canaan to make her case for the new school before community groups, schools, and churches. She made a positive, lasting impression on those who met and heard her presentations. During the next two years over $100,000. was donated by individuals and community groups from New Canaan and elsewhere. With those funds, AID AFGHANISTAN opened two new schools for girls in March 2005, with approximately 250 girls in each school, most of them beginning their first classroolm education. The two schools are located in Badakhshan, a relatively secure province in northeastern Afghanistan.
Click photo to enlarge
Aid Afghanistan for Education and American University in Afghanistan
A new project is being undertaken in conjunction with Aid Afghanistan for Education, namely, to raise the annual $5,000 per student cost of attending the newly established American University in Afghanistan for eight of AAE’s recent high school graduates. Pictures and brief bios of each follow below: