Ali Ahmad Mashalafrooz, Coordinator, Kapisa
Ashoorkahil school for boys is located in downtown Mahmood Raqi, the provincial capital of Kapisa province. The school had no playground for its more than six hundred students. To make a flat surface playground, there was a need for using heavy machinery as the school is situated on a hillside. Therefore, Haji Malik Saeed, an Integrity Volunteer and community residents raised the issue with the Provincial Governor. Before this, School Management Shura (SMS) had met several times to find a solution for the problem. In the meeting with the Governor, Mr. Saeed explained the need for a playground which was partly built by the local residents already.
With the help of Department of Public Works, the school now has a playground. Thanks to collaboration between integrity volunteers, community representatives, and officials, the students can play in the newly built playground in their school. The next target is to prepare the ground for proper football matches.
However, this is not the end of the problems for Ashoorkhail School for boys which was established in 1951. The current land was allotted to the school after more than half a century but did not have a permanent building until recently. The problems of no building and no playground have been resolved but it still does not have a boundary wall.
Integrity Volunteers are working in their communities to resolve such issues faced by the schools. Currently, Integrity Volunteers monitor twenty schools across Kapisa province under Integrity Watch’s Community-based Monitoring of Schools’ program.
The program is being implemented in nine provinces including Kapisa covering more than 160 schools across Afghanistan. Integrity Watch enables local community to engage in problem-solving of their schools through community monitoring, collaborative information sharing and problem-solving.
