September 01, 2010

In Newham, Afghan Action have been working since January 2010 with three primary schools, Selwyn, Elmhurst and Sandringham, to raise awareness about Afghanistan. In July 2010, a school fair at Sandringham raised over £1500 for Afghan Action’s work and this enabled weavers in Kabul to make three beautiful carpets with the school logos in. The Sandringham fair also had an amazing debate between 10 and 11 year olds on Human Rights in Afghanistan. Work has continued in 2011 and in July 2011, an Afghan cafe at Elmhurst Primary took place and proved very popular – this followed a visit to the British Museum and meal at an Afghan restaurant for the children taking part.

Click here for Selwyn Primary School
Click here for Elmhurst Primary School
Click here for Sandringham Primary School

August 19, 2010

Sacred Heart High School has been actively involved with Afghan Action and heads up the British Council Connecting Classrooms programme in the Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. In July 2011, the Year 7s held an Afghanistan Week, with dance, storytelling, puppet making, kitemaking and flying, literature and much more – more information to follow shortly.

Afghan and British students’ internet chat

This video was filmed by BBC Persian at the Sacred Heart Girls School in London. Afghan Action are currently involved in linking up five schools in Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, with five schools in Hammersmith and Fulham. This project is part of the British Council’s 3 year “Connecting Classrooms” programme that hopes to link pupils in the UK with pupils in Afghanistan to help them to learn about each others culture.

The video shown here was one of the first test link ups that we’ve initiated so far and we think it was quite a success! With the help of a translator the girls at Sacred Heart were able to ask the Afghan Action trainees in Karte Se, Kabul questions about their favourite music, what they did in their free time and generally get a feel for life in Kabul. This is the beginning of a project that we at Afghan Action are all really excited about, check back on to the website in the future for more updates on how this projects going!

Translation of the BBC Persian broadcast (recorded 21 October 2010)
Narrator: Charming faces on two sides of the world, students who hear each others’ voices with heart and mind.
Afghan student: Afghanistan is a nice country with nice weather. The people of Afghanistan are very hospitable and you can come and visit our country at any time.

Narrator: These are the very first Afghan and British students that are connected to each other through this small “window”.

British student: Hi, I am Nicole, what is your hope for your future?

Afghan student: I want to study English and to become an English teacher to help my people through teaching them English.

Narrator: This 3 year programme aims to connect thousands of Afghan and British students. This project is being implemented by Afghan Action and a fund of £30,000 paid by the British Council helps this [the “Connecting Classrooms” programme].

Chris Beales: I think the leadership of tomorrow’s world will be in hands of the young generation. They like to know about other countries and this best described by Afghan and British students talking together. If Afghan and British students start speaking, become friends and exchange ideas, I think the future looks good.

British student: I want to know, what is life like in Afghanistan, since in our media we don’t hear anything else but war. That is why I want to know about the life there and especially what it’s like for women?

Afghan student: Now it is good, we can go out, thank God the security is a bit better in our Afghanistan, we can go out and work

Narrator: But this is not the end of these students’ chatting together, there is a next step following soon.

Chris Beales: What we really want to move towards is to implement a new IT system which is being used by Sacred Heart Girls’ High School. We hope to develop this system in Afghanistan as well. The name of this system is “virtualisation”, in fact, you don’t just have your software and folders and files on one computer, you put them in a place where they can be accessed “virtually”.

Narrator: Both sides have heard the name of each others’ country, maybe several times a day, but how much they do know about each other?

Reporter: Nicole, before having this internet chat with Afghan students, what was your perception about them and Afghanistan as a whole?

British student: In the media we always see a negative image of Afghanistan, images of war, but I think we are the same, may be our cultures differ from each other, but we are the same.

Reporter: Fatima Habibi - One of the students, her name is Nicole, now has a different image of Afghanistan. What about you, after this internet communication, what are your thoughts about British students?

Afghan student: Before this, I had no information about Britain. I was wondering what they’d be like. But now, after seeing their students, I found out they are also like us. I wish to learn English so I can speak with them directly in their own language.

British students: Khuda Hafiz Afghanistan (Goodbye Afghanistan)

Narrator: Goodbye is not the end of this programme, but the beginning of a new chapter with this generation and this window will remain open.

Tahir Qadiri, BBC
October 2010

August 10, 2010

Here you can see an animation created by Mr McGrath’s Y8 Art students from Lady Lumley’s.

Click here for Lady Lumley’s School

Watch the student's animation!

July 26, 2010

About our school

Walkington Primary School is located in Walkington village – a short distance away from the market town of Beverley. There are approximately 250 pupils in our school and most of the pupils are from a white, British ethnic background. The majority of our pupils live in the village itself although some children do come to Walkington from the surrounding area.

Why we joined

We were excited to join the Afghan Action project as it provided a unique experience for the children to access the global community around them. It was also a chance for us to explore the ‘real’ Afghanistan rather than the image portrayed from the current war and media coverage. We felt that many of our pupils already knew a little about Afghanistan but their knowledge really didn’t go beyond the images of soldiers and war. So having the opportunity to have an afghan visitor come to school to talk about afghan culture and traditions was a great way to balance the children’s perceived thoughts about the country.

The impact on the pupils

We decided to start the project in the middle age range of the school with our 3 mixed Year 3/ 4 classes. The children thoroughly enjoyed our Afghan project work and their opinions changed dramatically throughout the course of our studies. We began the project by writing our thoughts about children in Afghanistan and what they might see on their walk to school. Many pupils wrote about bombs, soldiers and broken houses. In fact many pupils were surprised that children actually had a normal daily routine and even went to school. Then, after studying the country and culture in greater depth, and after meeting a positive representative, Zia (from Afghanistan), the children changed their opinions completely. They painted beautiful watercolours of the afghan landscape and quoted ‘I’d love to go there one day!’ These paintings were then displayed at Bainton Art Gallery and were sold to raise £90 for Afghan Action. The pupil’s money went towards buying a goat which they were thrilled about! They enjoyed dressing up in traditional costume and loved the carpet designing and weaving. Zia even taught the pupils how to write their name in Farsi which some pupils continued to do on their own work throughout the week! We then revisited the children’s thoughts about Afghanistan and what they thought afghan school pupils would see on the way to school. This time more positive ideas flowed, such as trees, birds, goats, traditional clothes and chatting in Farsi with friends. We feel that our Year 3/ 4 pupils now have a much more balanced opinion of Afghanistan and a positive attitude towards the country and people from there. We look forward to continuing the project and learning more with other year groups in our school.

Click here for Walkington School

Afghan Landscapes Power point presentation

Millennium Development word doc

March 20, 2010

When we started this project we knew there was a war in Afghanistan and that soldiers were fighting there.  This mind map shows you what we discovered about the country.

Click the links below to download our Power Point Presentations.
All About Afghanistan
Afghanistan Topic
Afghanistan Slide Show 2