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