LFT Kabul – Nargis, Yasamin, and Ahmad Basir’s Stories
Nargis, Yasamin, and Ahmad Basir’s Stories – Orphaned Children Whose School Education is Supported by the LFT
Nargis, Yasamin, and Ahmad Basir are three orphaned children continuing their education in a private school in the west of Kabul with the support of LFT. Since early 2022, they have been attending a winter learning center and subsequent regular school classes under LFT’s education programme. Certainly, if it weren’t for this programme, most likely they would have been deprived of education due to intense economic problem. Nargis and Ahmad Basir are siblings whose father, Mohammad Hussain, was martyred in a suicide attack that targeted a mob of protesters in Dehmazang – Kabul seven years ago but Yasamin is their cousin who is also an orphaned girl who has grown up at the hand of her uncle’s wife.
Forty days after that horrific accident, Zia Gul – M. Hussain’s wife – left Nargis and Basir and even another 2-month-old baby. The siblings’ mother left them motherless when they were just little infants. After that, Nooria – M. Hussain’s brother’s wife – took the guardianship of Nargis and Basir since they were left alone as orphans. Nooria, herself is also a widowed woman whose husband went missing on migration route to a neighboring country in search of work and has since remained unaccounted for.
Despite being a widow, Nooria has raised Nargis and Basir along with her own children but has been struggling to support the household in the midst of unimaginable hardships of finding food and covering family expenses but she has never given up. Currently, she is taking care of eight children, including Basir and Nargis who were left homeless after their father’s death. Her oldest son is 14.
Under Nooria’s guardianship, these three children went to school and are currently studying in different primary and secondary grades. Basir, Nargis, and Yasamin have finished several grades with the support of Nooria who earned money from embroidery to pay for her children’s school costs. Fortunately, these children joined the LFT-initiated winter learning center in early 2022 and are enrolled in regular schooling at Awrang Private School in Dasht-e-Barchi Kabul ever since.
Presently, Yasamin is studying in second grade, and Nargis and Basir are in fourth grade respectively. “When they saw other children going to school, they kept asking me why we can’t go to school. I didn’t have an answer except saying that the school requires money and fees to accept students, and it is very difficult for an uneducated woman to provide for a household’s basic needs, let alone pay for the education of one or more students,” said Nooria.
According to Nooria, since joining the program and attending school, they are very happy and go to school with special interest and continue their lessons with deep love. She also said that their learning has considerably improved as has their mental and emotional well-being and interaction skill.
“Nargis, Basir, and Yasamin have made progress in school lessons, especially in mathematics, drawing, and language skills and learned good life skills by benefitting from the afterschool program provided by the mental health trainers. Thanks to its support now our family environment has utterly improved as my children’s attitude and relationships have been getting healthier over time while they were behaving at home aggressively before the program” Nooria continued.
“Very recently, Basir, Nargis, and Yasamin received learning kits and stationery from the DM for the beginning of the new educational year and came home very happy. It was an exceptional pleasure for me. I don’t know how to thank the LFT for supporting us and the feeling to see my children prospering and getting the chance to sit back in school classes is just amazing,” she concluded.