Since the start of the program we have supported some 50 School Uniform Tailoring projects. We provide groups of women (who have been identified as urban vulnerable poor) with tools and materials. We pay them $5USD/day for a 4-hour workday for 24 days and they produce approximately 40 girl’s uniforms and 80 boy’s shirts.

The girl’s uniforms include black pants, a long black tailored shirt and a white chador (scarf). The boy’s uniform is a blue shirt.

Once the project is complete the uniforms are distributed to poor students in local schools. Following are photos from two uniform distributions we did today.

.

Fatima Balkhi

This girl’s school serves students in District 2 and District 4 in Mazar-e Sharif. More than 3,500 students are enrolled and are educated in three shifts each day. Each shift (primary, secondary and high school) has its own principal.

L-R) Brishna Karomat, School Director calls students forward to receive their uniform from Fariba Majed, Women's Affair's Director; Me and Azita, our project Area Supervisor.

Girls wait to receive a new uniform.

(L-R) Fariba Majed, Women's Affair's Director chooses the right size uniform for me to hand to the students.

Such a sweet smile.

Precocious 1st year student - introduced herself in perfect English.

.

Nori Khoda Secondary School

This school serves students in District 8, one of the newer and poorer districts in Mazar. Some 4,700 students are enrolled here and are educated during three shifts.  There are so many students that classes are held outside under trees, in tents and in the corridors of the school.

The school serves both boys and girls though the students are segregated.

(L-R) School Director, Homna Safi calls out student names as Fariba Majeed, Women's Affairs Director, I and x, District Leader wait to hand out uniforms.

One of three classrooms that meets under the trees in the schoolyard.

A young boy practices reading from the blackboard set up in a tent.

Girls crowd into a small tent for their Literature class.

Daydreaming is daydreaming...

Old boards, doubling as an Art Blackboard, lean aginst the wall in a "corridor classroom."

A budding artist practices drawing apples...she's even drawn an apple core.

This blackboard doubles as a "virtual lab" for these Physics students.