A model for development
Villagers in remote northern Afghanistan's Badakhshan province build schools and dig wells with small cash grants from the National Solidarity Program, cutting out the corruption from local officials and gaining independence from powerful warlords.
Above, a seventh-grade class in a new girls' high school in the village of Farghamanch. The mullah, the religious leader, in Farghamanch is very powerful and it took time to acquire his support for the school to be built.
The Aga Khan Foundation worked for years to earn people's trust in the isolated village, a place seen by few outsiders. Aga Khan helped the village council apply for a cash grant from the National Solidarity Program in order to build the school.
Farghamanch mullah Shamsullah, far right, 35, is also the village shura head. An extremely conservative leader, Shamsullah lived for ten years in Pakistan, where he attended madrassas and followed Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the hard-line founder of Hezb-i-Islami.
A farmer tills the soil to prepare it for wheat. The Aga Khan development workers found that more affluent people, like those in Jurm, are more likely to buck traditional power structures in areas where there is fertile land for crops.
Third-grader Aziz cuts down corn stalks to prepare his family's land for wheat planting in Baharak district, shortly after sunrise. Aziz typically works in the morning then attends school in the afternoon.
A female pupil looks out of the new school built in Farghamanch. Literacy in Afghanistan hovers around 28 percent, and is even lower for women.
Ameenah, a seventh-grader, said she wants to become a doctor.
Women walk out of a teacher training program in the village of Madrassa. Women in many communities in Badakhshan cover themselves with the traditional burqa when in public. Despite the province's conservative rural culture, more and more girls are attending school.
Nagmi, right, a wife and mother in Farghamanch village, looks through a practice notebook with 14-year-old Madida in Farghamanch. Nagmi has been participating in an afternoon literacy program at the new girls' high school.
Nagmi writes her name.
Shura members react after having successfully completed the group challenge activity in a leadership training class at the Aga Khan Foundation. The NGO has encouraged the village shuras to band together to accomplish certain tasks such as flood disaster relief and a large drinking water project.
Harsh terrain and lack of infrastructure meant that Badakhshan was cut off from the world during decades of war. Cell phones arrived in Baharak, Jurm and further districts just two years ago, allowing local leaders and the population to talk easily to one another.
Communal water taps are spaced every ten houses to ensure that everyone can get enough water in Dashtak village. Seven village councils banded together to facilitate drinking water for the residents, one of the National Solidarity Program's successful projects.
School-age girls pause from their early morning work. Many girls in Badakhshan have the opportunity to go to school, some even up to the 9th grade, unusual for rural Afghanistan.
Girls walk to a school located between two villages in remote Baharak district. The school has 300 students and 13 teachers, some of whom walk two hours each way to school every day. Ninth-grade girls occupy two of the school's classrooms.