Potential Questions for WETE
We are focusing on Afghanistan first because this is where we have the most cultural knowledge as a management team. Several of our team members were born in Afghanistan and have an acute understanding of the cultural landscape, the educational philosophy, and the humanitarian need for better educational opportunities in this country. These team members have much to bring to the development strategy as we spread our reach and influence across the country
Although there are myriad locations in Afghanistan and across the world that are in critical need of better educational opportunities, Jalalabad is simply where we have the strongest established network. We have several assets and companions in this region that aid us in our development, so naturally, this is the best strategic place for us to initiate our operations.
Afghanistan is in great need of better access to primary education, but this is a humanitarian crisis of global proportions. We are initiating our operations in Afghanistan because this is the most strategic direction from our point-of-view, but we hope to one day use our influence and reach to help women in other parts of the world as well.
We will organize information sessions in the local neighborhoods close to the established educational facility. Here we can explain our mission, the materials that will be taught in our institution, and the potential benefits of studying at our facility. Our main focus is to admit individuals who have never had the chance to study because of personal or social reasons, or those who cannot continue their education because of financial obligations. The number of accepted attendees will then be based on our current resources and funding.
We plan to follow the curriculum found in the current literacy books that are available in Afghanistan. These books are published by the Afghanistan ministry of education and approved by the US Education Program in Afghanistan. These books are typically available in standard Afghan bookstores. The Danish Book Store in Jalalabad, Afghanistan has confirmed that these books are available for us. These books teach how to write, how to read, and how to do basic mathematics. Both Writing and Mathematics have six levels that we can offer based on the students’ past experience. After each level, there will be an exam to evaluate the progression of the students and to ensure that they are enhancing their academic skills. After each passed exam, the students will proceed to the next level until they finally finish the entire literacy program. Upon literacy completion, we will help the students gain access to the next level of education either in Afghanistan or elsewhere in the world.
We will target women between the age of 14-45 years old for our educational program.
Typically, girls under the age of 14 have fairly good opportunities to gain an education both in the larger cities and in the smaller villages. Issues pertaining to educational access become much more profound once the girls turn 14 years old and start playing a much larger role in the Afghan household. Thus, many women above this age completely lose their access to educational opportunities—especially in the smaller villages. Due to the living standard in Afghanistan, women older than 45 years old typically start noticing more profound health issues after this age. Although we acknowledge that this is a major humanitarian issue in Afghanistan as well, we do not believe that the enrollment of women older than this age into our program is the most strategic method to combat this issue.
The main differences between our organization and other similar organizations are our location focus and our student-based salary structure. All our educational facilities will be located in small rural villages where the community is very poor and has few educational opportunities. Most current organizations that are working on similar problems target larger cities and towns located in the developing world. Although this is a tremendously important job as well, we plan to focus exclusively on the poorest communities in the world where educational opportunities are close to none. In addition, once our students have been recruited into the program and enrolled into our classes, they will start receiving a standard monthly salary. This is done to help support our students financially while they are obtaining a primary education. This feature is different from most other organizations.
Currently, we are fundraising to collect $50,000. We estimate that this will be enough to fully operate our Jalalabad, Afghanistan location for 12 months. Once this funding is established, we can start paying our on-site staff in Jalalabad, we can complete our recruitment process for the 10 selected students, and we can open up our educational facility for academic operations.
Our long-term goal is to provide better educational access to women all across the developing world. We hope to reach poor communities on a global scale and incorporate low-cost educational facilities into their environment. But education is not just obtained from lectures in a classroom setting, so we plan to use our influence and resources to facilitate and host educational programs related to art, science, and athletics as well.
The best way to help out in this endeavor is to donate to our cause either via GoFundMe, PayPal, or mailed checks. Donation links and guidelines can be found below.
GoFundMe:
https://gofund.me/5233f0ce
PayPal:
https://paypal.me/wete2021
Mail Donations:
Women Empowerment Through Education
2612-156 Enfield Pl, Mississauga, ON, CA L5B4L8
The best way to get involved with our programs is to reach out via phone or email. Our contact information is provided below.
Phone: +1 647-540-2575
Email: relations@wete.edu
Our criteria and policy does not contradict with the Taliban agenda for women education. Our institutions are fully women operated and students are also following the Islamic culture. We are not violating any culture or religious norm to upset the current regime. Our policies refrain from adding politics and religion to our organization. Based on research of other Afghanistan-based organizations with similar missions, we observed that their operations were not interrupted by the Taliban or any other regime.
Our mission is to empower women through education. Whether this applies to Afghanistan or any other country, we will continue to support this cause. We will operate in areas of the world that need our help and thus shift our focus to other regions if we are not welcomed in Afghanistan.
We operate our organization under a different model than most current institutions. We focus our operations on smaller villages while other organizations focus on cities. Throughout the years, there has been very little focus on people in smaller villages because there is less established infrastructure in these regions. There are typically opportunities for women to attend school until grade 6 in these regions, but there are far fewer opportunities to attend school after this age. This is where we want to make a change.
We acknowledge that many women in Afghanistan are currently fighting for educational opportunities and empowerment and have been combating this strife for decades. We function as an additional entity that supports women empowerment in the workforce. We have a team of both local and global representatives who are working diligently to provide better educational opportunities for women, and we hope to make a lasting impact on the Afghan society just like many brave women before us. We are unique because we offer aid as a global entity, and we empower women across all regions of the developing world. Afghanistan is one of many sectors we hope to impact.