Students at ARO’s two-year-old education center in Kabul have created their own student association (similar to a student council group in the U.S.), with elected officers, and are taking an active role in developing new extracurricular activities. Since opening its doors, the Technical Education Center (TEC) now sees approximately 400 students from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m., utilizing staggered scheduling to accommodate the eager students.

    In addition to participating in soccer and karate, TEC students are conducting their own fundraising program with events that celebrate Afghan music and the arts. While charging the equivalent of 50 cents (US), students are demonstrating there is an ability to generate support and self-sufficiency in their own community.

    “It does not matter if it is a large or small amount. I want to give them a chance to show how intelligent they are,” says ARO chairman Abulfazil Khalili.

    “I want them to work hard and show what they can do, to stay away from poppies (drugs), and to be busy in good things,” continues Khalili, famous for getting his message across with humor, “I tell them to take a pen a day, to keep the gun away!”

    On a more serious side, Khalili also notes the students are showing their parents that they can create fundraising efforts in Kabul to help their country, and everyone shares a sense of pride seeing students excelling at both academics and sports.

    All of us at ARO feel like proud parents, as we congratulate our exceptional students and their dedicated coaches!

Go Blue!

ARO’s karate coach, Alina, shown smiling with ARO Chairman Khalili at the Kabul airport, after she captured a bronze medal at a recent competition among 21 Asian countries in early 2005. Seventy-five women from each country competed in fourteen different sports. Alina’s bronze medal victory was over a female athlete that outweighed her by “about 30 kilos”! ARO students are learning that karate is a sport of competitive self-defense and continual athletic training.