Background information:
After the full takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban, girls were banned from getting any kind of education. They were no longer allowed to go to school, courses or any other academic institution in order to continue their education. The situation still remains the same in Afghanistan. However, there are Afghan student leaders outside of the country who are trying and working on alternative options to provide academic opportunities for the Afghan youth, especially Afghan women and girls in a way which is safe and is not putting anyone in Afghanistan in danger. More than half of the population of Afghanistan are women. That is 19.4 million people who have lost their basic human rights. The rate of literacy in Afghanistan is currently 37.27% and with the education rights of women taken away from them this rate will surely lower down in the next couple of years.
English and Mindfulness project started after this announcement for a very small groups of students who were relatives and friends of students who managed to get out of the country and continue their education at AUCA and some online in Afghanistan at AUAF.
After a couple of classes, this project kept getting expanded as the students who were taking this online classes shared a word with their friends, and then those friends with other people.
Structure:
Every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday of the week (3 days a week) at around 8:00 am mentors will send a task to their group. Mentors should do research and find essay questions that help with mental health in addition to helping with English Language. (Essay questions that help mentees express their feelings, be mindful and improve their mental health). After the task is ready, mentors will send tasks to their particular WA groups (we will give the numbers of mentees you will be working with). Mentors will give deadlines to the tasks and send reminders throughout the day. Once all tasks are completed and sent back in the group by mentees, the mentors will review them, write comments and feedback and send the tasks to each individual in DMs. Mentees will send all the tasks in the group chat to their mentor and the mentor will send his/her feedback to each person so it is confidential.
- All mentors can use one task or come up with their own creative questions for their groups.
An example of one of these tasks:
– Write a 400 word piece of free writing on: What do you think about when you’re trying to go to sleep?
– Think about everything you think about and list them in order of numbers, start with “when I go to sleep I mostly think about 1, 2, 3, 4, … list as many thoughts as you can.
– Then, pick the thought that you think about the most and write about it while answering to these questions:
– Why do you think you think about that topic/thing?
– Is it important to you?
– Does thinking about it help you? Does thinking about it make you sad or angry or happy and calm?
– Are your thoughts mostly positive or negative?
Send me your tasks in a word document by 2:00 pm Kabul time.
Let me know if you have any questions.
3- Once they receive the task, the students start working on them until afternoon.
4- They send back their tasks in the WA group for feedback and comments
5- The submitted tasks are then divided among Afghan Student leaders to read, check the grammar, spelling and write comments.
Project Leader: Zarlasht Sarmast
Email: zarsarmast@gmail.com