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Afghan villagers stand guard to protect schools
Communities have formed neighborhood watch programs to keep education running in Afghanistan – especially for girls.
from the March 20, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 4
They stayed for as long as four or five hours, after which Mohammad was able to sneak away for help. The town quickly converged on the school to put out the flames. But the damage was enormous. Photos taken in the aftermath show windows broken, walls seared by the flames, and what were once books scattered across the floor in ankle-deep piles of indistinguishable ash.
This is what Narzia Wafa remembers of her school on that day. "Everything was black with cinders," says the 12-year-old student, a math problem of intersecting angles on the blackboard behind her. "But still I came, and I was not scared."
"If we stopped coming, the enemy would just be encouraged," she adds.
When the local elders in Medrawer met to discuss the future of the girls' school, they knew that one underpaid government security guard wasn't enough. Nor could the government of Laghman Province provide police support: The entire province has only 250 police officers and 199 schools.
The solution was clear. "This was our responsibility," says Sayed Omer, another elder. "Who should protect our school if the government is not able?"
So the elders worked out a plan. Each village would be responsible for guarding the school for 10 nights, with shifts starting after evening prayers at 9 p.m. and ending before sunrise at 4 a.m. At the end of 10 days, another village would take over.
According to the rotating schedule, the men of Damanewal's village have worked the 10-day shift four different times since last February. During the night, the dozen men work in shifts, with six resting inside while the others split up into two groups of three, walking around the school wall simultaneously in opposite directions.
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