Our Seventh Mission

Kabul (Afghanistan) - Post-War Education Needs of Minority Communities

Khalsa Aid has ventured on their humanitarian aid mission once again, but this time the destination of their mission was a region of the world where very few brave people would dare to venture. Their mission was to Kabul in Afghanistan. Two Khalsa Aid volunteers ventured onto this mission.

The Khalsa Aid mission to Afghanistan was planned well in advance over a year ago, but due to circumstances of regional instability they were always hindered in completing their mission in the past. The danger in Afghanistan is still very real as many westerners are still targets of the Al-Quieda in Kabul and the whole country is still widespread with warlords and tribal fighting.

Khalsa Aid's prime mission into Afghanistan was to assess the situation of the minority communities that still resident within Kabul and identify what their immediate needs that Khalsa Aid was able to assist in the short term that would make the maximum impact over the long term future of these minority communities. These minority communities were namely the religious minority communities. For Khalsa Aid, their mission did not extend outside of Kabul due to limited resources and time.

Providing Assistance
The assistance that Khalsa Aid provide to the Kabul Sikh and Hindu communities was as follows:

  • Purchase of educational facilities which included stationary and schooling material for a complete year of operation. This also included school bags and material for 150 children. The cost of this was a total of US$500.
  • Purchase of three Pentium III computers, HP Printer and Networking - one of these computers was also fitted with internet connectivity. The total cost of this was US$1,500.
  • Khalsa Aid also provided reading books for all the years, which amounted to a total cost of US$250.
  • Although the four teachers what were available at the school were funded by the Afghan government, the headmaster of the school was financed by donations by the Gurdwara, which amounted to US$100 per month - Khalsa Aid provided an addition top-up to this existing payment by another US$80 per month for a complete year, which amounted to a total of US$960 for the year.
  • Khalsa Aid also provided funds to the school to employee another two more teachers for a year. Each teacher receiving a salary of US$120 per month. For two teachers the cost amounted to a total of US$2,880.
  • Khalsa Aid also provided funds to the Kabul Sikh Gurdwara committee towards the building fund, which totalled US$1,300.
  • Khalsa Aid also provided funds to the Kabul Hindu Maunder committee towards the building fund, which totalled US$1,300.

Recognise all of the human race as one.

- Guru Gobind Singh Ji