School Overview & History On February 14, 2002 the Center for International Disaster Information (CIDI, Arlington, Virginia) put us on top of their list as one of the most reliable humanitarian organizations. The Center's Director, Suzanne H. Brooks said, "Clearly this program has been a success, and these children serve as outstanding examples for other children across the United States who want to help the Afghan children." She further stated, "For 15 years I have been answering inquiries from schools regarding how they can best respond to international emergencies. There have been canned good drives, used clothing or toy collections and other activities which, while they are well intended, are often problematic for the relief agencies in terms of transportation, warehousing and distribution and inappropriate or potentially harmful for disaster victims in terms of cultural, religious and dietary needs." Kids4AfghanKids projects that have been accomplished include the building of an elementary school, health clinic, dorm for orphans, guest house, well house, kitchen, and depot (for supplies). We still need to construct another elementary school so that more girls can attend school. Due to village traditions girls and boys attend school separately. It is also village tradition that girls would walk to school with a brother or relative. Presently we have girls and boys attending school at separate times, and we provide transportation to school for the girls. If we had two elementary schools operating at the same time, one for girls and one for boys, we could have brothers and sisters walking to school at the same time and therefore more girls could attend. This would also free up space in the boys school for more boys to attend. We have over 460 boys and girls on our waiting list! We have also been approved by the Afghan government as a middle school. Four new rooms need to be added for 7th & 9th grade and a library. A high school will also need to be constructed in the near future. We see the high school as being H-shaped with one hallway for girls and one for boys with shared faculty/administration rooms. Of course, when the high school is built we will also need to build another series of outhouses (no indoor plumbing).