Fariza Behzad is one of UNESCO’s Basic General Literacy Course learners from Bamyan province.
She lost her father when she was only three years old, staying behind with her mother and siblings. Since then, Fariza has led a turbulent life which has continuously deprived her from accessing education. She got married at the age of 16, went through a civil war, economic hardship and forced internal displacement between different provinces. Due to the prolonged conflict in the country, Fariza`s mother, a widow trying to survive and support her family in difficult circumstances, was not able to buy her books or enroll her in school. Fariza mentioned that `when I see a female doctor, engineer, or a teacher, my heart breaks. Not because of jealousy, but because I am illiterate and really feel hopeless.’
Fariza mentions that not being able to read affects her daily life in the smallest details, such as `not being able to read doctor’s name tags on the street and recharge my phone with credit cards. I know how difficult it is to be illiterate, and I value literacy as a must for everyone, girls, boys, men and women.’
Her biggest dream is for her children to be educated and to have `a better and brighter future than I have had.` She enrolled her 6 children in school but she claims that she `mostly feels hopeless and helpless when it comes to supporting my children in completing their school assignments. I cannot tell the difference between the different subjects and books of math, Dari and Pastho. I suffer a lot when I receive teacher`s notes in the children's school diary. Both my husband and I are illiterate, and we are not able to communicate with our children's teachers.`
Fariza recalls a few moments when she accidentally threw away her children`s school papers not being aware of their importance. She mentions that one time `I threw away my children`s pre-exam questionnaires and when they returned from school and realized what happened they started crying. It was a bitter moment for me.”
Fariza believes that it is never too late to learn, and when she heard about `UNESCO`s literacy courses learners’ registration through our village Shura’s lead, I enrolled myself. Now it has been 2 weeks since I joined the literacy class. I learned writing numbers from 1-10, the alphabet and I can easily write my name`. She hopes that she will be able to use her newly acquired literacy skills in her small home-based handicraft business since it `helps me to write the size of a product by using numbers, and I can write down the name of my clients.`
UNESCO`s Basic General Literacy interventions are funded by the Government of Japan, The Government of Sweden through SIDA and the Special Trust Fund for Afghanistan (STFA).