Mullah Kareem Nazar School formally opened in the 2005-06 academic session. Currently, it goes all the way from 1st to 12th grade and is a government designated High School. In the current academic year, 2023-24, there are a total of 900 students, of which 306 are girls. Girls are only allowed to attend up to 6th grade. However, their numbers have gone up and there is a real desire for school among the population at large.

In order to meet the requirements of segregating the girls and boys, school is run in two shifts where the Morning Session is for girls and the Afternoon Session is for boys.

Habibullah Karimi, our Board Member and founder, is one of the major current supporters of this school which is named after his father, to honor his memory. Habibullah is from Andhkoy, Faryab and his ability to both fund and evaluate the educational programs on the ground is commendable.

Besh Kapa Surkh School formally opened in the 2007-08 academic session. Currently, it goes from 1st to 7th grade and enrolled 409 students as of the 2023 school year. Of these, only 75 are girls and go up to 5th grade. Historically, fewer female students have attended at Besh Kapa and it continues to be a challenge, further compounded by the Taliban’s decrees.

Though this school in Aqcha, Jowzjan province is only two hours distant from Mullah Kareem Nazar in Andkhoy, Faryab province, it follows a different schedule. The school closes for winter vacations from about 22nd December up till the day after Nowruz, the Persian New Year, which is normally towards the end of March. The academic year goes from March-end to December-end.

Mohammadullah Ersari, our newest Board Member, who comes from Aqcha, Jowzjan has taken on a major supporting role in the upkeep, evaluation and funding of this school. It is hoped that he will be joined by other, like-minded supporters.

• Barakat Afghanistan ran monthly heath check-ups for women and children in both schools for many years, starting in 2007.

• Taqaza-e-Dukhtaran (Request of the Girls), Scholarship Program for Girls’ Continuing Education was initated in 2008 and ran for many years allowing older girls to continue their schooling.

• Teacher Training for Human Rights was also conducted for Barakat school teachers starting in 2008 and funded over a number of years by UUSC. The program was done in collaboration with the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.

• No-Smoking Campaign directed towards women was also realized as a much-needed initiative. It was conducted in both schools and in the Female Literacy Courses.

Barakat educated thousands of women and girls, who would have had no access to formal schooling, by using the Literacy Course model that was proposed by the then government as a means of reaching out to females in small towns and villages. These courses were held in the houses of host families and began in the 2003-04 academic year. They continued till the end of 2019.

• Lower level courses called Sowat Amausi which covered the school syllabus from 1st to 3rd grade. The word 'sowat' literally means 'someone who is literate,' while 'amausi' comes from the verb 'to teach.' In other words Sowat Amausi means 'to teach one to become literate.'

• Higher level courses called Sowat Hayati or Vital Literacy which covered the school syllabus from 4th to 9th grade. The word 'hayat' means 'life' and 'sowat' means 'to be literate.' So, 'Sowat Hayati' means 'literate for life.’