Wednesday, 23.Aug.2017
Participants: Herat DoLSA team including its welfare Unit, Project officials/Help INGO, Governor Representative, Justice Department, Economy Department, Disabled Institutions, Handicapped International, Human Rights, Women Affairs Department, Education Department, Red Cross, UNMASS, ANAB Association members, Reporters and beneficiaries.
Current TVET project of Help is funded by the Ministry of Development and Economic Cooperation of Germany (BMZ). The title of the project is “Promotion of TVET and Employment Facilities in Herat and Bamyan Provinces” that is being implemented for 8 months from 01.May.2017 – 30.Dec.2017.
The number of direct beneficiaries in this project is 800. Among them, 600 in Herat and 200 in Bamyan will be trained in TVET.
Within this project in Herat province, in addition to TVET trainings, the beneficiaries will be trained about marketing skills in coming months. In this round, the trainings are held in Ansari VTC, Neswan Association Center in Jabraiel and ANAB Blind Association Center in Tank-e-Molawi. Ansari VTC is handed over to Help free-of-charge by Herat DoLSA and the rest of centers are related to the Associations which are the new partners of Help in this project. This represents the active participation of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in providing public services, and in particular for the poor part of the society.
Help in TVET centers trains the beneficiaries in 14 marketable vocations; for women advanced tailoring, cooking- food/dairy process, carpet weaving, handicrafts, beauty parlor, mobile repairing, and for men classes of modern carpentry or MDF industry, home appliances repairing, mobile repairing, industrial electricity, bag making and general repairing. And also for women and men has mixed-classes of accounting, tourism and hotel management, and computer training for the disabled.
The training materials and curricula of Help TVET classes are designed based on National Skills Development Program (NSDP) and Herat DoLSA. Even in some cases, the training materials are updated by Help Employment Services Unit in cooperation with Herat DoLSA according to market demand. These materials are prepared in three different levels: Basic, Medium and Advanced to make all beneficiaries able to understand the lessons properly. In addition, during the theoretical trainings, the beneficiaries do internship based on their vocation outside the class to practice and learn more with coordination of Help TVET Unit. Small business, marketing and how to establish Cooperatives are complementary subjects being taught by professional and experienced instructors to the beneficiaries.
Beneficiaries are selected from among returnees, IDPs, vulnerable families and the youths and interested individuals after a survey. Within this process, we should take our government partner (DoLSA), associations, organizations, Herat Women Shura and elders’ contributions into account in introducing new beneficiaries. The beneficiaries can attend the program after taking the entrance exam.
Therefore, given its past experience of working with the disabled in Herat province and to have a particular percentage of disabled participation – between 3-5% in the program -, Help started a special computer class for disabled in particular to the blind. In order to spread this valuable step and report a good news to the people of Herat, particularly to the disabled people to inspire them with such promising activities, Help, in coordination and cooperation with Herat DoLSA, held an opening ceremony for this class in National Assembly of Disabled Institutions of Herat.
The ceremony started with reciting of Holy Quran and after the national anthem, Mr. Taheri the Country Director of Help INGO in Afghanistan spoke about the activities, TVET project and particularly about special computer class for the disabled. Then, Mr. Afghan, Head of Herat DoLSA, talked about the importance of TVET, its impact on the economy of the society and especially bringing comfort for the disabled individuals and their activities. He also spoke about a new regulations enacted by the Ministry which covers all disabled individuals including non-war disabled.
Mr. Sharifi, Head of ANAB Blind National Association and the Head of Blind National Assembly of Herat, had some points to the audience. At the end, the class was inaugurated by cutting ribbon. It is worth mentioning that to hold this ceremony Herat DoLSA also had its great contribution in inviting national press and Herat governor office which shows the government contribution in implementing the project.
Source: Help Media & Culture Department