The KOR-Hoopoe mission is to give Hoopoe Books to as many Afghan
school-age children, libraries and community-based literacy classes as we
can; as well as audio versions of the stories, step-by-step Teacher Lesson
Plans and Teacher Training. We also have six downloadable radio programs
of the stories for local Afghan radio.
Hoopoe books not only entertain children and young adults, but also help
them to understand themselves and their world and to develop higher-level
thinking skills. Our books include beautifully illustrated retellings of
universal teaching-stories collected from Afghanistan, and the surrounding
region.
For more than four decades, Afghanistan has been decimated by a
continuous state of war, which began with the 1979 Soviet invasion and
persists today with the Taliban insurgency.
An estimated 3.7 million children are out-of-school in Afghanistan – 60% of them are girls. UNICEF.org
Being able to read and write is the most basic foundation for knowledge
accumulation, further skill development and the ability to survive in the
modern world. The future for an Afghan child who can’t read is grim: crushing
poverty, vulnerability to child marriage, violence, extremist beliefs and low life
expectancy.
Our Solution
A vital first step is having access to books. In spite of increased security
issues, our friends continue to give Hoopoe Books and ancillary materials to
children and their families in all 34 provinces of Afghanistan.
With your help they will continue.
Please donate
We are making a difference!
Thanks to the many people who have kindly supported us, we have donated Over 5.3 Million Books to Children in Afghanistan. since Our Partnership Started in 2009!
“The biggest enemy of Afghanistan is illiteracy!”
Mohammad Khan Kharoti, Green Village Schools.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 2015–2030 recognize that access to education is a human right and vital for the sustainability of all development and peace. They call upon us all to do what we can to ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning. This includes a relevant curriculum that can be taught and learned in a local language and builds upon the knowledge and experience of the teachers and learners; and a clear definition and accurate assessment of learning outcomes, including knowledge, skills, attitudes and values.
WITH YOUR SUPPORT HOOPOE BOOKS HAS TAKEN UP THIS CHALLENGE
Afghanistan is a multiethnic society where over 40 minority languages are spoken and about 200 different dialects. This presents a major challenge to the Afghan Ministry of Education, and particularly regarding the education of women and girls who are often confined to home.
We take it as axiomatic…that the best medium for teaching is the mother tongue of the pupil (UNESCO, 1953, p. 6).
Studies show that children who learn to read in the language they speak at home develop literacy skills more easily and are able to transfer these essential skills and a love of reading to other languages. Anyone who remembers how difficult it was to learn to read will empathize with children and adults who have to do so in a language that is not the most familiar to them, not the one they have heard since birth.
Hoopoe traditional Afghan Teaching-Stories are available, by special request, in the following minority Afghan languages, paired with the National language, spoken in the region:
Nuristani-Pashto, Pashai-Pashto and in Munji-Dari, Hazaragi-Dari and Uzbeki-Dari, Turkmeni-Dari, Shughni-Pashto and Sawji-Pashto.
These bilingual editions enable children to begin reading in their own language and, using the same storybook, transfer their reading skills to the main language – Dari or Pashto – that they will need to further their education.
Our new downloadable Teacher Guides provide a Hoopoe Literacy Curriculum for Afghan Primary Schools, Grades 1–6. Teachers can use our self-explanatory guides to teach beginning and early literacy, including reading, writing and comprehension. Assessment Charts are included enabling teachers to determine and evaluate student and classroom progress. Starting with Dari and Pashto editions, these will be translated into minority languages as we have the funds to do so.
With your support we will give many more thousands of children and their families the chance to learn to read in the language of their mother tongue; and their teachers the opportunity to teach basic literacy skills in the local languages, transferring these skills as they transition into their national languages – Dari and Pashto.
Visit: UNESCO to learn more about the value of Mother Tongue-Based Multi-Lingual Education (MTB MLE).