In the more populated and developed areas of Afghanistan there are schools, but they are usually run down and overcrowded. The buildings are in dire need of repair, and most have no heat in the winter. In the rural and remote areas, schools are very scarce. And in all these places, school supplies are virtually nonexistent.

But thanks to the Spirit of America (SoA) project, Refurbish and build school in Afghanistan, 500 more children at the Family Village School north of Kabul are studying in a brand-new school completely outfitted with chalkboards, desks and vital classroom supplies. The school was built with a modern science lab complete with running water, two sinks, fifty-five microscopes (including state of the art 7” screen microscopes), accompanying pre-mounted slides and some 2,000 notebooks on which to record their scientific observations.

In February of 2007 in the village school of Arzan Qimat, just east of the capital Kabul in the district of Bagrami, five hundred (out of two thousand recently received) individual backpacks jammed full of pencils, paper, markers, colored pencils, scissors, glue, and sharpeners were distributed to the school children.

In March of 2007, truckloads of new school equipment including desks, chalkboards and other supplies arrived at a SoA Campaign renovated school in the district capital of Gardez in Paktia Province (which borders Taliban strongholds in Pakistan’s North Waziristan). The school also received new soccer balls and other necessary recreational equipment that had previously been in very short supply.