Thank you ladies and gentlemen for giving us the opportunity to present to you our vision of how to answer the question posed by this Briefing – What Are the Prospects for Education in Afghanistan, Given Its Continuing Problems?

My task here is to offer one urgent part of the solution, one of those Prospects -- to acquaint you with the program of Master Teachers by Satellite for Afghanistan.

I want to first thank Hans Hogreefe, Executive Director of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, for his kind introduction.

I want to thank Congressman Tom Lantos and Congressman Frank R. Wolf, the Co-Chairs of this Caucus, and Sheila Jackson-Lee, a member of this Caucus and the Co-Chair of the Afghan Caucus.

And I particularly want to thank Annette Lantos, for her vision and understanding of the problems of Education in Afghanistan, and Tricia Leslie of Congressman Lantos’ office.

Our Power Point presentation will be shown on the screen on the right, and on the screen on the left we will play for you some excerpts from four or five educational videos.

In six months, we can be teaching the little girls and boys of Afghanistan to read and write, via satellite television, cheaply and effectively.

The Afghan-American author Tamim Ansary (West of Kabul, East of New York) put it most eloquently:

… growing up unable to read and cut off from information about the larger world [children in Afghanistan are] locked into a sort of prison, defenseless against Jihadist propaganda injected into their milieu by stateless thugs.

Education is the front line of the War on Terror, but together we can win this battle.

More than half of Afghanistan’s children are growing up illiterate today, particularly in the rural areas where there are no schools and a severe shortage of competent teachers. Today the female literacy rate in Afghanistan is a paltry 14% and the overall literacy rate is 43%, one of the lowest in the world. While there was marked improvement in school enrollment immediately after the fall of the Taliban, these increases have stalled, and as of 2006 only 68% of boys and 40% of girls of primary school age are enrolled in school. Even fewer actually attend.

Adding to this challenge, the Taliban and other extremist elements have increased attacks on schools, students and teachers over the past year, particularly in the Southern provinces. They recognize that the best way to retain their power is to prevent the education of girls. It is widely recognized that educating little girls is the best investment an underdeveloped country can make.

We cannot allow another generation to grow up without hope or opportunity. It is to this end that we propose providing literacy education to the little girls (and boys) of Afghanistan via satellite broadcasts.

(1) The Programming: Two-hour television programs that include a real teacher plus engaging, comic and colorful puppets, animation and dramatizations, to teach literacy, elementary science, geography and ecology, health, and computers, in versions for both Dari and Pashto.

(2) The Broadcast: via satellite television into the villages of rural Afghanistan, two hours a day (10 AM to noon), six days a week, forty weeks a year, on bandwidth already committed for this purpose by both the national TV station of Afghanistan and by another private satellite television channel.

(3) The Classroom: An inexpensive, self-contained, standard package of solar-powered equipment on which rural schoolchildren will view the broadcast in a home, barn or any other spot identified by the local village Shura (Council).

Afghanistan’s children should have a proper school and a trained teacher. But at the current rate they have no realistic hope of receiving either for years to come. Our proposal is at the same time a stopgap substitute for, and an augmentation to, Afghanistan’s formal education programs.

Our programming will follow the curriculum established by the Afghanistan Ministry of Education. It will reflect the family and Islamic values of Afghanistan’s moderate Muslim majority.

We will use a proven, phonics-based approach to teach literacy, in both Dari and Pashto, along with stimulating segments on elementary science, geography and ecology, health, and computers, to provide the children a window on the world.

To date, there are no video literacy programs in Dari or Pashto. We have identified and are pursuing several promising programs.

[See the illustrations below and sample videos on our website www. afghan-satellite-teachers.net.]

The centerpiece of our literacy programming is the The Mulla Nasrudin Literacy Show, an original series to teach literacy, based on the 14th century beloved Afghan comic. In his huge hat, riding his undersized donkey across the landscape of Afghanistan, letters and numbers are continually escaping from his saddle pack. The Mulla must educate the local children in order to enlist their help in finding the missing letters and numbers.

The Mulla Nasrudin Literacy Show

Another new program of which we have a pilot episode is an original elementary science program designed by a Teacher Trainer who has been training teachers in Afghanistan for some years. In Afghan local dress and situations, these episodes will demonstrate simple scientific ideas (for example, the wheelbarrow as a lever).

How Najib Discovered Levers

In addition to new content created specifically for this program, we have made arrangements to include existing content from other sources and countries. We have a commitment for existing Sesame Street episodes which were filmed in Egypt for a Muslim audience, requiring only that funds be found to dub them into Pashto and Dari.

Sesame Street

We have identified an extremely engaging and appropriate Ethiopian-American literacy program featuring a giraffe sock puppet and her family called Tsehai Loves Learning and are in discussions to cooperate in producing their programs specifically for Afghanistan.

Tsehai Loves Learning

And we expect to use as our theme music a recently published A-B-C song based on a traditional Afghan melody for the Dari language. One video segment has already been created.

The Alphabet Song

We already have the commitment to deliver this programming through the national public television station of Afghanistan, Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA), and a commitment to broadcast this content on a private satellite television station, Ariana Afghanistan Television (AA-TV). Both of these television stations broadcast 24 hours a day into Afghanistan, and have committed to giving us the broadcast time 10:00 AM to 12:00 noon, two hours a day, six days a week, 40 weeks a year.

A national television broadcast has several collateral benefits. It can enrich the curriculum for those children already in school. It can reach homeless children in Kabul and other cities, who could and should be in school but are not. It can reach girls kept at home by their families.

It can help unify the country by giving children a common educational background. And it can do so now, before more time is lost and more children fall behind, or worse.

The equipment necessary to deliver this signal in rural villages has sparked a great deal of interest. With the help of Engineers Without Borders – San Francisco and other volunteers we have developed a Standard Package which will cost approximately $2,500 per installation to serve a village of 30 to 60 children. Depreciated over three years, the cost of the equipment is less than $30 per child per year.

The Standard Package uses off-the-shelf technology readily available for delivery anywhere in the world, including Afghanistan. In our Standard Package, a solar cell, through batteries and inverters, powers a small satellite dish, satellite receiver, and television monitor.

We plan to adjust the equipment deployed based on local conditions and developing technology. Some villages may have an appropriate power supply. For some villages, a laptop (like the One Laptop Per Child effort at MIT) or a digital video player may be better. All of the decisions about supplying equipment, from the solar cells to the display, will be treated as flexible, rather than a one-size-fits-all, part of the project.

Oxfam has called for $1 billion over the next five years for education in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, the Minister of Education of Afghanistan has identified only $41 million of the $308 million he needs this year in his current operating and development budget.

By contrast, Master Teachers by Satellite for Afghanistan (MTSA) can deliver our program for approximately $7 million on a large scale. In the near term, we aim to raise $800,000 to create the pilot program, distribute equipment to up to 10 villages, and begin broadcasting this fall.

MTSA cannot take the place of proper schools with well-trained teachers, but it can supplement these efforts, and it can provide much needed education to the little girls and little boys of Afghanistan who do not have schools and teachers. Our program can reach the far villages of the country, and do so quickly, for pennies on the dollar.

In final closing, I would like to thank in addition to the Members of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus the members of the MTSA team who accompanied us from California, and those who joined us here in Washington: Wahida Noorzad, Filip Sain, Susan Diamond, Tamer Ali and Farida Azizi. Jason Miller, who prepared all of the power point slides, found at the last minute that he had a conflict with his day job, and being like all of us a volunteer, could not come to Washington.

We thank you for your attention and your concern for the hearts and minds of the children of Afghanistan.

EDUCATIONAL, INTERESTING, IMAGINATIVE AND FUN, THIS VISUAL PROGRAMMING IS TO AUGMENT IMAGES OF TRADITIONAL TEACHERS IN THE TWO HOURS A DAY OF VIDEO PROGRAMMING, SIX DAYS A WEEK, 40 WEEKS A YEAR, PROPOSED TO BE DELIVERED VIA SATELLITE TO CHILDREN IN RURAL VILLAGES IN AFGHANISTAN.

IT IS NOT OFFERED AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO REAL SCHOOLS AND REAL TEACHERS, BUT HAS BEEN PREPARED AS AN OPPORTUNITY TO EDUCATE CHILDREN IN AFGHANISTAN WHO DO NOT HAVE, AND WILL NOT IN THE FORSEEABLE FUTURE GET, ACCESS TO REAL SCHOOLS OR REAL TEACHERS.

The US Congressional Human Rights Caucus consists of 30 Senators and 110 Members of the House of Representatives.

This Briefing was arranged and sponsored by Congressman Tom Lantos (D, San Mateo, CA), Chair of the House Foreign Relations Committee.

This Sampler is Copyright 2007 Master Teachers by Satellite for Afghanistan (MTSA), all rights reserved, subject to individual copyrights of individual works contained in this Sampler, as credited hereafter and on the DVD.

Alphabet Song, in Dari, composed and arranged by Vaheed Kaacemy from a traditional Afghan melody of the City of Heart, Afghanistan. Video produced in Toronto, Canada, at Creative Vision Studio. Copyright 2006 Louise M. Pascale.

Mulla Nasrudin Literacy Show, in Dari, concept by MTSA, adapted from script by Eng Latif Ahmadi, Afghan Film, Kabul. Directed by Haroon Ebrat, produced by and copyright 2006 Ariana Afghanistan Television, Inc.

Sesame Street Egypt, in Arabic, dubbed to Dari. Copyright 2004 Sesame Street Workshop.

Tsehai Loves Learning, in Amharic, created and produced by Whiz Kids Workshop, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Copyright 2006 Abshiro Group.

How Najib Discovered Levers, in English, produced for MTSA by Camilla Barry, copyright 2007 Barry Scientific.

Report #12 -- 2nd April 2007

Dear Friends in Afghanistan and California and elsewhere:
    I hope that you received our January 07 report, which summarized all that happened on this project in the first year.
    In the past two months, we have been focused on the most exciting event of the new year -- please accept this Report as your invitation to comment, contribute or attend:

              DATE & TIME: Tuesday 17 April 2007, AT 3:00 PM,
              LOCATION: Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2255

              Zeba Magazine – The Magazine of Style for Afghans Worldwide

              Time and Date: 6:00 PM, Monday 16th April 2007
              Location: 8117 Leesburg Pike, Suite 201, Tyson’s Corner
                            Vienna, Virginia, 22182

Please RSVP 800-815-8103 or crs@afghanfriends.net

    The Congressional Briefing is co-sponsored by a number of Representatives, including Tom Lantos (D, San Mateo, CA), the new Chair of the House Foreign Relations Committee, and Shelia Jackson-Lee (D, Houston, TX), Co-Chair of the Afghan Caucus of the House. The Briefing has a working title of:

    EDUCATION IN AFGHANISTAN: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS

    The Presentations will be by:

    1. Overview of Education in Afghanistan -- Edna Mitchell, PhD, Mills College Retired, worked in Afghanistan on education issues

    2. Problems of Education in Afghanistan -- Hali Jilani, expert on Afghanistan affairs, headed Afghanistan task force for United Nations Association

    3. Current Efforts to Address the Problems with Education in Afghanistan -- Steven Horblitt, Creative Associates Inc, Washington DC, which has the major contract with the Afghanistan Ministry of Education

    4. Can High Tech Deliver Education in Afghanistan? -- Carol Ruth Silver, Master Teachers by Satellite for Afghanistan

     In preparation for this briefing, we have prepared a Power Point presentation which, in a very few pages, summarizes our plan, our equipment package, our video content and our broadcast projections. A copy of this Power Point is attached to this Report.

     We are also preparing a DVD consisting of one minute from each of the 5 or 6 examples of the kind of material which we expect to be broadcasting, and which we hope to be able to play for the Representatives and Senators in the Caucus.

     If you can help out in any way, please call or email us to contribute time, energy, advice – or money -- or frequent flyer miles!

You can go on our web site to make a donation directly with a credit card:
www.afghan-satellite-teachers.net.

Best regards,

Carol Ruth Silver
Project Director, MTSA
415-861-5802 / crs@afghanfriends.net
Fax: 415-522-1933 / 800-815-8103

Report #11 -- 29th January 2007

MISSION
ONE: BRIEF HISTORY OF MTSA
    A. BROADCASTING RESOURCES
    B. SUPPORT OF LOCAL OFFICIALS AND INFLUENTIALS IN AFGHANISTAN
TWO: THE PROGRAM CONTENT
    A. MULLA NASRUDIN
    B. THE TEMPLATE FOR THE WHOLE TWO HOURS OF CONTENT, INCLUDING SESAME STREET
    C. HOW IT WORKS: SCIENCE FUNDAMENTALS TAUGHT WITH SIMPLE EXPERIMENTS
    D. OTHER SEGMENTS; TSEHAI LOVES LEARNING
THREE: THE TECH TASK FORCE; DESIGNING THE EQUIPMENT
FOUR: ORGANIZATIONAL ELEMENTS
    A. WEB SITE
    B. THE TASK FORCES
    C. EQUAL ACCESS
    D. VOLUNTEERS AND PROFESSIONALS
    E. CORPORATE AND TAX EXEMPTION
FIVE: FINDING THE FUNDING FOR MTSA
    A. LOCAL FUNDRAISING
    B. FOUNDATIONS
    C. US GOVERNMENT FUNDING
SIX: CONCLUSION

    The MISSION of MASTER TEACHERS BY SATELLITE FOR AFGHANISTAN is stated in our original proposal:

    To supply by satellite television an elementary school & literacy education for every little girl and little boy in Afghanistan who does not have a regular school, including in rural areas where distance and dangerous conditions still obtain, and to provide literacy training for adults who desire it.

Part ONE: BRIEF HISTORY OF MTSA

    In April, 2006, the proposal for creating the program MASTER TEACHERS BY SATELLITE FOR AFGHANISTAN was for the first time circulated in Afghanistan to government ministry officials, provincial officials, legislative officials, teachers, NGO’s and the official TV station of Afghanistan, Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA). Response was immediate and encouraging.

    A. BROADCASTING RESOURCES:

    With a formal letter of commitment from Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA), MTSA was granted the assurance that the programming of literacy education for little girls and boys could be broadcast, from 10:00 AM to 12 Noon, six days a week, 40 weeks a year, just like the regular school program. This commitment creates in effect a distance learning alternative literacy school system for Afghanistan. The importance of this commitment cannot be underestimated.
    Subsequently, another satellite television station, Ariana Afghanistan Television (AATV), whose powerful satellite signal reaches every tiny village in every part of Afghanistan, also agreed to carry the programming, two hours a day, six days a week, 40 weeks a year, giving MTSA the opportunity to broadcast in both Dari and Pashto from the very beginning. A formal joint venture agreement was signed between MTSA and AATV not only to carry the programming but to provide help in development of the content.
    Two other Afghan satellite television stations, which are in the process of forming, have also expressed a desire to carry the MTSA programming.

    B. SUPPORT OF LOCAL OFFICIALS AND INFLUENTIALS IN AFGHANISTAN:

    Various deputy ministers in the Afghanistan Ministry of Education greatly encouraged the MTSA program, particularly the Deputy Minister of Functional Literacy, who provided us with copies of the new printed curriculum, just published. We were also encouraged greatly by Omar Sultan, the Deputy Minister of Information and Culture, and by Hawa Alam (Noristani), the elected representative of the rural province of Noristan. Valuable endorsement and encouragement, and contacts, have come via major e-mail distributions of our proposal and reports by Homaira Nassery, an Afghan-American MD working for the World Bank in rural Afghanistan.
    Endorsement and encouragement, and the opportunity to discuss unique Afghan considerations, was also provided by the head of Afghan Film, Eng. Latif Ahmadi, and included his proposal to film some or all of the programming at his studios in Kabul. Similarly, Jamila Afghani, Director of the Noor Educational Center in Kabul, encouraged us and agreed to provide us with a Kabul base office.
    In the rural province of Ghazni, the first female Minister of Education, Fatema Mushtaq, encouraged us and also provided us with the contacts with the UNICEF program of Community Based Schools (CBS). CBS is a program where a village commits through their shura, or village council, to provide a volunteer to gather the children of the village for education, specifically including girls as well as boys. In exchange for this commitment, UNICEF provides each village with a package of books, paper and pencils. Some 2,800 villages have been enrolled by UNICEF in this program, which became an important baseline program onto which our MTSA program will be grafted.
    Even some of the Afghanistan based representatives of the US State Department in Kabul expressed profound encouragement.

Part TWO: THE PROGRAM CONTENT

    A. MULLA NASRUDIN

     In a long afternoon discussion at Afghan Film’s studio in Kabul with its Director and some of his film makers, the concept developed of using a comic figure from Afghan history -- Mulla Nasrudin -- as the central figure in a program to teach literacy to children. Mulla Nasrudin jokes are a staple of both public comedy and of joking conversations among Afghan adults, and every Afghan smiles, then laughs, when Mulla Nasrudin’s name is first mentioned. With the expectation that it would also be of great interest to their illiterate parents, using the Mulla as a teacher of literacy to children was perfect.
    Mulla Nasrudin actually lived some time around the 14th century (no one is sure of his dates). He is pictured as a portly gentleman with a very large onion-shaped hat and a very small donkey, wandering through Afghanistan, telling jokes and also being the butt of jokes, aided in some stories by his clever wife. Example: “If I survive this life without dying, I’ll be surprised,” quoted in Idriss Shaw, The Subtleties of the Inimitable Mulla Nasrudin (available at Amazon.com).
    The concept for the series of the Mulla Nasrudin Literacy Show was developed by MTSA as the first 15 minute segment of the two hours of programming. Multiple variations with different letters and numbers would repeat the following basic story line:

The Mulla rides on his donkey with a saddle pack containing all the letters and numbers of the Dari and Pashto languages. One or more at a time, they slip out. With the help of his devout, literate wife, he engages local children to help find them. He teaches them to write the letters so they can recognize them. The donkey runs away and the Mulla chases him (or some other comic bit ensues) and the Mulla calls on the children to return next day to complete the search.

     Each episode is supposed to deal with the content of one page of the literacy text book published by the Ministry of Functional Literacy, although not necessarily in the same order as the book. (Phonetics experts want to start children learning with a distinctive consonant like B, rather than at the beginning of the alphabet with a vowel like A.)
     Based on a script written by Eng. Latif Ahmadi, as amended by MTSA, and produced by Ariana Afghanistan Television, one 15 minute pilot video of Mulla Nasrudin, with his donkey, his wise wife, and children, has been shot in Dari. Post-production animation is being created to add in the letters, flying out of his pack, and dancing onto the forefront of the screen.

    B. THE TEMPLATE FOR THE WHOLE TWO HOURS OF CONTENT, INCLUDING SESAME STREET

    In addition to the Nulla Nasrudin segment, the two hours of programming is divided as follows:

    One minute: Title & music
    Two minutes: Introduction by a Teacher in a classroom
    Fifteen minutes: Mulla Nasrudin Literacy Show
    Twenty-two minutes: Sesame Street (Egyptian version)
    Fifteen minutes: How it works: Elementary school level science experiments
    Fifteen minutes: Afghans in Afghanistan and Around the World / Ecology of land and sea
    Fifteen minutes: History of Science, How to use Computers, And useful English
    Fifteen minutes: Health
    Fifteen minutes: Open slot.
    Two minutes: The teacher closes the class
    Two minutes: Mulla Nasrudin returns, tells jokes, reminds kids to return tomorrow
    One minute: Credits
    Total running time: 120 minutes

     The slot for Sesame Street is not for a dubbed version of the American program but a dubbed set of Sesame Street episodes shot in Egypt in Arabic and considered suitable for a conservative Islamic country like Afghanistan. MTSA is presently in discussions with Sesame Street Workshop, the parent owner of the rights to all the Sesame Street programs, to allow the use of these segments in our programming without the usual license fees, in exchange for MTSA arranging to have them dubbed into Dari and Pashto in Afghanistan.

    C. HOW IT WORKS: SCIENCE FUNDAMENTALS TAUGHT WITH SIMPLE EXPERIMENTS

    The program for teaching elementary science by simple experiments is in preparation, and is about to have its first pilot program filmed. Camilla Berry, a teacher and consultant in the teaching of science at the elementary school level, has made four trips to Afghanistan to train Afghan science teachers in modern methods of teaching science through experiments. Building on these trainings, she will do a direct series for children using materials available even in the poorest villages (rocks, steam, levers, plant germination, water displacement, etc.) Each segment will also focus on one letter or word, to further the primary objective of teaching literacy.

    D. OTHER SEGMENTS; TSEHAI LOVES LEARNING

    The other three planned segments – health, geography / ecology and computers – are still in the concept stage, looking for a funding source or for a filmmaker or animator interested in taking on the task of creating these videos. For the Health segment we are hoping to find a sponsor among the children’s’ health publications. For the computer segment, we are hoping to find a sponsor in Silicon Valley, California.
    In the 15 minute segment reserved for finding existing content, the most interesting find to date is an Ethiopian literacy series called Tsehai Loves Learning. A charming female giraffe sock puppet, Tsehai (pronounced SA-hai) learns one letter of the Aramaic language for each five-minute segment of colorful action and music. This learning is then reinforced in a second five-minute segment focused on a book about that letter, involving recognition games. A third five-minute segment deals with counting and numbers.
    MTSA is presently in discussions with the copyright owners of Tsehai Loves Learning to obtain a license to dub the series and replace the animated letters with Dari and Pashto letters.

Part THREE: THE TECH TASK FORCE; DESIGNING THE EQUIPMENT

     There are three major elements of the MTSA program – broadcast time, discussed in Part One above, the educational content, discussed in Part Two above, and in this Part Three, the equipment to be installed in the villages to receive the signal.
     Our equipment needs to be simple, cheap, and durable. It must receive the satellite signal with a small dish, then process the signal in a receiver, and display it on a screen. The most expensive element seems to be the flexible roll-up solar cell to provide the electricity to run the equipment.
     A review of off-the-shelf components to keep costs down is underway by our Tech Task Force, as well as exploration of unfolding new technologies which can be incorporated into the package. These include the Negraponte $150 laptop, a wall projection system, plasma and other flat screen technology.
     The only element which may require custom manufacture will be the chip to limit the reception on the equipment to only the literacy programming we are providing, thereby making it not worth stealing.
     After the Task Force completes the analysis of what equipment we want, we will begin soliciting the manufacturers to donate one or two of the appropriate components to create a demonstration model of the equipment package.
     The Tech Task force is headed by Nate Coleman, a software and solar energy engineer and includes Ghullam Qader Popal, a civil engineer and Filip Sain, a mathematician computer programmer. The SF Bay Area chapter of Engineers Without Borders has been asked to take us on as a project, and is expected to invite us to their next meeting.

Part FOUR: ORGANIZATIONAL ELEMENTS

   The initial Vision for MASTER TEACHERS BY SATELLITE FOR AFGHANISTAN was relatively simple: provide T-V distance learning for children in Afghanistan who had no schools and could not hope to have a school in any foreseeable future. The execution of this vision is, however, very complex, and we are busy trying to integrate many separate tasks.

    A. WEB SITE

     Our web site was kindly put up by Ghulam Qader Popal, and is being revised by Mohamed Noorzay, Filip Sain, and James Stockford of Systemateka.com. It is at: www.afghan-satellite-teachers.net.

    B. THE TASK FORCES

     In furtherance of the goals and vision of MTSA, a number of task forces have been created and have been meeting to try to accomplish various tasks. These include:
     The Literacy Task Force, Co-Chairs Winnie Thompson and Ahmed Shah Alam. Winnie has a masters in education with a specialization in distance learning. Alam is an Afghan-American actor with many films to his credit in his youth, in Afghanistan and in Europe, and who was once the head of the National Theatre of Afghanistan.
     The Development (Fundraising) Task Force, Co-Chairs Wahida Noorzad and Sandra Camacho. Wahida is an Afghan-American attorney, one of very few in the USA. Sandra is an RN and Chiropractor. Members include Jane Swinerton, Virginia Resner and David Fleishhacker.
     The Tech Task Force, see above.
     The Advisory Committee, consisting of the heads of the Task Forces plus others, including Meryem Katibi, an importer of goods from Afghanistan, David Fleishhacker, a philanthropist, Susan Diamond, an expert on recovery of learning in the brain-damaged, Eng. Latif Ahmadi, and Sosan Armon, Vice-President and Co-Executive Producer of Ariana Afghanistan Television (AA-TV).

    C. EQUAL ACCESS

     Recently MTSA has opened discussions with EQUAL ACCESS, INC., a very well-regarded non-profit organization which already broadcasts by satellite radio into Afghanistan. Their programming includes women’s rights and human rights issues. A partnership with them would be very helpful to MTSA since they already have in place the infrastructure to administer MTSA’s program in Afghanistan, and to aid in finding the funding for it.
     MTSA hopes that this partnership will come to fruition, but if not, is committed to not reinventing the administrative wheel if at all possible. MTSA will continue to seek a larger, already developed NGO partner with experience in administering government grants, as well as other infrastructure, rather than having to develop all of these organizational elements itself.

    D. VOLUNTEERS AND PROFESSIONALS

     To date, MTSA’s substantial achievements have all been created by volunteers, some making substantial in-kind financial contributions, plus small contributions of money from Afghan-Americans and others residing in the San Francisco Bay Area. But as the project grows, MTSA will need to recruit more professional and business oriented volunteers and, when funding in available, staff.
     A step forward is about to occur with the search for someone with business consultant or management expertise to join MTSA at a top management position, and also the posting of a search for one or more interns from the non-profit management program at a local University.

    E. CORPORATE AND TAX EXEMPTION

     Master Teachers by Satellite for Afghanistan (MTSA) operates as a project of a corporation with recognition under Sec. 501(c)(3) of the US Internal Revenue Code. This tax status allows contributions to MTSA to be tax deductible on the donor’s income tax return. This parent organization was incorporated in 1993, and has been an incubator for various projects. In recognition of the importance of the Afghanistan-related projects it has sponsored since 9/11/01, including Afghan Friends Network, the Hayward-Ghazni Sister City Committee, and now MTSA, in 2006 the Corporation agreed to change its name, and also appointed Wahida Noorzad, an Afghan-American attorney, to be a member of its Board of Directors. It is now World Family Development & Education Program, Inc. (WFDEP).

Part FIVE: FINDING THE FUNDING FOR MTSA

Fundraising for MASTER TEACHERS BY SATELLITE FOR AFGHANISTAN has developed in three tracks:
       Small local contributions, and
       Foundation applications and applications to other large organizations like the United Nations; and
       Governmental applications for funds from the United States Government.

    A. LOCAL FUNDRAISING

     Local Afghan-Americans and others gathered to support MTSA at its first fundraising event in November, 2006, at the Helmand, a local Afghan restaurant in San Francisco. The event was a Sunday brunch featuring an appearance by Mulla Nasrudin in full costume. From entry fees and a silent auction, the event generated a small treasury for MTSA. Another fundraiser is planned for September of 2007, and a direct mail solicitation is also being considered.
     Even if foundation or government funds in large amounts are eventually obtained for the program, there will always be the need for the supporting funds donated by private donors.

    B. FOUNDATIONS

     Our approaches to foundations have so far met with no success. The conventional foundation support for elementary education is limited to only a few of the major givers. Preparation of additional applications for foundation support is underway by the Development Task Force of MTSA. Research by Jane Swinerton of the Task Force has produced a list of the foundations most likely to be responsive to our project. The list was divided up, and each task force member took one foundation application to prepare. As we all know, each application of this type is a substantial piece of work. Hopefully at least four new applications will be submitted shortly.

    C. US GOVERNMENT FUNDING

     The sources of funding by the US Government include specific programs like US Agency for International Development (US AID) and discretionary funds from the State Department. The USAID personnel and State Department personnel in Afghanistan were both presented with copies of our proposal, and encouraging words were spoken and emailed. Formal application to USAID, however, cannot be submitted until the agency issues a “request for proposals” to do what we are proposing. We therefore need to create a climate where the basic idea of our proposal is accepted as a policy objective of the US Government in Afghanistan.
     Congressional contacts to achieve a commitment from the US Government to our proposed educational program have been pursued by MTSA in Washington, both by our Chair and by Advisory Committee member Susan Diamond. During Susan’s recent visit to Washington, a member of the staff of Congressman Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo, requested that MTSA come to Washington in February or March for a briefing of Congressman Lantos and a group of other interested Representatives. This invitation has been formalized at the lower staff level, and is now awaiting approval by senior staff and the Congressman.
     If MTSA does get called to Washington, this will also give us the opportunity to visit again with the Congressional staffs already contacted, and other Representatives with a special interest in Afghanistan, including the Afghan Caucus of the House, Representatives who have recently traveled to Afghanistan, and all members of the Foreign Relations Committee, of which Lantos is now Chair.

Part SIX: CONCLUSION

     In nine months we have come a long way, but there is still a long road to travel. With the help of supporters, friends and advisors, we can achieve our goal for the children of Afghanistan:
     that every little girl, every little boy, has the chance to learn to read and write, the chance to learn and understand the world they live in.
     In that achievement lies the future of the world and the security of every nation on earth. It is a big job. But we can do it.

MASTER TEACHERS BY SATELLITE FOR AFGHANISTAN (MTSA)
A project of the World Family Development & Educational Program, Inc,
An IRS recognized 501(c)(3) California corporation, Tax ID # 93-1048117
68 Ramona Av, San Francisco, CA 94103
415-861-5802    800-815-8103    Fax 415-522-1933
www.afghan-satellite-teachers.net    crs@afghanfriends.net
Kabul office c/o NOOR EDUCATIONAL CENTER 011-93-70-280-675
Project Director: CAROL RUTH SILVER

Report #10 -- 21st October 2006

21 October 2006 (Report No. 10)

Dear Friends in Afghanistan and California and elsewhere:

Many exciting things have been occurring which bring Master Teachers by Satellite for Afghanistan (MTSA) closer to a reality.

Our web site is up, www.afghan-satellite-teachers.net. Although there is still much to be added and changed, it has the basic proposal, which has not changed, only acquired additional attachments.

We have delivered the proposal to US AID in Afghanistan, and they are evaluating it now, for technical purposes.

We have met with a number of staff of Members of the U.S. Congress, and have had very positive support for the concept of delivering literacy and elementary education to little girls and boys in Afghanistan by satellite television, for a full school year, 2 hours a day, 6 days a week, 40 weeks a year.

The first pilot 15 minute segment of Mulla Nasrudin has been filmed and is presently in post-production. What is being added is the animation of the first few letters and words being taught, to make it truly a literacy teaching vehicle.

The first local fundraising event for MTSA is scheduled:

The first pilot 15 minute segment for teaching science to young children is under way with a provisional title of HOW IT WORKS. Camilla Berry, a consultant on the teaching of science to young children, has traveled to Kabul and Ghazni three times in the past few years to share her methods with elementary level science teachers. She has already prepared story boards for the segment and obtained the assistance of an experienced documentary film maker.

The template of the whole two hours of programming has been sketched out, including leaving one 15 minute slot open in hopes of finding existing programming which can simply be dubbed, rather than need to be created anew. See the document attached to this email.

In order to gather a variety of scripts expressing different versions of the Mulla Nasrudin legend and his teaching of literacy to children, we have announced a script contest:

On the web site, there is a complete description of the contest plus the rules, judges, prizes, and contact information for additional information. Or see the version of it attached to this email.

As an attachment -- is a copy of the original proposal, plus, at the end of the proposal, the two new documents mentioned :
    -- The template for the 8 segments which comprise the 2 hours of content , and
    -- The announcement of the script contest for the Mulla Nasrudin Literacy Show.

And finally, although it may not print on every computer, I have pasted in below a picture of Mulla Nasrudin, with his donkey, his portable blackboard, and the saddlebags which contain his store of letters, numbers and words. I hope you enjoy it.

Best regards,

Carol Ruth Silver
Project Director
____________________________________________
Master Teachers by Satellite for Afghanistan,
68 Ramona Av San Francisco CA 94103
415-861-5802 / myersflat@aol.com
Fax: 415-522-1933 / 800-815-8103

One minute: Title
Two minutes: Introduction by a Teacher
Fifteen minutes: Mulla Nasrudin Literacy Show
Twenty-two minutes: Sesame Street
Fifteen minutes: Elementary school level science experiments
Fifteen minutes: Afghans Around the World
Fifteen minutes: History of Science, Computers, and Useful English
Fifteen minutes: Health
Fifteen minutes: Open slot.
Two minutes: The teacher
Two minutes: Mulla Nasrudin
One minute: Credits

Total running time: 120 minutes
=================================

One minute: Title, plus any introductory material required.

Two minutes: Introduction by a teacher in traditional school room setting, with a blackboard behind. The teacher will welcome kids and introduce this film or video program as schooling, not to be confused with entertainment. The children will hear from this authoritative figure the rules of schooling, to follow directions, be quiet, etc.

Fifteen minutes: Mulla Nasrudin Literacy Show: This quite comic program will feature Mulla Nasrudin, his donkey, his wife, some children on screen and an audience of children not seen. The Mulla will teach letters and numbers to children in Afghanistan, both those on screen and by addressing those in the audience.
      The basic idea will be repeated in numerous scripts and with numerous variations: The Mulla travels on his donkey with saddlebags containing the words, letters, and numbers, which the children need to learn. In various ways he loses the letters or words or numbers, and must search for them, with the help of the children. Mulla Nasrudin is a historic comic figure in Afghan lore, and he is both a teller of jokes, a doer of comic routines, and sometimes the subject of jokes.
      The program should be as comic and amusing and interesting as possible to engage the children, and at the same time to teach them their letters and numbers. One word or phrase will be emphasized in each episode.
      In addition to the direct literacy message, the Mulla will deliver one message per episode about a virtue proclaimed in Islamic ethics, such as: charity, cleanliness, respect for elders, etc.
      The donkey may talk in Dari or Pashto, or make donkey sounds, or be silent. The wife of the Mulla will be portrayed as literate, wise, and a warm helper for the Mulla in his teaching of the children. The children will be around 6 years old, and there will be two or three boys in one group, and two or three girls in a separate group.
      In addition to the words in his saddlebags, the Mulla in some episodes may display and utilize the two books which he also carries, one being the Koran and the other “The Big Book of Everything Else.” The Big Book will have an alphabetical index, to teach the children that with the magic of letters, they can find out any kind of information they may desire, and have access to everything in the world, from A for airplanes to Z for zoo animals.
      This Mulla Nasrudin series was conceived by MTSA, and is a totally new series. The scripts for it are not yet written. A script contest has just been announced, seeking to have scripts written by a variety of persons, to fulfill the need for 240 scripts for the 240 individual daily programs.

Twenty-two minutes: Sesame Street: Another comic segment will follow Mulla Nasrudin, in the familiar Sesame Street format. These episodes, numbering approximately 230, were produced in Egypt with Arabic letters and language, although with the concurrence of the original Sesame Street Workshop. These segments are being obtained by Sesame Street Workshop, which is located in New York, and will be dubbed into Pashto and Dari, in Afghanistan. The cost is expected to be approximately $500.00 per episode. These Sesame Street episodes we will incorporate into our daily programming. We have a tentative commitment that this will be possible without the usual license fees.
      In the tradition of Sesame Street Workshop Productions, they will be extremely helpful to teach young children about colors, shapes, music, counting and time, as well as directly teaching them the alphabet and words. Sesame Street episodes also usually include lessons on general good behavior for children, such as cooperation, tidiness, etc.
      The availability of these episodes is extremely fortuitous, as they will already have been tested for acceptance in an Islamic country, and as the use of Arabic letters is the same or very similar for Dari and Pashto.

Fifteen minutes: Elementary school level science experiments: Under the supervision of Camilla Berry, a California teacher of science and consultant on the teaching of science at the elementary school level, a series of episodes will be created to explain how things work and grow, observation, trial and error and other elementary science and pre-science concepts. Each of the experiments will be done by a teacher on screen, perhaps with children on screen, but will use only such materials as children in the rural areas of Afghanistan could themselves obtain, such as a stone and a board to study levers, or a series of seeds to explore how seeds germinate, or a pan of boiling water to study steam.
      In this science segment, literacy will also be taught, particularly the numbers but also one word per episode, so that the basic objective of literacy for the children will be furthered in each segment. This segment will not be comic, but hopefully will be interesting and fun, so as to keep the children's interest.
      Scripts for this segment are already in the planning stage, with an initial pilot and an outline for the first ten episodes already being worked upon.

Fifteen minutes: Afghans Around the World. This 15 minute segment will begin with the story of Afghans traveling within Afghanistan, to show the geography of the country and some of its history. Then it will follow Afghan children traveling abroad and use this as an opportunity to teach about the history and geography of other parts of the world, as well as transportation and the oceans.
      Literacy will have a role in these segments also, particularly in trying to teach how to read and write the place names of Afghanistan and the major cities.
      Scripts for this segment are in the planning stage.

Fifteen minutes: History of Science, Computers, and Useful English. This segment will attempt to answer the question: how do we solve problems? First we guess, then we use trial and error, then we count, then we write down the answer. It will emphasize some of the most important Islamic contributions to science, particularly in the middle ages, including the creation of the concept of a symbol representing zero. From this will particularly come the notion of counting, and counting machines, such as the abacus, the ten key adding machine, and eventually, the computer.
      The basic elements of the computer, using zero and one as its counting device, and all that the computer represents from that very basic beginning, will be explored.
      English words will be offered, verbally, not in writing, in order to give the children an opportunity to know some of the English words they will need to operate computers.
      Literacy will also be advanced in this segment, by focusing on the written version of the numbers, and on at least one word or set of letters.
      The scripts for this segment have not yet been begun, as they need to be coordinated with the science experiment segment.

Fifteen minutes: Health. This segment will offer information for children on nutrition, exercise, brushing teeth, boiling water, washing cups, and other elements of daily living, as well as attempt to address psychological issues for children in a war zone.
      It will address literacy by choosing one word that is relevant to these elements and focusing on it.
      This segment will also deal with children and adults with disabilities, particularly amputees, and try to convey the message that discrimination against these children and adults should not occur.
      Scripts for this segment have not been outlined yet, and we are looking for a group of medical, psychological and environmental experts who would like to take on this project.

Fifteen minutes: Open slot. This segment is still open, because we hope that there are already in existence appropriate and useable children's programs (although we have not yet been able to find any with some preliminary research). The existence of such programming, however, we hope will yet appear, whether from Egypt or Iran or other Islamic countries. The hope is that without creating a whole new series, we will be able to dub programs into Dari and Farsi and find them suitable.

Two minutes: The teacher returns in order to give a closing to the activities of the day, not a summary of the lessons but a repeat of the expectations -- that the children will have listened carefully, and that they will practice writing the things which they learned in the day's program either before they go back to their homes or at their homes in the evening.

Two minutes: Mulla Nasrudin returns for the last 2 minutes, with some kind of comic antic and to remind the children to come back the next time for the next program.

One minute: Credits. With the mountains of Afghanistan and perhaps a departing Mulla in the background, the credits will run for one minute at the end.

Total running time: 120 minutes.

The following are notes to the above:
      1. The order in which these segments are presented is flexible and perhaps should be changed, for example, Mulla Nasrudin should perhaps go first and the teacher introduction second at the beginning.
      2. We have attempted to move from the simplest to the more complex in the programming, because we think that perhaps we may lose the youngest children's interest toward the end of the two hours. One possibility is to move the Health segment to the middle and start it off with an exercise component of five or seven minutes.
      3. We have made a strong effort to have a literacy component in every segment and to emphasize and coordinate it. To this end the plan is to use the 288 pages of the text book of the Afghanistan Ministry of Education, Department of Functional Literacy, which was recently published, available to guide the segments of the 240 daily programs. Correlating the Master Teachers video programs with this textbook is very important to the success of this program, among other reasons because it will permit children who have completed the video course to apply for certification of their education so as to allow them to transfer to a regular school when a school becomes available to them.

Report #9 -- 23rd August 2006

23 August 2006 (Report No. 9)

Dear Friends in Afghanistan and California and elsewhere:

We apologize for the delay in getting out this report, mostly due to preoccupation with the increased danger level in Afghanistan which finally caused the cancellation of the AFN June-July Ghazni Science-Teacher Training project. A shorter program in Kabul was then substituted and successfully completed, but the decision process was long and arduous and time consuming.

Almost every day the newspapers have been carrying a story about the attacks on schools and education in the Southern provinces of Afghanistan. These terrible crimes against children and the whole next generation of Afghans make our work the more urgent, to find funding for the work of providing education out of the sky, by satellite television, which cannot be stopped, no matter how many school buildings are destroyed.

DEVELOPMENT TASK FORCE CO-CHAIRS: WAHIDA NOORZAD AND VIRGINIA RESNER. This is the task force which is aiding in our search for the money for our project. Wahida is an attorney with roots in the Afghan-American community and Virginia has many years of experience in raising funds for various charities. In addition to helping and keeping tabs on major fundraising proposals, they are planning a local California event in late October to mobilize the local community for fundraising and support.

UN DEMOCRACY FUND: This was the first grant proposal we filed. As of the end of August, their committee had made no decision, and we were instructed to watch their web site for announcements, but probably not until mid-September.

SESAME STREET WORKSHOP: Conversations and email with the creators of Sesame Street have led to determining that Arabic language episodes of Sesame Street, produced in Egypt under the supervision of the original producers of Sesame Street and using the same positive messages for learning, will number almost 300 by the end of this year. Only about 33 of these have been dubbed into Dari. We received positive response to our request to use them, dubbed into Dari and Pashto, without having to pay the usual license fees. Sesame Street Workshop wants the dubbing to be done in Afghanistan, and we have been working to get a bid for doing the work there.

MULLA NASRUDIN: AHMED SHAH ALAM. A script prepared by Afghan Films’ President, Eng. Latif Ahmadi, in Dari, is now being translated into English for evaluation and possible recording of the pilot episode when he comes to California, as now planned, in October. Ahmad Shah Alam, a well-known actor who is from Afghanistan and once headed the National Theatre there, has indicated a willingness to play the Mulla, using a green paper donkey and other props readily available here.

SCIENCE FOR AFGHAN CHILDREN: CAMILLA BERRY. One of the American science teachers who has spent time training Afghan science teachers in Kabul and Ghazni is excited about doing a pilot for a science experiment series for our programming. Camilla’s first lesson will probably be about levers, creating experiments which even the most impoverished children can do using materials available to them (a stone and a stick).

DR. CHERYL BENARD: Through research by Jane Swinerton of our Development Task Force, I found a monograph called “Learning by Radio in Afghanistan: Distance Learning as an Option for Societies in Crisis”, published in approximately 1999 by the RAND Corporation Center for Middle East Public Policy. Dr. Benard uses exactly the same analysis which led to our proposal for Master Teachers by Satellite for Afghanistan. In a series of contacts and conversations with her, she indicated that she supports our proposal and believes that the time is ripe to move to education by visual broadcasts, by satellite television. She has already given us a number of contacts and suggestions, which we have followed up.  We gratefully anticipate even further assistance from her.

ADDITIONAL ENDORSMENTS: HOMIRA G. NASSERY. As we go into another round of seeking funding, it is good to gather endorsement letters. Homira G. Nassery, presently stationed at Lashkargah, Afghanistan, as a senior official for the World Bank (for identification only), writes: “I have reviewed your updated proposal including the attachments and the budget. It is feasible. It is needed. It is the ‘thinking outside the box’ solution which combines tested and accepted elements in a new way to meet what Afghanistan desperately needs right now.”

ADDITIONAL ENDORSMENTS: ARIANA AFGHANISTAN TELEVISION. Susan Armon, Vice President, on behalf of herself and Nabil T. Miskinyar, President, wrote to us for Ariana Afghanistan Television: “We at Ariana Afghanistan Television are strong advocates of education in Afghanistan; therefore the Master Teachers by Satellite Program fits well with our mission and objectives. We unreservedly not only endorse your program, but also look forward to commit to working together with you on this very important project.”
 
ATTACHMENT:  As an attachment, please find the 9 Reports issued so far on our efforts to actualize Master Teachers by Satellite for Afghanistan (including this Report). If you already have them, no need to download it.   
 
Best regards,

Carol Ruth Silver
Project Leader
crs@afghanfriends.net
____________________________________________
Master Teachers by Satellite for Afghanistan,
68 Ramona Av San Francisco CA 94103
Fax: 415-522-1933 / Toll free: 866-522-2437
 

Report 3rd July 2006 -- #8

3 July 2006 (Report No. 8)

Dear Friends in Afghanistan and California and elsewhere:
 
WAHIDA NOORZAD JOINS BOARD: Afghan-American attorney Wahida Noorzad has been elected to the Board of Directors of the public benefit charitable corporation which is the parent of Master Teachers by Satellite for Afghanistan. She has established her own successful law practice in Pleasanton, California, specializing in bankruptcy, business affairs and family law, and has served on the Board of the United Nations Association for Afghanistan in the USA. She speaks and reads Dari, and still has family in Afghanistan, particularly in Kabul.

BLOG ESTABLISHED: Soon you will be able to read all about the project on our web log, commonly known as a blog. It is at:
http://afghan-satellite-teachers.blogspot.com/
and you can access it now or post comments. So can the rest of the world. Posted as the first document is the proposal (the updated version of 8 June 2006). With the “search” function of the blog, you will be able to find anything mentioned in the proposal or any other posted items, just by putting in one word that you remember about the item.

WEB SITE IN PREPARATION: In addition to the informal blog presence on the Internet, we are working on putting up a formal web site. This will take more time and is costly, but the initial design and the first year subscription have been contributed already.  Thank you, Qader. 

CREDIT CARD DONATIONS NOW POSSIBLE: To make a credit card donation to us which is tax deductible on your US federal tax return, go to our blog, above, for instructions, or just go to www.ePayOps.com and enter our toll free telephone number, 866-522-2437. It’s easy, and it’s secure, and you get a receipt by email immediately.

DEVELOPMENT TASK FORCE MEETS: Hosted at the elegant apartment of one of the members, the Development Task Force met to review the fundraising efforts to date, and the tasks ahead. A proposal to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was discussed, and also to USAID. Research at the Foundation Library was undertaken, to identify any other foundations which might be appropriate, or which have funded projects that involved video education at the elementary school level.

Best regards,

 
 
Carol Ruth Silver
Project Leader
crs@afghanfriends.net
____________________________________________
Master Teachers by Satellite for Afghanistan,
68 Ramona Av San Francisco CA 94103
Fax: 415-522-1933 / Toll free: 866-522-2437
 

=============================================

Report 18th June 2006

18 June 2006 (Report No. 7)

Dear Friends in Afghanistan and California and elsewhere:
 
PROPOSAL TO GEORGE LUCAS EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION:  We have received an email in response to our submittal that the head of the Foundation will be on vacation until the 28th of June, and therefore no review of our proposal can occur until after that date.  I am calendaring about the 28th of July for a response.
 
PROPOSAL TO UNITED NATIONS DEMOCRACY FUND:  On their web site they have announced that all proposals submitted by the deadline of May 15th, including ours, are being reviewed at this time.  No decisions as to which proposals will be short-listed will be announced until August.    
 
LITERACY TASK FORCE:  The first meeting of the Literacy Task Force of Master Teachers by Satellite for Afghanistan (MTSA) was convened on the 14th of June, 2006, in Fremont, California.  Co-Chairs Winnie Thompson, M.S.(in Education) and Ahmad Shah Alam, President of the Afghan American Entertainment Association, led the meeting. Those attending included Afghan-American elementary school teachers, and a renowned lecturer on Islamic studies. Many good ideas were suggested. The full report of the meeting and the list of attendees will be in a future Report. Additional meetings are planned, including with an organization of Afghan-American elementary school teachers, with Islamic religious teachers, and with more Pashtu-speaking representatives.    
 
DEVELOPMENT TASK FORCE:  The first meeting of the Development Task Force of MTSA is scheduled to occur on the 28th of June.  This will be a meeting of the volunteers needed to establish our web site, maintain our email lists, keep our calendar, and generally pursue the funding and other goals of MTSA. Anyone willing to help out, or knowing someone else who might lend a hand, please call. 
 
SOLAR CELLS FOR RURAL VILLAGES:  A firm bid has been received for the solar power cells and installation equipment, sufficient to provide the electrical power needed in each village under our proposal. This bid is well within the range of the revised budgeted amount in our proposal (of 8 June 2006).  The company providing the bid is Gaiam/Real Goods, of Hopland, California, one of the oldest and most respected solar power contractors in the US.  Their bid includes delivery of the cells to any location in the US.  We will be exploring avenues to have the US Army deliver the equipment to Afghanistan if it is purchased in the USA.  Obviously a bid does not commit us to buying the equipment here, if it can be purchased more cheaply elsewhere. This bid will be referred to the Technical Task Force (see next item) for review and comparison with other bids and other supply options. 
 
TECHNICAL EQUIPMENT TASK FORCE:  This group will address the cost and specifications of the equipment to be installed in each rural village. It will need to have broad expertise in consumer electronic equipment as well as solar cells and new technologies for installing them. Members are needed for this task force, and we are looking forward to receiving recommendations and volunteers..
 
Best regards,

 
 
Carol Ruth Silver
Project Leader
____________________________________________
Master Teachers by Satellite for Afghanistan,
A project of SFFSC, Inc.,
A US IRC 501(c)(3) charity,
68 Ramona Av San Francisco CA 94103
415-861-5802 / myersflat@aol.com
Fax: 415-522-1933 / 800-815-8103

 
 Report 9th June 2006

Thursday, 9 June 2006 (Report No. 6)

Dear Friends in Afghanistan and California and elsewhere:

PROPOSAL SUBMITTED TO GEORGE LUCAS FOUNDATION: Attached you will find a revised proposal which was submitted today to the George Lucas Educational Foundation.  A copy is in the attachment, which can be opened with Adobe.  It includes all of the attachments A - G which were submitted to the Foundation, as well as the augmented budget. There is NO CHANGE in the fundamental concept, direction and design of the project for Master Teachers by Satellite for Afghanistan.  But as is always the case, proposals submitted to different funding sources must be tailored to the requirements of the particular source.    
 
SORRY, that this report has been delayed, butthe effort to get this proposal out has been overwhelming.  Other things are happening also, which I will report on next week. 
 
Best regards,

 
 
Carol Ruth Silver
Project Leader
____________________________________________
Master Teachers by Satellite for Afghanistan,
A project of SFFSC, Inc.,
A US IRC 501(c)(3) charity,
68 Ramona Av San Francisco CA 94103
415-861-5802 / myersflat@aol.com
Fax: 415-522-1933 / 800-815-8103

Report 29-05-06

Thursday, 11 May 2006 (Report No. 5)

Dear Friends in Afghanistan and California and elsewhere:

REVISED PROPOSAL: Attached you will find a slightly revised proposal for Master Teachers by Satellite for Afghanistan (MTSA). Please use this and discard prior versions. Most of the progress is in refining the budget. Since we have a pending application with UN Democracy Fund we needed to be more ready in the remote chance that that proposal will be funded.

OUR NEW KABUL OFFICE OF MTSA: As shown in the heading of the revised proposal, we have established an office in Kabul through the kind offices of Jamila Afghani, Director of NOOR EDUCATIONAL CENTER. They are an NGO already registered in Afghanistan, and will receive and forward mail, messages and inquiries for us. If we are successful in obtaining funds for a conference in Kabul in the fall, they will help find us the appropriate resources.

AHMAD SHAH ALAM & WINNIE THOMPSON, MS, WILL CO-CHAIR LITERACY TASK FORCE OF MTSA :
We are grateful to have in the Co-Chair of the Literacy Task Force of MTSA the film expertise and depth of experience of Ahmad Shah Alam, once the head of the National Theater of Afghanistan and a famous film and theater personality in Afghanistan and Germany. He is indeed a Master Teacher. The production of the audio-visual materials, in conjunction with the staff of Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA) and the Afghanistan Ministry of Education, will be the responsibility of this task force.
We are grateful also to have Ms Winnie Thompson, MS, who has been teaching literacy and has produced audio-visual literacy materials (a book, “Fast Forward to Phonics” and accompanying DVD) as a co-chair of the Literacy Task Force of Master Teachers by Satellite for Afghanistan. She is presently teaching literacy in Hayward, California and is the Chair of the Hayward Literacy Coalition.
The Task Force is planning its first meeting in two weeks.

TASK FORCES ON DEVELOPMENT, EQUIPMENT, TO BE CREATED.
There are never enough hours in the day and night to do everything that needs to be done, and so priorities need to be set, and delegation needs to occur. Although a substantial number of highly skilled people have offered to volunteer to help this project go, and although we expect in the next Report to announce more co-chairs, MORE HELP IS NEEDED.
If you have a particular skill or knowledge base that you think we need, we probably do. Please call and share it with us.

Regards,

Carol Ruth Silver
Project Leader
____________________________________________
Master Teachers by Satellite for Afghanistan,
A project of SFFSC, Inc.,
A US IRC 501(c)(3) charity,
68 Ramona Av San Francisco CA 94103
415-861-5802 / myersflat@aol.com
Fax: 415-522-1933 / 800-815-8103

Report 18-05-06

Thursday, 18 May 2006 (Report No. 4)

Dear Friends in Afghanistan and California and Elsewhere:

This is our fourth report. We have tried to issue them weekly, and only with this report begun to number the reports.

It feels like many months have passed since I was sitting in the offices of RTA and Afghan Film in Kabul, or climbing up and down the stairs of the Afghanistan Ministry of Education to see various officials. In fact it is almost exactly 30 days since I returned to my office in San Francisco. I am happy to report that this project is moving along quite well.

Without recapping what I have reported previously (anyone who missed the previous reports please let me know and I will e-mail them), we are making progress on many fronts.

UNDEF:

Our application for funding was timely submitted and has been acknowledged by the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF). Their mission is to enhance democracy in underdeveloped countries, particularly for women and girls. A copy of that application is attached as an attachment, with its budget. No more changes can be made. The budget which was submitted includes funds for the equipment specified by RTA , plus the organizing and development of the project. It does not include the costs of the two largest items in the overall budget, the video installations in the villages and the development of the educational content.

STANFORD UNIVERSITY:

We are working on a letter to the head of the Education and Film Departments at Stanford University, at the invitation of a Stanford alum who believes help may be offered if requested. We will ask them for assistance in designing and finding the already existing educational content to fit into the eight fifteen-minute segments of the two hours of daily RTA broadcasts, and to help defray the costs of acquiring and dubbing that material. Their suggestions will of course be subject to review by RTA and the Ministry of Education.

CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY EAST BAY (Hayward)

The newly appointed head of this campus is an Afghan-American, Mohammad Qayoumi, known as “Mo.” He is the first Afghan to head a major U.S. university. Although he will not be arriving until July, 2006, we are already planning to join with other local organizations in hosting a reception for him. We will also be contacting his department heads to get them involved in helping us with Master Teachers by Satellite for Afghanistan.

Do any of you know him personally? If so, would you make a personal contact for us?

As some of us remember, this campus of Cal State University previously joined with our sister organization Afghan Friends Network to submit an application for funding for educational efforts in Afghanistan. Although the particular proposal was unsuccessful, we hope to be able to build upon that effort in our discussions with them, and we will of course explore with them their interest in the possibility of sponsoring the Conference on Distance Learning for Girls and Boys in Afghanistan.

MULLAH NASTRADIN

The proposal by Afghan Film for teaching literacy by using Mullah Nastradin in films, shot in Kabul, to teach the literacy curriculum in the new books just approved by the Deputy Minister of Functional Literacy, is coming along. One sample script was already done, and is being worked on. We were able to get 3 English-language books of the Mullah’s sayings and adventures from Amazom.com, and they are wonderful reading.

Regards,

Carol Ruth Silver
Project Leader
____________________________________________
Master Teachers by Satellite for Afghanistan,
A project of SFFSC, Inc.,
A US IRC 501(c)(3) charity,
68 Ramona Av San Francisco CA 94103
415-861-5802 / myersflat@aol.com
Fax: 415-522-1933 / 800-815-8103

(Report 11-05-06)

Thursday, 11 May 2006 (Report No. 3)

Dear Friends in Afghanistan and California:

FUNDRAISING:

UNDEF: We have completed an application for funding by the UNDEF, a new fund offered to try to enhance democracy in underdeveloped countries, particularly for women and girls. A copy of that application is attached as an attachment, for your review and comment, and the budget is attached at the end of this report as a paste-in. The application is due to be submitted on the 15th of May, 2006, so any comments or suggestions should be emailed ASAP.

FOUNDATIONS: Through local contacts, we are hoping to have contacts early next week with the foundation set up by Lucas Films. We are also seeking personal contacts for other larger givers, so if any one of you has a contact, please let me know.

FUNDRAISING EVENT: At the ZaZoo Restaurant in Oakland, CA, the owner, an Afghan-American, offered to have us do a fund-raising event at his venue in June. Some of our Advisory Board members think that this is too soon, as we will not by then have a good enough list of celebrities and major donors. More on this later. Meanwhile, if any of you are likely to be in the San Francisco Area in late June, please let me know.

CONFERENCE ON DISTANCE LEARNING FOR GIRLS AND BOYS IN AFGHANISTAN: One of the ways of making this proposal known to the entire community of people who might be interested, both in participating, in designing content, and in providing funds, is through a conference. I am presently exploring the possibility of one of the colleges here in the SF Bay Area sponsoring such a conference. Again, if any of you have any suggestions, please contact me by e-mail as soon as possible.

Regards,

Carol Ruth Silver

Thursday, 4 May 2006 (Report No. 2)
 
Dear Friends in Afghanistan and California:
 
With your help and God willing we are moving along on the Master Teachers by Satellite for Afghanistan proposal – to supply by satellite television an elementary school & literacy education for every child in Afghanistan not having a regular school, including in rural areas where distance and dangerous conditions still obtain. 

FUNDRAISING PROPOSALS:
With the advice of Craig Zachlod in Ukiah, John Lee Hudson in San Francisco, Homaira Nassery and Ann O’Leary in Kabul, and others, a short list of funding sources has been developed. And in order to better meet the funding guidelines of various sources of funds, we are in the process of dividing the proposal into five funding packages. If any of you have any thoughts about how better to make these divisions, or about specific sources for any of these packages, please let me know.

The equipment for each village (TV or monitor, satellite dish, receiver-recorder, solar cell or other electricity source), estimated at USD $5,000+ per village, for 100 villages, plus installation, for the pilot set of 100 villages. Included also must be development of the limiting chip in the receiver which will avoid unauthorized use of the equipment, and provisions for security from theft or damage.

The production of the 240 programs of 2 hours each (6 days a week 10:00 AM – 12 Noon for 40 weeks). Included is negotiation for donation or purchase of existing educational programming (this may need to be dubbed into Dari and Pashto), as well as the creation of new material with a specifically Afghan flavor. Also included here is the cost of mapping this media content across the approved curriculum of the Afghanistan Ministry of Education.

The additional broadcast, editing and mixing equipment needed by Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA) at their studios in Kabul to transmit the programs. The requirements and cost of this equipment is being ascertained for RTA by UNESCO.

Organizing costs of creating the Advisory Committee on content. Organizing costs for gaining acceptance from local elders in the villages. Training for the teachers’ aides. Developing and coordinating the program over the next 12 months.

Operating costs for the first 3 years, including writing materials, teacher support and materials, textbooks, technical support for the equipment, cell telephones, data collection and analysis, and evaluation.

COMMUNITY BASED SCHOOLS:
As noted in the last Report a week ago, the Community Based Schools developed by UNICEF and the Afghanistan government are a very important predecessor of this project for Master Teachers by Satellite. There was, however, no report describing the CBS project, even though UNICEF reported in its 2006 Education in Afghanistan fact sheet that some 2,688 such village schools had been established. As promised, we have done a descriptive report about the Community Based Schools, and a copy is attached to this report. (Our report on CBS has not yet been approved by UNICEF so it is circulated as a draft, and if anyone sees anything that needs to be corrected, please let me know.)

ENDORSEMENTS:
We made a decision that, in addition to endorsements by Afghanistan government agencies, organizations and individuals, for fundraising credibility it was important to obtain US and other Western endorsements. I am pleased to announce that last night Master Teachers by Satellite for Afghanistan was endorsed by the Hayward-Ghazni Sister City Formation Committee of Hayward, California. John Caldwell, Chairman, will be sending us a letter. We are working on a list of other appropriate organizations.

I am pleased also to announce that Ahmad Shah Alam, President of Afghan American Entertainment Association and a well-known Afghan-American in the television community, has enthusiastically endorsed the proposal. We are looking forward to working with him in California.

In a conversation today with Omar S. Sultan, Afghanistan Deputy Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, he agreed to provide us a letter of endorsement (after 15th May 2006 when he returns to Kabul) and to arrange to put our proposal before the new incoming Minister of Culture. We are hopeful that he may also be able to arrange to present the proposal to the new incoming Minister of Education.

Thank you all for your encouragement, comments and suggestions.

Best regards,

Carol Ruth Silver
Consultant
Master Teachers by Satellite for Afghanistan,
A project of SFFSC, Inc.,
A US IRC 501(c)(3) charity,
68 Ramona Av San Francisco CA 94103
415-861-5802 / myersflat@aol.com
Fax: 415-522-1933 / 800-815-8103 



27/04/06

Dear Friends in Afghanistan:

-- We returned to California safely, Thank God, exactly one week ago, from Kabul by way of Dubai and Amsterdam.
-- Our efforts, on behalf of the Hayward-Ghazni Sister City Formation Committee, to set up in Ghazni the Widows Literacy Project, were very successful. Attached for your interest below is the press release just issued by the Committee.

-- We are already working hard on the Master Teachers by Satellite for Afghanistan proposal.

-- Work has begin on identifying funding sources, assembling a local Advisory Committee, researching educational content, and writing the “Statement of the Case” for funding sources.

-- Writing a description of the existing Community Based Schools program in Afghanistan, sponsored by UNICEF and the Afghanistan Government, is one of our first tasks in creating the funding package.

-- Over 2, 280 of these village schools have already been established. (The UNICEF report is attached as a .pdf file, titled “Education in Afghanistan 2006.”) According to Dr. Nik Mohammad Attaie of UNICEF Regional Team for the Central Provinces of Afghanistan, over 490 of these Community Based School are in villages in rural Ghazni Province. He has agreed to review their data and in conjunction with the Ghazni Province Ministry of Education to identify and suggest the location for our initial pilot project of 100 villages, scheduled, according to our time line, for March, 2007.

-- Letters of endorsement will be very important in the funding package. To those of you who have sent them to me already, I thank you very much. To those in preparation, please know that the language can be Dari or Pashto or English, whichever is most comfortable, as we will have translations prepared.

-- In particular I thank Najib Rosham, Director General, Radio Television Afghanistan for the letter committing two hours broadcast time per day, 10:00 AM to 12 Noon daily. (This letter is also attached in the .pdf file.) This most generous commitment spurs us to get ready to meet our timeline for launch, God Willing, by the beginning of the next school year, March, 2007.

-- Regarding content, we all must remain committed to the official curriculum of the Ministry of Education. I brought home a copy here of the new literacy and first grade texts, in order to show them to some program developers here. And I am looking forward to the draft of a proposed screenplay from Tarique Qayumi and proposal from Latif Ahmadi, both of Afghan Film, for the 15-minute-a-day literacy segment which we discussed in Kabul. (I was able to order from Amazon.com two collections of stories about Mullah Nastradin and a book of Rumi’s poetry.)

-- I thank every one of you for your encouragement and help. I am excited to see that this program is not only greatly needed but truly possible. We can save an entire generation by making education possible for thousands of girls and boys who otherwise will be left behind.

-- Please give me your thoughts and feedback. In particular, what do you think about our adopting this slogan (which was actually created by a teachers’ group in California but seems equally true in Afghanistan): “Every child has a right to learn, and no child learns alone.”

Best regards,

Carol Ruth Silver
Consultant
Master Teachers by Satellite for Afghanistan,
A project of SFFSC, Inc.,
A US IRC 501(c)(3) charity,
68 Ramona Av San Francisco CA 94103
415-861-5802 / myersflat@aol.com
Fax: 415-522-1933 / 800-815-8103