Afghanistan Vocational School of Arts and Music, originally built by the Austrians, runs courses in music and art, as well as the more traditional classroom subjects. During the wars the school was destroyed but classes continued in other venues. The school reopened in Debhori near the University of Kabul in April 2002 with around 60 students but few musical instruments or art materials.

The School's principal foreign partner is the Polish Humanitarian Organisation (PHO), a non-governmental organisation registered in Poland, which works both internationally and within the country. Its mission is to make the world a better place through alleviation of human suffering and promotion of humanitarian values. PHO realises its mission by helping communities in crises to regain responsibility for their own future and become self-reliant. It seeks to shape humanitarian attitudes among the public and creates modern culture of mutual help. PHO seeks to combine effectiveness with respect for human dignity.

PHO’s plan was to reconstruct the Vocational School of Arts and Music with 22 rooms on the ground floor and 20 rooms on the second floor to serve 200 students, and also to provide the necessary materials and furniture for the school to teach its syllabus. The funding for this initiative was to come from 2,200 schools in Poland whose students would raise money by organising a ‘one penny for Afghanistan’ campaign.

The first contact was by the Foundation’s President Janina, who made an assessment visit in early 2002 to research the gaps in the existing education system and chose the Vocational Arts school as their project. The rebuilding of the school included two expatriates, three local staff and 108 labourers. They needed to work with the Ministry of Education’s Planning and Vocational Departments, the Ministry of Culture and Youth Affairs and UNESCO, the official co-ordinator of cultural sector development projects in Afghanistan. They consulted with all the departments at every step to make sure that everyone was aware of the progress. At that time the regulations were not in place but more recently the Ministry has implemented strict guidelines which give it greater control over the types of school to be built and the standards required. The construction company was selected by tender and the quality of construction was overseen and regulated by British ISAF Cimic engineers. After the tender process was completed and the contract had been issued, PHO discovered that UNDP could give funds for training and subsidise some of the materials, and the construction company would endeavour to train unskilled labourers. Due to the lack of skills of some of the workers the project took more time than expected. Had PHO known in advance of the UNDP scheme they would have incorporated it into their specifications and in the same way if the delays had been foreseen earlier the construction company could have built the extra time into their plans.

Other donors have included the Japanese government (for the purchase of chairs and desks), the Embassy of Bulgaria (who co-ordinated a fundraising campaign on the radio and supplied stationery, televisions and VCRs), the British ISAF Cimic team who created a sports playing field, and the Coalition Joint Civil-Military Operations Task Force (CJC MOTF) who supplied some of the funds to pay for it.

The new Afghanistan Vocational School of Arts and Music building opened in April in its new premises with an enrolment of some 60 students. However, there is now an urgent need to acquire more musical instruments and art teaching materials. A fundraising concert, for which the children of the Afghanistan Vocational School of Arts and Music designed posters, was held in Poland to raise funds for the purchase of a piano. Since makers of the rebab, harmonium and other eastern instruments are now returning to Afghanistan and setting up shops, PHO would like to start training courses for apprentices in traditional instrument making. Once the instruments are finished the Vocational School would buy them for their students. This would help to revitalise the Kharabat area, the previous home for music and encourage the transfer of skills.

According to PHO, motivation is the key to success in development work with local partners. ‘Know why you are here’, says the Foundation’s Afghanistan Projects Director Maciej Nawrot, ‘You must be here to assist the Afghans with a clear idea of the project to be fulfilled.’ ‘Respect for the culture is needed as we’re only a guest for a while, so be practical and focus on the task. Co-operation is needed in order that you can leave knowing that the project will continue. For this you need experienced counterparts to help you. Don’t pay bribes, it doesn’t help them. And learn to live with fewer resources.’

The war was traumatic for everyone in Afghanistan, but the Taliban’s restriction on music also created problems. Today some of the pain of those times can be healed through music. Maceij forsees afternoon music classes for women as the school now has space, there will be instruments available once the apprenticeship program is set up and the teachers would be fully employed.

Academic exchanges involving both teachers and students would also go a long way to encouraging excellence and PHO welcomes any enquiries from overseas training organisations who might be interested in collaboration.