A Twinkle Of Sunshine Thanks To Our Troops

With help from Canada and other donors, Aghanistan is making significant progress:

* successful presidential and legislative elections and the establishment of a new constitution;
*tremendous growth for the Afghan economy;
*over four million more children (1/3 of them girls) enrolled in primary school;
* more than 120,000 Afghan women provided with micro-loans towards sustainable livelihoods;
*over 3.5 million refugees resettled;
*collection and storage of 11,000 heavy weapons; 63,000 combatants disarmed; *continued Canadian leadership on demining and eliminating surplus ammunition;
*rural poverty reduction through reconstruction in over 11,000 Afghan villages.

Is it any wonder the Taliban are carrying out their wave of terror?

Signs of progress can be found in Kandahar City
Jonathan Fowlie, CanWest News Service
Published: Tuesday, April 24, 2007

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan—Hidden within the confines of a cobblestone courtyard, and just beyond the flaps of a large white tent, progress is quietly being made in Kandahar City.

Within those walls, a class of young girls were doing what their counterparts could mostly only dream about just a few years ago - getting a daily education.

“The girls have joined the school since the Taliban regime collapsed and this new regime took over,” Abdul Aziz, the school’s principal said Tuesday. “Fortunately, when we got the Islamic Republic state of Afghanistan, they put more attention towards education and training.”

[...]

When asked why Aziz continues to take on the risk to run a school, especially one that teaches girls, he said he does it because he wants to serve his country.

“Education is very important to stability in Afghanistan. It is very positive,” he said Tuesday through an interpreter. “Schools are one of the very important sources. If we have schools it means we are going to have a very bright future.”

In one class of almost 30 young girls at Aziz’s school on Tuesday, many of the students spoke proudly and confidently of their ambitions, and of their plans for the future.

“Engineer,” said one girl when asked what career she wants to pursue.

“Doctor,” added another.

“Teacher,” called out a third.

It was a scene that would have been virtually unthinkable under a Taliban regime, one where women could only study the Koran until age eight, and then were banned from any kind of education.

Aziz, who became a teacher about five years ago, said part of the reason he is able to operate his school is because the security situation in Kandahar City has been getting continually better.

The liberals in Canada are against all of that.

Posted by Joel Johannesen on 04/25/07