Scholarship / (refugee camp, Afganistan) - Statement for the Chevening Scholarship [3]

Hi Everyone,

I am in a bit of hurry here since the deadline for the scholarship is tonight. I would really appreciate your responses.

Personal Statement:
Describe in not more than 1,000 words, your reasons for applying for the course you wish to follow and explain how it will help you with the work you expect to do on your return to your home country.

You should include an outline of your intended profession, your ambitions and your career plan.
Describe also, your most outstanding non-academic achievement involving other people where you demonstrated leadership potential (you may describe an extra curricular/sport/community/professional activity or an assignment):

Help Me, Help Others

Not very long ago, as a young refugee, living in a refugee camp for nearly 20 years of my life, I didn't have many dreams, maybe because dreaming is not among the things that the refugees usually think about. But I did have one dream - to be able to help others, those who are suffering from war, poverty, and illiteracy. I started my 'help others' journey 6 years ago when I first joined a project of CARE International in Afghanistan, Partnership for Advancing Community Education in Afghanistan (PACE-A), a USAID-funded project that aimed to expand access to primary grade education for children, especially girls, who lived in remote areas who were not served by government schools.

After working with the PACE-A project for three and a half years, I moved to Counterpart International to manage the monitoring and evaluation activities of the civic education component of another USAID-funded project, Support to the Electoral Process (STEP). The goal of the STEP project was to instill democratic electoral principles and engage the citizens of Afghanistan in the electoral process. We undertook a comprehensive and multi-level voter and civic education program with the objective of educating the potential voting population of Afghanistan.

Today, as an evaluation and research specialist, I am assisting the School Dropout Prevention Pilot Program (SDPP) find solutions to the issue of school dropout in East Timor. First, I lead a situation analysis and then helped the project organize a consultative design workshop to identify project interventions. Right now, I am busy with developing and implementing a baseline survey for the selected interventions in five districts.

I believe, whether it be contributing to the expansion of access to education in rural Afghanistan, encouraging political participation through civic education, or finding ways to keeping students in school in a country where only 18% of the enrolled students progress to secondary school and only 3% reach university, are significant steps that I have taken towards realizing my dream of helping those in need. But the question is, is this enough? No, it is not.

Although my 6 years of work in the humanitarian aid sector has brought me considerable satisfaction, provided me with the opportunity to reach and assist vulnerable people, and has taken me closer to my dream, I still have a long way to go. There are still many Afghans, especially girls and women, who are still deprived of education and work opportunities. As Daniel Toole of UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) claims, "Afghanistan today is without a doubt the most dangerous place to be born." In 2009 only, more than 1000 Afghan children were killed or injured in conflict-related violence.

Over three decades of conflict and structural underdevelopment have created a humanitarian disaster which doesn't seem to be over. It is said that only 6% of Afghans have access to reliable electricity sources. Only 30% of households outside of cities have access to safe drinking water. Millions of my fellow Afghans are internally displaced or live as refugees in neighboring countries, Pakistan and Iran.

Without any doubts, access to education has improved considerably since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, but still 5 million Afghan children do not have access to education, approximately 43% of the total school population. Three million of these are girls. Many children are forced, by their family's economic situation, to work as street vendors, auto mechanics, shop assistants, carpet weavers, blacksmiths, tailors, and in brick factories.

I believe that I together with others can help (at least partly) to improve this situation by influencing policies and decision making processes. I think that accurate and informed decisions at the national level coupled with responsive and realistic policies have a huge impact on the living conditions of all Afghans, both in rural and urban Afghanistan. So far I have helped with implementing development projects that were already decided upon. Now I would like to go a level up and know on what grounds decisions about development initiatives are made, and how strategies and policies are devised of. I realized that although I have developed numerous skills in implementing, monitoring and evaluating development projects which I have applied in both Afghanistan and abroad, I needed a strong educational foundation.

The Chevening Scholarship will provide me with the opportunity to follow a postgraduate course in politics/post-war recovery studies at a British university. This will help me develop a solid knowledge base and a set of advanced practical skills relevant to contribute constructively to decision making and policy formation at a higher level. It would not be easy, but a UK education in politics/post-war recovery studies is essential to help me acquire these skills.

Given the opportunity to pursue a postgraduate degree, I will return to Afghanistan as with greater insight in politics and recovery processes. I can confidently take on high-level responsibilities at the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development and spearhead innovative approaches and devise more holistic policies. Nowadays, in Afghanistan the government agencies in general lack the capacity to design and implement the right project at the right place. In many cases, millions of foreign aid is spent on trainings that are provided through foreign consultants. When I return to Afghanistan, I will make sure to use and share my newly acquired skills and knowledge to help my fellow Afghans gain a firmer understanding of what needs to be done here.

Provided Afghanistan's gradual move towards a stable political system and sustainable development, there is and will remain a huge need for people who make sure that effective policies are formulated and that people's needs are met by implementing the right development projects at the right place and at the right time. My aim is to gain a sound level of understanding to effectively influence the decision making processes and policies at the national level in a way that they will better reflect the realities on the ground and respond to the needs of the under-served Afghans across the country.

Thanks,