Christa Nickels, chairperson of the German Bundestag's Committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid, Bundestag member Angelika Graf and German Ambassador Rainer Eberle attended the launching in Kabul on 19 January of this year's winter school programme funded by the Federal Foreign Office.
The programme, which is run in cooperation with the Afghan Education Ministry by Caritas Deutschland and Kabura, an Afghan non-governmental organization, gives over 15,000 girls aged from 12 to 20 the opportunity to attend school during the winter holidays so that, when the regular school year begins in March, they can be enrolled in classes suitable for their age.
By providing heating in 14 girls' schools during the winter holidays, the programme helps girls - banned from attending school during the Taliban regime - to catch up on the education they missed in the past. It was organized for the first time with great success in winter 2001/2002, immediately after the end of the Taliban regime.
Over the past year the Federal Foreign Office provided 15.4 million euro in funding for humanitarian aid projects in Afghanistan.