Monitoring visit to Panjshir Province (Afghanistan)

Location of Panjshir:

Panjshir Valley is 150 Km north of Kabul. It is near the Hindu Kush mountain range and situated in Panjshir Province. Large majority of ethnic tajiks are concentrated in this province. This province is also remarkable for being the birth place of the leader Ahmad Shah Masoud. The Panjshir River has added the beauty of this province. Whilst driving along the beautiful Panjshir River, it is so pleasant to see the natural beauty green trees which can’t be seen in other places of Kabul. In summer lots of people from the nearby places and Kabul enjoy picnic along side of the river.

Introduction of the WFP school feeding program:

The food insecure districts were targeted for the school feeding program in order to support the needy school children for regular attendance in the school and in other way it will support them to grow their physical and emotional growth. Poor nutrition and health among schoolchildren contributes to the inefficiencyin the learning process. Thus, school feeding program will support to fight with the short term hunger of the children support them to learn in the class room. Panjshir was selected as one of the provinces  for the pilot school feeding program by the government of Afghanistan together with WFP in 2009. In the process of the monitoring visit, the team was scheduled to visit the province and left Kabul in the morning of mid February. It was clear morning in Kabul on that day but whilst proceeding towards Panjshir, it snowed and when the group reached there all covered with snow as white and white everywhere! It was nice feeling to have snow after the winter was considered as over.

Meeting with the provincial and district education department staff:

It was a productive meeting with the partners and community members about the implementation of the project in a participatory way. Parents, community members, school teachers and DoE officials showed their high participation in the program. The team was fascinated to have the positive particpation of the all the partners. They expressed a need of training on how to implement the successful project including how to construct the kitchen and management of preparing nutritious lunch for the children. It was a very amazing mission! It was also considered as participatory monitoring mission! It was also decided to have a training for them in the following week. Following pictures are some snap shots of the visit for keeping fresh of the trip.

Provincial Education Department, Panjshir with snow cover

With Provincial Edu. Dept. staff, Panjshir



Wide road to Panjshir (snowing)