Afghan female scholarship recipients pursue education in Kazakhstan

Ten Afghan females have arrived in Kazakhstan to purse their education, the organization for security and co-operation in Europe (OSCE) regional office said.

According to the office, the group was the recipients of scholarships funded by the European Union (EU).

The office said that after completing online English language classes, they will join the Kazakh-British Technical University, one of Kazakhstan’s top universities to study mining.

“The project runs under a €2 million grant provided by the EU to support Afghan women who strive for higher education. In total, 50 Afghan women will obtain higher, technical, and vocational educational degrees at various universities across Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan by 2025,” the OSCE said.

“Empowering women, via education, creates a vast personal as well as economic impact in that it generates opportunities to realize one’s potential and ability to contribute to their communities upon returning to Afghanistan,” OSCE added.

The first of 30 Afghan women arrived in Kazakhstan in October 2019 and successfully completed language training and enrolled in Bachelor, Master and Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) programs to study agriculture, finance, and mining at Satbayev University, Kazakh-British Technical University, and Kazakh National Agrarian University.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the students are currently taking academic courses online, neweurope news outlet reported.

According to the report, the UNDP in Kazakhstan is an implementing partner of the initiative.

This summer, the project was officially launched in Uzbekistan. Ten Afghan women became scholarship recipients to study Agriculture at The Educational Center for Training Afghan Citizens in Termez (ECTAT).