SWAT: The United States Agency for International Development (USAID)is quite active in Pakistan.
It is working here in the fields of education, peace-building, agriculture, infrastructure, development and rehabilitation. Recently, USAID pledged money for the construction of a medical sciences institute in Jacobabad. Its funding has also helped introduce the locally-grown guava as a biannual fruit, which is now grown in all the provinces of Pakistan. USAID also helped rehabilitate and renovate 43 secondary schools in Malakand. In Swat, it is working on a unique project as an implementing partner for helping in the education of local women. To be more precise, around 2,000 adult women are being educated in dozens of local education centres.
For the first two months, the students will be taught only in Torwali, their local language, and for the rest of the year, they will be taught course books prescribed by the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Board of Education and the Oxford University Press. All the locals are thankful to USAID.
Mujahid Torwali
Published in The Express Tribune, March 4th, 2013.
