Mohammad Ehsan Zia, Minister of Rural Rehabilitation and Development of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan inaugurated two cultural centers and a primary school – costing a total of 11,228,204 Afs – benefiting 9,650 individuals in Enjeel and in Guzara districts of Herat province.

These projects are funded by MRRD’s flagship National Solidarity Programme (NSP). Fundamental to NSP is the belief that people’s participation in local governance is crucial to reducing poverty. The programme is one of the most effective vehicles through which the human, social and economic dimensions of poverty are addressed, said the Minister. “What is important about this programme is that it gives the communities the freedom to choose their representatives through a secret ballot, the freedom to make decisions by consensus and the freedom to decide how best resources are spent, by virtually contributing time and services to projects, communities gain valuable experience in shared responsibility and ownership”.

NSP is helping to restore the social fabric that was ripped apart by years of war and strife, and nurture new ways of decision making, says a head man of the village of Taryak in Enjeel district. “Thanks to NSP, for providing us the funds to build the cultural centers. Now we have the space where we can meet socially and use the space for cultural events such as theatre and so on”.

”Before the clean drinking water networks, our people were drinking from the village pond and our people were infested with water born dieases, thanks to MRRD for giving us the cash to built the clean drinking water networks”, said Shir Mohammad, head of the Baghban village CDC.

NSP helps us with resources, so we can build a school in our village and can solve our problems as well as our neighbors’ problems, says a resident of Beland Shahi, village. “We didn’t have a school in our village before and our children used to travel 4 to 5 km each way to attend schools in other villages. Now that we have our own primary school, families who couldn’t afford to send their children outside the village will be able to admit their children in the school”.

MRRD is working to rebuild rural Afghanistan and in Herat province alone, through its 5 key national programmes such as NSP, National Area Based Development Programme (NABDP), Rural Water and Sanitation Programme (RWATSAN), Micro-Finance Facility for Afghanistan (MISFA) and the National Rural Access Programme (NRAP),  has implemented 1089 community development projects in 584 villages – benefiting 5,37,729 individuals directly.