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Afghan Girls Happy to Return to School
Sunday, March 24, 2002
By Kathy Gannon
Associated Press Writer

Across the country, there are also serious problems with supplies and space. Aid organizations have used helicopters and donkeys in efforts to get supplies to isolated schools, said Mahboob Shareef, the head of UNICEF for northern Afghanistan.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- AP
Girls in bright red dresses and transparent green headscarves took center stage at a ceremony Saturday marking the first day of the school year in Afghanistan, where thousands of girls returned to the classroom for the first time in years.

Afghanistan's interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai looked on as eager students squirmed in their seats in Amani High School's auditorium and sang songs about the joys of education. Amani is a boys' school, but girls enrolled in other schools also attended the ceremony.

"Today we cry out of happiness," said Karzai, who choked with emotion during his speech and had to stop talking briefly to collect himself. "He's crying," one girl whispered to a friend.

Karzai called schoolchildren "the future of our great country."
(More: Caller-Times News Source)
2002 © The Associated Press.

Dan