A young man has established a free elementary education class for displaced children in an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp in the center of Khost province.

Abdul Malik Jawhar, a 25-year-old man who is also displaced from Paktia province, has set up this elementary class in the IDP camp in central Khost, where he provides free education to dozens of boys and girls.

Jawhar, a third-year student at the Faculty of Economics at a private university in Khost, says that children from displaced families from the provinces of Logar, Paktia, Paktika, and Khost—who spend their days engaged in hard labor—attend free classes in the mornings and evenings.

In an interview with TOLOnews, Abdul Malik Jawhar said: "We have established a class in the refugee camp in central Khost. People here are from Paktia, Paktika, Logar, and various districts of Khost. Most of them are impoverished, orphaned, and children who spend their days doing hard work. For them, we have organized two classes—one in the morning and one in the evening. About fifty children, including seventeen young girls, attend. We teach them everything from the alphabet to Islamic studies, prayer, and anything else essential for them."

The students in this class, due to economic challenges, cannot afford to attend private schools, but they have learned a lot in this class.

Shkula, a student, said: "I want to become a doctor. I’ve been studying here for two months."

Another student, Zahidullah, said: "I can now write my own name, my father's, my brother's, and anyone's. I learned all of this here. Before, I didn't know anything. I come here to study and want to build my future."

The displaced families in this camp are calling on the authorities to build a school for their children.

Mohammad Sharif, an internally displaced person, said: "We have no access to the city or public schools. There are private schools here, but people are too poor to afford them. A school should be built here, and the number of classes should be increased."

Naqibullah, another displaced person, said: "We ask the government and organizations to support this class because there are children here who cannot attend school, and most of them are impoverished."

The Department of Education in Khost said they will provide materials and other educational resources for local classes in remote areas.

Qasim Jan Qasemi, the spokesperson for the Khost Department of Education, said: "The leadership of the Department of Education fully supports local classes established by patriotic people in deprived areas. We assure you that we have shared this matter with the leadership in the past, and we urge young people who establish such classes to register them with the literacy department of the Ministry of Education and receive benefits."

Previously, with the cooperation of education authorities, educational opportunities were provided for hundreds of children in remote areas of the Baghlan and Kunduz provinces.