A lack of education and illiteracy are urgent problems in Afghanistan, especially for women. For this reason, the Afghan National Association for Adult Education (ANAFAE), an umbrella organisation founded in 2005 together with DVV International to promote the development of local adult education centres, attaches especial importance to enabling women in particular to attend literacy courses. The skills associated with learning to read, write and do arithmetic enable them to enjoy greater freedom and independence.
8,000 women in Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif attended ANAFAE literacy courses for nine months in 2018. A total of 7,800 of them passed the final test. A large proportion of the participants (88 percent) were highly satisfied with the course, whilst the others were satisfied with parts of it. None of the women however stated that they were completely dissatisfied.