It may be the reason why 24 percent of Afghan high school graduates aged 20-24 do not attend post-secondary educational institutions. In a research paper called “Ethno-Racial Inequality in the City of Toronto: An Analysis of the 1996 Census”, Michael Ornstein states the following: “With 78.4 percent of all families below the poverty line and a median income of just $19,600, Afghans are among the poorest groups in the city. A startling 86.5 percent of Afghan children under 19 live in families below the LICO (Low Income Cut-Off).” He tabulated these statistics from the 1996 Canadian Census by Statistics Canada.

It appears that the root of educational problems within the Afghan youth is the same for many problems in the world: poverty. There may be a number of graduating Afghan high school students who wish to attend university but find it difficult to do so due to lack of financial support. A group of Afghan university students have come together to do something about this.

In October of 2008, we registered our group as a not-for-profit organization called Afghan Student Scholarship Fund (ASSF) with the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services of Ontario and as a charitable fund with the Ontario Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee. It is our goal to provide a service to benefit the Afghan community in Ontario by encouraging academic excellence through scholarships and awards. We hope to stimulate an appreciation of the importance of higher education within the Afghan youth.

We also plan to establish mentorship programs between university and high school students. Currently, we are working on a scholarship award for graduating high school students in Ontario who have been accepted into a Canadian university.

We are happy to announce our first scholarship valued at $1000 that will be awarded to one winning student in June of 2009. We would like to thank the Canadian Afghan Business Council (cabconline.org) and AJ Portrait Photography (ajphoto.ca) for their generous donations.

The number of awards we produce and the number of Afghan students we support is completely dependent on the donations we receive. We would appreciate personal or business donations of any amount. You will receive a “Thank You” certificate to display at your work or home and the opportunity to advertise at our awards ceremony this summer. If you are interested in donating to our fund or have suggestions for fundraising, please send us an email at afghan.student.scholarship.fund@gmail.com.

If you are a graduating high school student of Afghan descent who plans to attend a Canadian university, then we encourage you to apply for this award. The application deadline is May 29th, 2009. The applicant must have an average of at least 70%, display financial need and provide proof of acceptance to a university. The application form and more information can be found at http://afghanscholarship.wordpress.com/home. If you have a question about the application process, please send us your question at assf.applicant.qs@gmail.com.

Saadia Sediqzadah is ASSF President.