Why textbooks we paid for never reached Afghanistan

[Coventina]

Source: Christian Science Monitor

About 45 million books – a total value of $15.4 million, paid for by the United Nations and the aid agencies of the US and Danish governments – were scheduled to arrive before classes started in Afghanistan last March. But according to the AP, millions of those books have still not been delivered.

About 500,000 books are in sitting in shipping containers in Pakistan awaiting customs clearance by the Afghan government, says the AP, while another 20 million books are said to be sitting in a warehouse in Kabul awaiting a distribution plan.

Overall, about a third of the school books ordered for 2008 were never delivered to the provinces, the AP learned from Afghan provincial officials and Education Ministry records.

Distribution within Afghanistan, of course, is anything but easy. There are safety concerns, mind-boggling transportation problems, and, in some cases, funding for book transit is non-existent. (That’s why, according to a US military liaison, there’s a school in Afghanistan that currently cannot be used for classes – it’s full to the brim with textbooks.)



Read more: http://features.csmonitor.com/books/2009/04/24/why-textbooks-we-paid-for-never-reached-afghanistan/

[bertman]

1. Where are they sending these textbooks? To madrassas? This seems wacky.

[jkappy]

2. Books May Get Through---But No Chance that Money Does n/t

[izquierdista]

3. Let me guess

The name "Neil Bush" is on the checks cleared by the bank??

[Arctic Dave]

4. We build schools to counter the madrassas but are too dumb

to fund and outfit them. No wonder we're making so much progress.