An agreement with the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) has been signed by the Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation (KBZF), in order to help children in Afghanistan through a number of humanitarian and development initiatives.

The agreement was signed by Mohammad Haji Al Khoori, KBZF Executive Director, and Dr Ayman Abu Laban, Unicef Representative in the Gulf Area.

Al Khoori specified, "The agreement between the KBZF and Unicef is one of the many partnerships that the KBZF seeks to build with governmental and private institutions. The aim of these partnerships is to help fulfill the dreams and hopes of underprivileged communities and especially children who suffer from severe neglect due to conflicts and unstable economic situations."

Both parties will work together to promote educational programmes in Afghanistan, via this agreement. It has been statistically revealed that over two million Afghan children do not attend primary school, and literacy levels are declining.

As of now, Afghanistan is in dire need of 100,000 qualified primary school teachers, specifically females who represent only 28 per cent of the teachers.

The condition of the schools is also very bad and the ratio of students to teachers is very high.

Dr Abu Laban said: "We commend the humanitarian efforts by the UAE and especially the Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nah-yan Foundation to stop the distress of people and communities who suffer from wars and natural disasters. Thanks to the foundation's generous donation, Unicef will be able to provide the much needed support to promote education for all children in Afghanistan."

This support from KBZF, which apart from aid in increasing primary school enrollment for girls by 20 per cent in the next five years, would also be used for the procurement and distribution of teaching and learning materials to more than 2.6 million students and more than 114,000 primary teachers.

Other than this, the provision of teaching and learning materials would also try to ensure regular school attendance, and improve the teaching-learning practice.

It should be noted that this has come as the second agreement after the one with Oxfam, to provide relief to Afghanistan. The agreement is also in conformity with the foundation's objective to build partnerships with international institutions and organizations to empower poor communities.