Alastair Revell climbs Kilimanjaro in aid of Afghan Connection

One of our Twin School boys, Alastair Revell, is climbing Mount Kilimanjaro on 14th August in aid of Afghan Connection. He has already raised £6,000. If he achieves this (with his twin brother raising funds for The Rainbow Trust), they will be one of the youngest sets of twins to achieve this amazing feat.

To support him, and Afghan Connection, visit: http://www.justgiving.com/Alastair-Revell

Sponsosrship can be placed on-line. GOOD LUCK ALASTAIR!!

Afghan Connection Literary Evening 25th June

Ross Kemp has unfortunately had to pull out of our literary evening this year due to film commitments abroad, but we are pleased to announce that Col Richard Kemp will be joining us along with Christina Lamb.

Col Richard Kemp has had a very distinguished army career which included his Command of the British forces in Afghanistan in 2003 and he was a former chairman of the Government's Cobra Intelligence Group and head of international terrorism for the Joint Intelligence Committee.

Last year he co-wrote a book, Attack State Red, about the deployment of the Royal Anglia Regiment in Afghanistan in 2007, which went on to the Times best seller list two weeks after it was published. We very much look forward to seeing you on the 25th June and please do contact us if you would like further information.

Literary Events - 24/25th June 2010

With grateful thanks to our Sponsors, Symm and Quinta de la Rosa Wines

Please download the return sheet for booking information

Exhibition in Slough Museum

Arbour Vale Special Needs School twinned to The Kunduz Rehabilitation and Disability Centre is running a joint exhibition with Afghan Connection in Slough Museum. The Exhibition features photographs from Afghanistan taken by Onne Parl and Sarah Fane, costumes from Afghanistan, beautiful displays done by the children from Arbour Vale, including a hand made Afghan rug and handicrafts from the Kunduz RAD Centre.

Arbour Vale’s work includes comparisons between Afghanistan and the UK, featuring sports, climate, countryside, foods, environment and culture. The Millennium Development Goals are also featured as they form part of an awareness project funded by the EU for our twin schools. Arbour Vale, led by Twin School Coordinator Sidonie Garcia de la Rosa, has held Afghan "weeks" and the work displayed is a tribute to their hard work and wonderful energy in this twin school project.

The museum at Slough is open to the public from Wednesday 1 July –Friday 3 July from 11.30-4pm and for private school tours on Monday 29 and 30 June

Afghan Connection Literary Events



On June 2 and 3rd, Afghan Connection held its annual Literary Events in Aldworth. The 2nd June saw a perfect Summers day as 430 people turned out to enjoy the warm weather, a glass of wine and shopping at the stalls before hearing a fascinating and at times hilarious interview between Ian Hislop, Editor of Private Eye, satirist and broadcaster, and Clive Anderson, with interjections from Richard Ingrams, Editor of The Oldie. Anderson is Patron of Afghan Connection and has interviewed numerous authors and celebrities for AC over the last 7 years including Philip Pullman and Sebastian Faulks.

The 3rd June was an evening event for 350 guests who listened to a truly inspirational interview . Sarah Montague, BBC Radio 4 presenter for the Today Programme interviewed Frank Gardner, Security Correspondent for the BBC and author of “Blood and Sand “and “Far Horizons”. Gardner was shot and paralysed by Al Queda in a cowardly attack in Riyadh and described the impact of the shooting on his life. He has travelled since, all over the world including countries as difficult as Afghanistan and has continued with his skiing ,scuba diving and adventure travels. The events raised over £25,000 and this will go towards building another new school for the children in Afghanistan.

Cricket training camp

Afghan Connection, together with the MCC, The Fairstead Trust and the Afghan Cricket Team have run a cricket training camp in Jalalabad, at one of our Twin Schools, Roghano.  The MCC have also funded the construction of the cricket pitch a this and a number of other schools.  See the blog for more details,,,,

Students at some of our UK Twin Schools have also held solidarity matches - here are 4 teams at Elstree wearing Afghan Connection Cricket caps on Wednsday 6th May.

Afghan Connection Attends Conference in Estonia to launch new EU Project 

Afghan Connection has attended a 2 day conference in Tallinn, Estonia, to launch the new EU Twin School Project which includes Slovakia and Estonia.  The emphasis of the Conference was on the 9 Millenium Development Goals that apply to Afghanistan and what the project can do to raise awareness of these.

Over the course of the Conference we heard presentations from Afghan Guests, The Estonian Ministry of Foregin Affairs and Swedish and UK Twin School Teachers and Students.  Workshops and discussions groups were very productive and we also enjoyed a wonderful presentation ans exhibition by Oone Parl, an Estonian Journalist who has lived in Kabul.  The students also attended a comic workshop designed to show how effective they can be for sharing information.  We also held an audio conference with teachers and students in Kabul from the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Students from the Ridings School presented their work with Afghan Connection to the conference, with Teachers from Arbour Vale School also making a presentation.  Teachers from Churchdown Village School also attended the conference and took part in the audio conference.

It was a great conference and we are grateful to our Estonian Partners for arranging it.

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Further European Grant Awarded to AC

Our Twin School project is thriving and our 2oth school, Mary Hare Primary School for the Deaf, has joined the project, twinned to a school for deaf and disabled children in Taloqan. We have been awarded a further three year grant by the European Union, enabling us to continue the Twin School project, which will now include both Estonia and Slovakia. These new partners will twin their own schools to other Afghan schools and Afghan Connection will mentor them in the project. Under this new project we will be focusing in particular on the Millennium Development Goals and related topics in our schools.

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Literary Lunch

2nd June at The Old Vicarage, Aldworth -  Clive Anderson will interview Ian Hislop

Literary Evening

3rd June at The Old Vicarage,  Aldworth -  Sarah Montague will interview a well known journalist (to be confirmed)

If you would like to apply for tickets or for further details, please contact mallardsbottom@aol.com

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Afghan Connection has a 94% 'give to projects' rating

Development Ratings provides recommendations on international development charities based on an in-depth analysis of their effectiveness.  Their primary focus is on uncovering overlooked charities for which new donations would make a significant and useful contribution.  They have to date reviewed over 700 charities and currently recommend only 26.  Afghan Connection is one of these charities, the company has calculated that 94p in every pound we raise is spent on our projects  - read the full report on www.developmentratings .com

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Afghan Connection hold Twin School Conference at Bradfield College



Almost 100 delegates from 17 UK and Swedish schools attended the Twin School Conference kindly hosted by Bradfield College.  William Reeve (former BBC foreign Correspondent in Kabul and AC Trustee) and Lady Bridget Cowper-Coles, (wife of HM Ambassador in Kabul)  also attended the conference, together with Manowar Hussain (The Imam of Eton College) and James Fergusson (author of "A million Bullets" - a history of  British military experience in Afghanistan)

As well as presentations by our schools on their work on the project and lectures and discussions by our speakers, we had a live satellite link up with students in Kabul, who travelled to the European Commission office to speak to us from 6,000 miles away!  For some students it was the first time they had left their village. The European and Afghan students were able to talk to each other, ask questions and talk about their very different lives.

We had delegates from a Swedish hearing impaired school, who were able (through both a sign and then a language interpreter) to communicate with hearing impaired students in Afghanistan.