According to a paper by Michael Ornstein called “Ethno-Racial Inequality in the City of Toronto: An Analysis of the 1996 Census”, he 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 also found that approximately 24 percent of Afghan high school graduates aged 20-24 do not attend post-secondary educational institutions. He tabulated these statistics from the 1996 Canadian Census by Statistics Canada.
There may be a number of graduating Afghan high school students who wish to attend university but find it difficult due to lack of financial support. Education should not be a luxury. It is a responsibility that society owes to itself. A group of Afghan university students and alumni have come together to do something about this.
The Afghan Scholarship Fund (ASF) is a registered not-for-profit organization with the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services of Ontario and a charitable fund with the Ontario Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee.
Our organization consists of the following members:
Saadia Sediqzadah – President
Khalid Rahmany – Vice-President/Treasurer
Pari Abasszadeh – Secretary
Fawad Meherzad – Creative Director
Miral Sadat- Board Director
Hamid Alam- Board Director
Adina Rafiqzad- Board Director
We are a group of university students and alumni who joined together to provide a service to benefit the Afghan youth in Ontario by encouraging academic excellence through scholarships and awards. We hope to stimulate an appreciation of the importance of higher education. We plan to establish mentorship programs for high school students. Currently, we are working on a scholarship award for graduating high school students of Afghan descent 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) for their generous donations. If you would like to donate to the ASF or are interested in advertising opportunities, please email us at afghan.scholarship.fund@gmail.com.
