News

On 15 March in Chaghcharan, the capital of Ghor Province, Head of the Lithuanian Special Mission in Afghanistan, Ambassador Valteris Baliukonis took part in the official handover ceremony of the newly built Centre for Vocational Training to local authorities.

At the Centre for Vocational Training, the construction of which was funded under the Japanese Development Cooperation Programme (Grant Assistance for Grassroots Projects), local residents can acquire various handicraft-making skills.

The ceremony in Chaghcharan was also attended by Afghanistan’s Minister of Labour, Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled Amena Afzali, Governor of Afghanistan’s Ghor Province Abdullah Heiwad, Japanese Ambassador to Afghanistan Reiichiro Takahashi, leaders of the Lithuanian-led Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Ghor Province.

The Centre consists of two buildings for the professional training of men and women. The Chaghcharan Children’s Centre is being built at the same place, and will serve as welfare, education and training centre of the province’s younger generation. This centre will be an alternative to the Children’s Home in Chaghcharan.

According to the Head of the Lithuanian Special Mission in Afghanistan, this project provides an excellent example of international donors’ cooperation. Grown-up pupils of the Children’s Centre, which is financed by Lithuania, will be able to acquire professional knowledge at the Japan-funded Centre for Vocational Training.

The designing and construction of the Chaghcharan Children’s Centre is financed under the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry’s Development Cooperation and Democracy Promotion Programme.

Since 2006, the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry’s Development Cooperation and Democracy Promotion Programme has financed the construction of 19 schools, the long-term community-based education programme, the first public library, a computer room in Chaghcharan and other projects.