Indian Jesuits eye Afghanistan

National Catholic Reporter, July 4, 2003 by Dennis Coday

BETTIAH, India -- Indian Jesuits are to launch education projects in rural Afghanistan in July. Two Jesuits visited the country for 10 days in February to explore the possibility of launching a mission there.

Fr. Aloysius Lawrence Fonseca, 69, who will coordinate the mission, said that Jesuit leaders in India have been concerned for the past year about the "murky educational scenario" in Afghanistan, where various sources have told them there is little modern education.

Fonseca said the Jesuits will draw on their experience in India using non-formal methods to provide basic education to children and adults in Afghanistan. "This option costs a lot less compared to formal schooling that requires an infrastructural set up," he noted.

He also said local instructors will run the education centers the Jesuits plan to set up to teach literacy and vocational skills.