MIGHTIER THAN THE BULLET

THE SPARKS ACADEMY IN KABUL

About

Sparks Academy in Kabul is an Early Childhood Development (ECD)

Center for children aged birth to age eight years. The first school

opened in 2003 following an agreement with Afghanistan’s Interim

Government and successive governments. The Sparks Academy

operates a six-day per week school which strives to act as a model for

quality, authentically Afghan ECD programming. There are currently

two locations in Kabul, with students from a range of socio-economic

backgrounds. Three additional ECD programs in Kabul are community

owned, but are provided with governance, teacher training,

resources, and programmatic development by the Sparks Academy.

The teachers are drawn from the local communities and are trained

by the Sparks Academy on a regular basis. There are approximately

equal numbers of girls and boys attending the schools, which engage

the parents and community to fulfill the following mission statement:

“Sparks Academy in Kabul provides an exemplary Early

Childhood Development program to enable Afghan

communities to realize their full potential.”

A Community of Learners

The Sparks Academy understands that education is not a selfish

pursuit; it must reach a higher purpose beyond the individual children

attending a particular school. The leadership of Sparks believes that it

not only takes a village to raise a child, but indeed, children can be

the means through which a village is uplifted. The Afghan heritage is

celebrated and preserved by Sparks teachers through the writing,

illustration and publication of traditional Afghan stories. Families are

engaged in the learning activities of the Sparks students through

meaningful service. Mothers participate in learning resource

development, using traditional handicrafts as authentic learning

materials for their children. A particularly important impact of this is

that mothers who may feel uncomfortable in the classroom setting

begin to not only feel that they belong, but also that they are active

participants in their children’s education.

A Wider Reach

The Sparks Academy is primarily a center for early childhood

development. However, an important value of Sparks is to provide a

safe space for people of all ages to learn and work together for the

improvement of Afghanistan. As part of this desire, the Sparks

Academy has established an initiative called Sparks Scholars. Sparks

Scholars are a group of young adults who are accepted to the

program based on their spirit of service. As part of the program, they

receive academic support from Sparks, and participate in significant

service projects to improve communities in Afghanistan.

A Partnership in Caring

In 2011, the Texas IB Schools (TIBS) decided to include the Sparks

Academy in their 15 Days of Caring program and fundraiser. As part

of this program, children in Texas participated in acts of caring and

fundraised for various organizations over 15 days. Sparks was one of

the organizations selected to receive funds from TIBS, and in the

summer of 2011, Margaret Davis presented the funds to Sparks

Academy Director Roshan Thomas. When Roshan brought news of

these funds to the Sparks Scholars, they brainstormed together

possible uses of the money. Deciding to make a visible impact on the

community rather than absorbing the funds in the day-to-day

operation of the school, the Sparks Scholars identified a poorly

constructed road outside one of the Sparks Academy locations in

Kabul that was preventing children from attending school in the

winter, and decided that they would work with the neighbours to

improve this road. This collaboration planted the seed of civil society

engagement in this community. The Sparks Scholars, who were all IB

Diploma Programme students at the time fulfilled their CAS

requirements by physically helping to build the road. They worked

during the hot days of Kabul’s summer, well into the night, to

complete the road in time. In the end, it was a beautiful success, one

worthy of the pride the Sparks Scholars feel. From Texas to Kabul, a

grassroots change has been made.

Sparks Scholars work with the

community to build a road so

children can access school in Kabul.

GrassRoots

In the Spring of 2012 a new project was conceived. It was around this

time that Sparks Director Roshan Thomas and her daughter Samira

Thomas, a student in City Planning at the time, discovered that a

small plot of land near another Sparks program was going to be

cemented over and turned into a paved playground. The space,

however, was an ideal space to revive the gardening tradition of

Afghanistan. It was also a wonderful learning opportunity for the

Sparks students and teachers to engage with their natural

environment. The Sparks Academy approached the community and

suggested that instead of a donated paved space, the small plot of

land could become a natural space for children to play and learn. The

neighbours supported this idea and plans for a garden went ahead

full force. A local gardening expert was engaged as a volunteer to

guide the teachers and students in planting their own garden. Within

two weeks, a once empty space was turned into a sanctuary of

laughter and play for adults and children alike.

Looking Ahead: A Global Connection

The Sparks Academy has maintained the importance of a global

connection to the school, as a two-way street: students around the

world should see the beauty and capacity of young people in

Afghanistan, just as our students should see the talents of those

abroad. As such, meaningful connections between schools

internationally and the Sparks Academy are key. Future projects that

we propose include:

1) Mightier than the Bullet: The aim of this initiative is to provide

a creative space for Sparks Scholars and students to engage

with ideas of peace, grounded in the arts but as an

interdisciplinary endeavor. Lessons and activities conducted at

the Sparks Academy will be posted online. Teachers from

schools around the world are invited to engage their students

in an interdisciplinary unit on peace and seek opportunities for

partnership with students at Sparks.

2) GrassRoots: the aim of this initiative is to continue to work,

through the Sparks Academy, on providing meaningful

landscape education to children in Afghanistan. Where

possible, new gardens can be planted, and in other instances,

potted plants will be used. Schools around the world can

support this program by collaborating with Sparks with their

units on the environment and sustainability, as well as

supporting the development of these lessons in Afghanistan

through environmentally friendly fundraising activities in their

home communities.

3) New Sparks Academies planned: Currently, three new

programs are in their planning stages, in rural communities

across Afghanistan. These will be the first of Sparks programs

established outside of the busy urban context of Kabul, and

therefore new challenges and opportunities will certainly

arise.

For more information on how you or your school can get involved, please contact:

Roshan Thomas, Founding Director of Sparks Academy in Kabul

Samira Thomas, Built Environment Programming, Academic Support

mightierthanthebullet@gmail.com