Vida International School

The school of life

In Spanish, vida means life. In Dari, vida means knowledge. Our model takes these two inextricable concepts and uses them as the foundation for our educational philosophy. The Vida School, which can be replicated, scaled up, and adapted in countries all over the world, is a place of creative, caring learning for Afghan (and other) refugee children evacuated to third countries from the trauma of the Taliban takeover. To ease the transition from Afghanistan to their host country, in terms of (1) language acquisition, (2) emotional & mental health recovery, and (3) logistical considerations, we believe a modified “homeschooling” option is ideal (at least initially!) for both the Afghan children as well as the host country’s public school system.

We’ve teamed up with the global award-winning Oak Meadow Distance Learning School to provide instruction and we ensure that each camp, military base, or Alma Village has a dedicated classroom space on-site where volunteer educators from within the Afghan community can supervise and tutor our students.

Education and enrichment

Our school offers a balanced experiential learning environment for children from pre-kindergarten to grade 12. We teach children to think, create and truly learn, rather than to simply memorize and conform. In an ever- changing world our Afghan students learn to embrace their new life through culture, emotional healing, literacy, math, and life learning. Our child-centered approach holds a deep respect for each child’s innate curiosity and potential.

Culture

Numeracy

Embracing our world

A place to grow and adapt

Daily lessons are enhanced with textbooks and online content. Older children or those adept at English receive access to advanced courses provided through Laurel Springs, Oak Meadow, Global Village School, in addition to our own specialized Vida curriculum tailored to the Afghan community and cultures. Advanced students have the option of completing a full year of school and gaining credit for their work.

Classes and field trips are made available to local children from the host community, and the host community shares their gifts and talents with our Afghan children and parents. Cultural exchange and understanding are at the heart of the Vida curriculum.

Our school is creating an emerging village and provides both children and parents with the opportunity to become global citizens and future leaders with integrity, passion and focus. We are dedicated to nurturing the well-being of our children, families, and the local community.

Implementation model

With larger groups of children, such as a camp or base, we have two approaches in implementing the lesson plans for English. We divide the students into morning and afternoon shifts: the morning shift consists of students from age 11 through 18+, and the afternoon shift consists of students from age 6 through 11. (At Fort McCoy, there were over 100 students in each session.) The students in each session are then divided based on the level of English proficiency. We sort beginner, intermediate, and advanced level students.

We place the students in these groups based on a very basic placement test we have devised to gauge the level of students in the English language:

• Beginner level students have to learn English starting with the sounds and shapes of the alphabet.
• Intermediate level students know their alphabets and have to learn the spellings of the words.
• Advanced level students know both alphabets, names of objects, and are able to write a short sentence.

The students in all three levels are learning the vocabularies and sentences regardless of their level of literacy in the English language. The advanced level students are given activities to compose original sentences and write them. The beginner level students learn the spellings for the words/vocabularies of the week and learn the rest of the material orally. The beginner level students memorize the names of the objects, sentences while learning to write the uppercase and lowercase alphabets.

Compliance and continuity

By providing a consistent, in-person and online-based educational program to our Afghan students, we (a) foster lasting relationships with their instructors even as they move from transit countries to the US; (b) offer a flexible, inspiring, and supervised learning environment while their parents are working; and (c) alleviate the reliance on the host country’s public school system by enrolling our children as “homeschool” students at an accredited online school (e.g., Oak Meadow), with a world-class enrichment program to supplement learning.

Locations around the world

As the Afghan diaspora continues to grow and fan out across the globe, we hope to provide a consistent educational experience that gifts our students a sense of stability and continuity that they no longer have in many aspects of their lives. We’ve designed our program so that while each family transits from one country to the next, our students can continue their studies uninterrupted.

To date, Vida School has students enrolled in the following countries: Pakistan, India, Turkey, Spain

And we continue to adapt our program in preparation for the other countries where our families will eventually resettle, including: Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Rwanda, Portugal, Ecuador, United States