Iran and Afghanistan - NICCO ENGLISH Page

Vocational training center for Afghan refugees in Iran

Project Summary

Period: April 2009 - March 2013

Area: Mashhad, Razavi Khorasan Province

Number of people served: 2,172 (number registered at the center)

Outline: We focus our project on poor Iranians and Afghan refugees who have lived in Iran since the threat posed by the former Soviet Union in 1979. We manage a support center to help them find employment and return home. We manage practical work training courses for English, accounting, and IT, and an internship training program at our center and at workplaces. We also distribute information about finding employment and returning home through our newsletters. More detail

(Photo: Graphic design training course)

Ten Years After the Project Started: A Person Who is Brightening the Future

Introduction of a graduate intern at NICCO's Mashhad Office

Zahra Gholami: Works at the IT Center in Herat, Afghanistan
(Photo: Zahara (right) returned to Afghanistan)

I was an intern from January 2011 to April 2012, a month before I returned to Afghanistan. I worked at a support center managed by NICCO to help people find employment and to help them return home.

While I was an intern, I experienced different kinds of work. I was a receptionist in the center office, processed the information of the people it served, and wrote articles for newsletters, among other things. I had always been very interested in working in an international office like NICCO's. In my time there, I was able to acquire many practical skills that are invaluable at work.

I was born and raised in Iran, but I'd been hoping to return to my home country of Afghanistan someday and find a job there. The NICCO staff helped me find my current job and thanks to this support I decided to return home.

Before returning home, I was very uneasy because I couldn't even imagine what Afghanistan was like. Now, I work at an IT Center in Herat. I'm in charge of a basic personal computer training course and planning and organizing seminars. Since it hasn't been long since I　returned home, I'm now trying hard to adjust to life in Afghanistan.

(Photo left: Graphic design training course)

(Photo right: Conducting a marketing training course)

Funding was provided by:

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Grant Assistance for Japanese NGO Projects, NICCO members' fees and donations

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