The United Nations Agency for Refugee, (UNHCR) donated around 175 mini laptops to distribute in different departments of University of Peshawar and its affiliated institutes, in which mostly enrolled Afghan students. The donation was extended a goodwill gesture as recognition of PU services, to get benefit Afghan students from the facilities, studying for last three decades.
In this connection, a ceremony held here at UNHCR site office (Warehouse) in Pabbi Peshawar, in which Programme Officer UNHCR Peshawar Nasir Azam Sahibzada handed over the laptops to Professor Dr Babar Shah of PU Department of Regional Study, who was nominee of the Vice Chancellor for the ceremony.
In his address on the occasion, the UNHCR Programme Officer said Pakistan was still host to nearly 1.7 million registered Afghan refugees and a number of Afghan students were still studying in Pakistanis educational institutions. The UNHCR together with Government of Pakistan was trying to find durable solution to the problems of Afghans refugees and their repatriation, he added.
The official informed that a number of initiatives had been taken by UNHCR, including provision DAFI (Albert Einstein German Scholarship) to Afghan students studying in Pakistani institutions to help rebuild their country over the past 20 years. "The year 2012 also marks the 20th year of DAFI scholarship world-wide, as recognition of its helps to rebuild Afghan's lives," he said.
The PU hosted hundreds of Afghan Refugees students in past and currently providing education to a number of Afghan students in various disciplines, said Professor Dr Babar Shah on the occasion. A vast majority of them are serving their own country ranging from government functionaries to educational experts, thereby contributing a great deal to the economy and rebuilding of Afghanistan.