Turkish charity builds orphanage in Afghanistan education complex

KABUL, Afghanistan (MNTV) — A new orphanage has opened in southern Afghanistan as the first completed phase of the Asmaul Husna Educational Complex, a multi-year project funded by the Turkish charity Al-Khair. 

The campus is rising in the Sraa Qala area of Ghazni city and is designed to combine modern curricula with religious studies while expanding social services for vulnerable children and youth.

According to independent Afghan news agency Pajhwok Afghan News, the orphanage was built at a cost of 55 million afghanis ($800,000) and can accommodate 500 children. 

The facility includes 48 classrooms and dormitory rooms, two large halls, a kitchen, bathrooms and other essential amenities. Project managers said construction has also begun on a mosque within the same complex with a separate budget of 50 million afghanis.

Once fully developed, the complex is expected to include a school, madrassa, university, mosque, guesthouse, a modern student dormitory and a medical clinic, with free education planned for around 3,000 students. The buildout is slated to take about three years, and officials estimate the total cost for all phases at 300–350 million afghanis, financed entirely by Al-Khair.

Project head Mohammad Khalis Adib said the remaining components will move forward in stages, noting that the orphanage’s launch allows recruitment of staff and intake of children while other facilities are constructed.

Local authorities added that the development is already creating hundreds of jobs during the construction period and will generate long-term employment when the school, university and health facilities come online.

Ghazni’s Information and Culture Director Mullah Hamdullah Nisar said the center’s aim is to bridge the gap between modern and religious education so that graduates become both Hafiz-i-Quran and equipped with contemporary knowledge. 

Representatives of Al-Khair said the foundation is expanding its support across the province, having already built orphanages in Giro, Andar and Ab Band districts, with another planned in Zankhan.

Community leaders welcomed the initiative as a way to reduce the need for families to send children to other regions for schooling. 

Local elder Haji Ishaq said the complex would allow students to pursue both religious and general education closer to home while accessing dormitories and health services on the same campus.