I came across this on the Webheads Yahoo group and thought it was such an excellent initiative. This could be fantastic project for someone enrolled in a teacher education course!

More information here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evonline2002_webheads/message/20699

;I’m the volunteer ESL teacher coordinator for a project that provides
free language training via Skype for women in Afghanistan. We have a
number of women waiting for teachers, and I’m wondering if any of the
list members might be interested, or might know someone who would be
interested in working with this project.
I’m pasting a copy of the current volunteer ad:

Use Your ESL Skills To Help Afghan Women From the Comfort of Your
Home!

The Alliance for International Women’s Rights is currently seeking
two volunteer women ESL professionals who are willing to teach long-
distance English classes to Afghan women.

The Alliance is a nonprofit organization devoted to supporting
women’s rights efforts in the Central Asia region, including
Afghanistan. Our efforts include increasing the English capacity of
Afghan women leaders and future women leaders – including Afghan
women’s rights workers, women politicians, women educators and
promising young Afghan high school girls. The volunteer positions do
not involve any travel – the ESL teachers teach Afghan women and
girls from the comfort of their own homes using Skype® and E-mail.

Volunteer requirements are as follows:

• Must be a native English speaker with ESL/EFL certification
or teaching experience.
• Volunteers need to have a reliable computer, high-speed
internet, Skype® software (free software is found at www.skype.com),
and a headset. We only use Skype’s free computer-to-computer
software. We do not use the paid computer-to-phone service. We also
do not yet use web cameras because they do not work well in
Afghanistan.
• The volunteers will need to be available to teach one student
for two sessions per week for between 45 minutes to one hour, for a
minimum of three months.
• We currently need teachers who are available for classes
between the hours of 10:30 a.m. and 1:00 pm in Afghanistan’s time
zone. Interested applicants should determine if they are available
for two 45 minute or one hour sessions during these hours by
comparing their local time to Afghanistan time on the following
website: http://www.timezoneconverter.com. The time zone is the same
throughout Afghanistan, so you may use the city of Kabul for the time
zone conversions. We ask that you please determine your availability
during the required hours before applying.
• Although the Alliance welcomes volunteers of either gender in
our other programs, due to the needs of the Afghan culture we are
only able to work with women teachers for this project for the safety
of the Afghan women and girls.

Please consider using your skills to help Afghan women. If you are
interested, please contact Lisa Herb, the Alliance’s president, at
lisaherb@…. www.AIWR.org.