More than 300,000 Afghan girls have benefited from the program of The United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) since 2012, Priti Patel, the UK’s Secretary of State for International Development said on Sunday.

In a trip to Kabul, she said that UK had also built nearly a thousand classrooms and distributed more than 500,000 books to the girl students.

The program, carried out within the framework of ‘The Girls’ Education Challenges’, is aimed at helping Afghan girls in remote regions across the nation to have an opportunity to improve their lives through education.

Shagoofa is a program coordinator in Kunduz province in northern Afghanistan who, through the program, tries to persuade Afghan girls to go to school and learn.

“We are doing this to persuade the girls to come and learn. We consult their mothers to let them come and build their future,” said program coordinator Shagoofa.

Farzana is also a program coordinator who works in northern Balkh province where she, with the support of local council, try to motivate the girls to get an education.

“I was threatened while coming home from work by those opposing education and learning. Such incidents usually hamper our work,” said another program coordinator Farzana

“We are very happy for having such a good place for learning,” said student Nagina.

“From the first day, we started learning we have been supported by this institution. There have been a lot of changes and we have learnt many things,” said student Mandina.

The United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) initially started the program in Afghanistan in 2012 and the program will continue to September 2017.

The DFID spent more than 55 million pounds through the local councils to facilitate the Afghan girls living in remote areas get access to education.