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COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT The Community Development Project was launched in August, 1954 covering only two villages but in September, 1959 the Five Year Development Plan envisaged 15 units for the project, which included 1,050 villages at a cost of 170,330,000 Afghanis. In December, 1955 the Community Development Project had 81 villages in Shiwaki and in May, 1956 community development activities were extended to Logar to cover the upper part of Logar valley. In 1959 a new project was started in Jabulseraj and the project in Logar was split into two units. The Community Development Project is running training courses for a number of young men to organise the management of various community centres. The course arranged in Gulzar sent out 30 graduates during the fourth year of the Plan and the following course is planned for 50 people to get one year's training in management. The students for these courses are selected from various community centres and after their graduation they return to their original centre as superintendents. A four-week refresher course was arranged for 45 community superintendents with satisfactory results. The length of leadership courses was extended from three weeks to eleven weeks. In co-operation with the Ministry of Education the Community Development Project arranged that teachers from the eleventh grade of the Teachers' Training College should attend these leadership courses so that they will be better equipped for their careers as community centre teachers. To date 250 students have graduated from the above mentioned courses and the audio-visual basic education courses. A one-year course on industrial co-operation was started in April, 1959 with eleven students who had graduated from high school. These students will be employed after their graduation in the industrial co-operatives of the community centres. In December, 1959 the experts of the community development project arranged a course on the principles and management of community centres for the staff of various units. This course has been so popular that the staff have asked that the course should be extended from two to four weeks. A similar course was arranged for the heads of various community centres and maintenance staff and inspectors in March, 1960. Much attention was paid to questions such as surveying of projects, planning, community organisation and their rôle in the development of villages. The Community Development Project is arranging intensive courses for their medical staff and also provides the opportunity for the graduates of the faculty of medicine to watch qualified medical staff at work. Graduates from the one-month course qualified for midwives and the one and a half year course to train midwives' assistants were sent out during the fourth year of the Plan. Likewise close contact was established with the sanitarian school and students were received in the clinics of the community development project to watch work in process. The construction work on the Gulzar unit was accelerated in April, 1959 to provide facilities for training courses and offices. The building will cost 10,000,000 Afghanis, will accommodate 250 people with a hall, an open air theatre and a display room. A 35 acre experimental farm, and model poultry and dairy farms have been planned. Steps have been taken to substitute foreign experts by local teachers. The Community Development Project has paid a considerable amount of attention to agricultural activities such as arranging demonstrations of improved farming implements and introducing new 31