SAN DIEGO -- Four teachers from Afghanistan are spending the next month in San Diego to study local schools. They have the tremendous task of helping rebuild their country's educational system. The teachers are also sharing their personal experiences with local teachers and students.

Four women who survived war and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan visited an eighth-grade classroom at O'Farrell Middle School.

Faculty and students learned that the teachers risked their lives by educating young girls in their own homes. They brought pictures of demolished schools to share with the classrooms.

Homa Khalid, a professor from Afghanistan, said, "They don't have books. They don't have desks ... but they are eager to learn something." Khalid is an engineering professor who hopes to build a partnership with the eighth-grade classroom. Students are all for it, and they are sympathetic toward what Afghan children are going through. O'Farrell student Isaac Jackson said, "I feel very bad for what she said ... I felt really bad." And Kimberly Tolentino, another O'Farrell student, said, "They have been suffering for all these years. They don't deserve to go through all that." O'Farrell is one of seven or eight schools the Afghani teachers are visiting this week. They are most interested in finding out how American children are learning. The Afghanis are amazed at the equipment, computer access and knowledge that female students have gained in American school systems. As a gesture of friendship, students presented the four teachers their first book to take home to Afghanistan.

The teachers' visit to San Diego is funded by the U.S. Department of Education. The teachers are also building a partnership with San Diego State and the City Heights Community Technology Center. Copyright 2003 by TheSanDiegoChannel.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.