Fast Track Education for Afghan Women and Girls

Thank you for all you have contributed towards AIL’s goal of educating the women and children of Afghanistan. While the conditions in Afghanistan are still challenging, AIL is seeing positive changes in the lives of those Afghans that it works with. 

Recently the Executive Director of AIL, Dr. Sakena Yacoobi was interviewed and had the following to say about education as a path to peace: 

“ I really believe it strongly that education is the key issue, that it will bring peace to Afghanistan, because when people are ignorance, they are fighting, they want to really fight with weapon, and for 30 years we didn't accomplish anything. And day-by-day violence is getting worse and worse. Society ideally believes that we are all human and we are equal, and you look to others as equal and really try to watch for humans rights, women's rights... the right of every individual to have the dignity, to have respect, and when we abuse and don't look for gender equality we discourage people from their right, we discourage people from their value and their ethics, they feel low. And that is not the way to you look to for other human being. Again you go back again to education. The more education people have, the better they could understand that they don't do something to others that they don't want to be done to them.”

“ It’s a right of every child to be educated and from the time of Taliban, many, many children have not been in a school and today we have girls that like 15, 20 years old, they don't know how to read and write, even boys, the same thing. So what we are trying to do, we are trying to constantly work in education because if we accomplish education, that all over Afghanistan education is spread, then I think that our problem and war problem will be solved also because then people have a better understanding about equality, about justice, about right, and they are not going to abuse that.”

Through August 2012, AIL has taught 7,209 women in it’s Centers and Schools in Kabul and Herat Afghanistan, and Peshawar, Pakistan. For many of these women and girls, AIL’s classes are the only chance at obtaining an education.

Don’t forget!  The holidays are a great time to share your passion for AIL and the great work that they do! GlobalGiving offers gift certificates which can be used to donate to AIL’s projects. Also, beginning December 1^st, the initial donation made by recurring donors will be matched 100% by GlobalGiving. There is only $25,000 available in matching funds, so help AIL take advantage of this opportunity early!