Send 1,700 Children to Elementary School

As the incoming Director of the US office for Barakat, I am incredibly humbled and honored to have the opportunity to advance Barakat’s mission to provide exemplary education in Afghanistan and Pakistan, particularly for girls and women.

In the past few months I have read national coverage detailing tragic events with the destruction of eight girls and four boys schools in Northern Pakistan. A New York Times article from the Spring, also shed light on the situation we are working amongst in Afghanistan to provide education to both boys and girls. 

These reports only highlight the importance of Barakat’s vision that education is important for everyone not only because it is an entry point to other opportunities, but also because the survival and growth of society depends on it. Barakat is impacting positive social change at a time when it's most needed.

In our last update, we reported that a handful of girls have returned to the Bish Kapa School. Unfortunately, the situation is dire with the Taliban active in the Aqcha district and the Surkh village where the school is located. While student enrollment in the school is stable for now, it is still low for this year. We continue to monitor the situation and work with our teachers and team in Afghanistan to support the Bish Kapa School and the student needs. We remain committed to keeping the school open and providing the security it needs.

Thankfully, we still have 1390 students enrolled in the Mullah Karim Nazar school and more than 500 students enrolled in our at home literacy programs this year. We are still educating close to 2,000 students in Afghanistan alone. This is something to be hopeful about and energizes us at Barakat as we move into the Thanksgiving holiday here in the USA. We are also thankful for your continued support for Barakat.

I look forward to staying in touch with you all with updates on our schools in Afghanistan. Happy Thanksgiving!

At long last some girls are starting to come back to Besh Kappa! So far we only have a hanful of girls but now that they've started to return it'll only be a matter of time till more return. It'll still be a long time before the region will return to a semblance of normal since the Taliban and other radical groups are still very active in the area.

In the region there are not many job opportunities for young men that pay well, as a result the Taliban has managed to start swaying the groups that at one point opposed them. The Taliban pays young men to pick up arms so men that at one point would not pick up arms with the Taliban are now drawn to the fact that they can get money to help support their families. Unfortunately that translates to the region becoming unstable and unpredictable. 

We are closely monitoring our schools to ensure that our students remain safe. The Besh Kappa school building is on the outskirts of Aqcha which is why when it became dangerous it was closed for a few months. With the Taliban activity in the area we are taking it month by month but are hopeful that the danger may be starting to move to another area so that it becomes less precarious for our students to go to school. 

Thankfully our school Mullah Karim along with some of the literacy programs recently completed their final exams. They will are on break for the summer as they live lower down in the mountains and the summer heat is starting to climb. The students will return in the fall once the temperatures start to go down. 

While we can't control everything that goes on in the lives of our students we do our best to make school a safe place. With your help we can show our students that no matter what happens we will be there to support them!