Pakistani School Security Improvements

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 the evening school was back in session! We have 353 girls enrolled in evening classes and another 1,030 boys and girls enrolled in our regular daytime classes for the start of the year. Of the 1,030 students 323 of them are girls who are working to gain an education.

This fall in addition to continuing to provide security for the school, some of our students were in need of school uniforms, shoes and books. As the security situation continues to fluctuate with the activities of the Taliban, we were also reminded that poverty is also a prevalent issue for our Pakistani students.

As we go into the Thanksgiving holiday here in the USA, we’re thankful for donors like you who responded to an urgent need from students to continue their studies with confidence in their new uniforms and with the materials they needed. Going into this school year, we are hopeful that we can raise funds to continue to provide the security the students need to attend school safely.

I look forward to staying in touch with you all with updates from our team in Pakistan. 

Happy Thanksgiving for us all!

At the end of June our female students who take classes in the evening returned to school. The remainder of our students will be returning in August once the heat of the summer has gone down a bit. We have 353 girls enrolled in evening classes and another 1,030 boys and girls enrolled in our regular daytime classes. Of the 1,030 students 323 of them are girls who are working to gain an education.

In Pakistan our girls are at a slight disadvantage, beyond a certain age many families believe that the girls place is in the home. For this reason we created evening classes which allow girls who may not be able to attend school during the day are still able to further their education as well as fulfill their duties at home. The girls who attend the evening classes are taught the same information as the rest of the students just at a different time of day. 

At Barakat we take a holistic approach to education believing that education doesn't need to take place between the hours of 8am and 2pm or even in a classroom! Our programs are overseen by the government but when the students are taught is up to us. We also believe that age does not determine level of education, we allow girls to start their education at any age be it 6 years old or 60 years old.

We can't do this without your help! It is now more important than ever that we show our support for the girls who are determined to gain an education, afterall they are the future, and an educated mother is four times more likely to send her own children to school. Join us in the fight for girls education!