Pakistani School Security Improvements

Thankfully the immediate threat of deportation by the Pakistani government has passed for now but we still need your help to be better prepared for the next time they decide to deport Afghan refugees from the areas surrounding our schools. 

The Pakistani government categorizes Afghan refugees into three categories. Those that are in the country illegally, those with fake papers and those that are there with legal papers and are approved to be in the country by the government. The big push a few months ago was to try and get the refugees with false papers or there illegally to leave the country and repatriate to Afghanistan, thankfully all of our students are in the country legally but it lead to a lot of uncertainty among the community surrounding our schools. 

As a result of the threat we've seen a 20% decrease in student enrollment in our schools in Pakistan. The most obvious difference is that we only have 185 girls enrolled between all three schools that we operate. We're working diligently with our offices in Pakistan to figure out a solution as to why we have so few girls enrolled. We are hopeful that as time goes on the uncertainty of the future will pass and we'll see enrollment rates go back up. This is not the first time that the Pakistani government has tried to push the Afghan refugees out of the country and so it's only a matter of time till things get back on track and the hope is that when they resume trying to push refugees out of the country we'll be better prepared to reassure our students that school will always be a safe place. 

We are thankful for your continued support as we continue to work through all of the curveballs the Pakistani governement throws at us.