Sakena Yacoobi founded the Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL), in 1995 to “help address the problem of poor access for women and children to education and health services, their subsequent inability to support their lives, and the impact of this lack of education and health on Afghan society.” This was the year the Taliban came to power and banned girls’ education. Her goal was to “empower poor women and children by providing them access to education and health services through an organisation designed and run by Afghan women.” Over the past 14 years, the AIL has pioneered innovative and culturally appropriate ways to deliver health and educational services, and community building.
The Afghan Institute of Learning is one of the largest women-led nonprofit organisations in Afghanistan. Yacoobi was in Montreal on May 1st and 2nd to attend the McGill Institute for Health and Social Policy’s Educational Equity: Global and National Strategies Conference. She spoke of the work of the AIL in providing education, income- generating skills, and hope in the hearts of Afghanis to forge a new Afghanistan with a bright future.
The Taliban’s ban on girls’ education above the age of eight prevented the vast majority of young women and girls in Afghanistan from finishing even primary school. But, through the Home School Project, the AIL kept education for girls alive by providing grades one through eight underground. Underground home schools were the only educational option available to Afghan girls for more than four years. In 2001 (the last year of the underground home schools), the AIL had 3,000 girls in 80 home schools in Jalalabad, Kabul, Herat, and Logar.
The AIL was the first NGO to start Women’s Learning Centers (WLCs) in Afghan refugee camps in 2002, in Pakistan. WLCs trained teachers, provided health education—including midwifery training—and offered preschool through university classes. Women also learned income generating skills and human rights education. The AIL served 18,000 students through its Women’s Learning Centers in 2006.
Upon the request of communities in Afghanistan, Yacoobi started establishing WLCs in Kabul, Herat, Parwan, Balkh and Bamiyan. The AIL now has twenty-two Women’s Learning Centers in Afghanistan, where there were none during the Taliban years.
The AIL has trained more than 13,000 teachers in interactive, student- centered teaching, thereby accelerating students’ ability to learn quickly. More than 390,000 Afghans have had access to quality education thanks to the AIL’s teacher training programs.
The AIL has also been providing a pre- school education program serving over 300 Afghan children per month in Kabul, Herat, and Peshawar. The students study a wide variety of subjects— Dari, English, math, drawing, gymnastics, handicrafts, health, and peace lessons. They also learn and perform Afghan songs, dances, poems, and short skits, to build their self-esteem as well as their knowledge of their heritage and culture.
The AIL’s teacher training and school support program has been an invaluable service for tens of thousands of Afghan children whose education was interrupted by the war and civil strife in Afghanistan. School support includes teacher training, onsite monitoring and supervision of teachers, teachers’ salaries, administrative support, curriculum development, and provision of school materials and supplies. The AIL supports three community schools with 1,100 Afghan refugee students in Pakistan, two community based schools for 1,300 students in Herat, a pre-school for 300 students, advanced classes for over 200 boys in Mir Bacha Kot, and scholarships for students in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Yacoobi has been working with community members to realize their desire to educate their girls. Community members cooperated with each other and the AIL to secure space for the schools and to insure that the schools, teachers, and students could teach and learn safely.
Since the overthrow of the Taliban, the AIL has played a major role in reconstructing Afghan society. Today, it provides services to 350,000 women and children annually through its 42 program sites, including four health clinics and 38 learning centers in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Of the 400 Afghans that the AIL employs, over 70% are women.
To read more about the work of these courageous women, and/or to support them with a donation, please visit www.afghaninstituteoflearning.org
CEYDA TURAN is the Associate Editor of AIJ
