Why this Project is Important

Potential Long Term Impact

Because AIL is run by Afghan women and respectful of Afghan culture, conservative villages trust AIL to begin services for thousands of isolated women in dire need. Other NGOs and the Afghan government now use this model for women’s services.

Project Message

Our eyes are opened. Now we can read and write. Actually, now we have come to know the value of an educated person in a society. We thank AIL for enlightening rural areas with the lights of education.
- Salma, woman in a literacy class in a rural ELC

Who is Running This Project

Contact

Sakena Yacoobi,
Founder & Executive Director
Afghan Institute of Learning
c/o Creating Hope International, PO Box 1058
Dearborn, Michigan 48121
United States
(313) 278-5806
Email:

Project Sponsor

Marketplace 2005

Organization

Learn more about Afghan Institute of Learning and the project team.

Where this Project is Located

Country

This project is located in Afghanistan and can also be found under Women and Girls.

For more information about Afghanistan, read the Human Development Report on Afghanistan or the Wikipedia entry for Afghanistan.

When this Project was Updated

Last Updated

This project was last updated on August 22, 2008.

Date Added to GlobalGiving

This project was added to the GlobalGiving project catalog on January 16, 2005.

Latest Update from the Field

Stories to Share

By Alison Hendry - Administrative Assistant, August 22, 2008 12:36 PM

Since the establishment of the Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL) the goal has been to help women improve their situation in life. Following is a story from one of AIL’s Women’s Learning Centers (WLC) that exemplifies the changes that AIL can make in Afghan women’s lives.

When AIL student Rizagul was a young girl, her father was put in prison by the Taliban regime where he was tortured and eventually died leaving behind Rizagul as well as her young brother and her unwell, elderly mother.

Four years ago, Rizagul came to one of AIL’s rural WLC’s in Herat province and began taking various classes, including literacy and sewing. After two years at the center, she was able to gain admission to a regular school at grade level 4, a feat which might have taken 4 years in a regular school, if it happened at all. Even after gaining admission to the regular school, Rizagul continued to take extra courses after school at the center. Unfortunately, the center was closed due to the poor security situation in the region and Rizagul could no longer take the extra courses she had come to enjoy.

A short time ago, an AIL teacher saw Rizagul at a wedding ceremony in their village. Rizagul could not control her emotions and tears rolled down her cheeks as she told her teacher, “You and AIL were the best thing for me, and I will never, never forget your encouragement and all of the hard work that you did for me.” She added, “I can now read in Arabic, I know how to sew and I am a student in grade 6. What I am is because of the AIL center.”

She also said that she is sewing dresses to make money for her family and that she has so much business that she has to turn some people away. She is making a good living, and is able to improve her family’s economic situation with her sewing skills.

Rizagul also told the teacher, “With the advice that the center supervisor wrote in my ‘memory notebook’ (try to learn, work hard for a better future and pray for your future) I am sure that I will go toward a better future.”

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