Catalyzing Change for Afghan Girls/Women

Dr. Sakena Yacoobi is the CEO of the Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL), which she founded in 1995 in response to the lack of education and health care that the Afghan people were facing after decades of war and strife. AIL was established to provide teacher training to Afghan women, to support education for boys and girls, and to provide health education to women and children. Since its founding, AIL has either directly or indirectly impacted the lives of millions of Afghans. Under her leadership, AIL continues as an innovative organization working at the grassroots level helping communities and individuals.

Dr. Yacoobi also founded the Professor Sakena Yacoobi Private Hospital in Herat, four Professor Sakena Yacoobi Private High Schools in Herat and Kabul, and the private station Radio Meraj in Herat (Afghanistan's NPR). Dr.Yacoobi is also co-founder and CEO of Creating Hope International, a non-profit organization based in Michigan, USA.

Only 30% of women in Afghanistan are literate, and very few women and girls have access to quality education or training.  Since 1995, AIL has been the leader in providing Afghan girls and women with quality education and training, as well as programs in health, leadership, peace and human rights.

Founder Dr. Sakena Yacoobi, called by Afghans "The Mother of Education", has established schools in cities and refugee camps, as well as 368 Learning Centers which educate both girls and women in a broad, holistic curriculum.  AIL has taught 474,056 students, and has trained over 29,000 teachers in an innovative approach based on critical thinking/learning. In addition to the education basics, women and girls receive health education as well as skills which can launch them in careers. This unique approach to helping women/girls gain an education and careers could be scaled globally, wherever women are denied an education.

14 million Afghan women are mostly poor and illiterate (70%). Only 16% work outside the home, and they have no ability to contribute to the community.  AIL helps these women become healthy, literate, educated, and career ready. Afghan women rarely get even an elementary education and many who do, have not learned skills which make them employable. Often these women/girls are forced into early marriage and a life of continuous poverty. 

Since 1995, AIL has provided:

> Teacher training to 29,150 teachers

> Basic and advanced education to millions of students

> Health education to 3.2 million women and girls

> Health services to 3.1 million women 

> Leadership and human rights training to 43,215 women

> Legal services for poor women

> Career training for women to establish sewing businesses

> Education in 80 secret schools during the time of the Taliban in Afghanistan

> Basic, health and civic education via a private radio station (like NPR) 

> COVID-19 aid: to refugees (food, disinfection/personal protection kits, virus education); to health care professionals (PPE, and donations to the government ; and to teachers and students (distance learning).

> Overall direct and indirect support to millions of Afghans

AIL works at the grass roots level in Afghanistan, to change the nature and quality of education to include: critical thinking and problem solving  skills, science as well as literacy, and job-related skills such as tailoring, Afghan crafts/arts, computing and English.

AIL teacher training staff (95% female) have created a number of interactive training curricula for pedagogy and subject matter workshops for preschool through high school. These include teacher training manuals for preschool, literacy and primary education that have been adopted by the Afghan government.

• Trains teachers to teach in interactive ways that promote critical thinking and problem solving skills in students;  millions of students (mostly female) have benefited from AIL's training of teachers; 70% of those trained are female and most of the male teachers trained, teach female students;
• Runs 46 Learning Centers in Afghanistan;
• Provides education at all levels: preschool through secondary and skill-based training.
• Provides  training in the areas of human rights, leadership, gender, peace,  health and democracy    
• Provides health services to hundreds of thousands of patients (over 70% female) through health clinics and Community Health Worker posts in villages.
• Provides health education to  women and children at clinics,  schools and centers.

AIL serves all people, especially women and children in both urban and rural areas of Afghanistan. AIL requires community participation in all of its projects, believing that the best results are achieved when everyone is integrally involved. 

AIL works with community leaders in the planning, development and implementation of all projects.  No project is started unless the community has requested it and is involved in it.  Utilizing this visionary strategy, communities now contribute 30 to 50 percent of the resources needed for a project. In late 2019, there were 362 volunteers assisting AIL from the communities that AIL serves.   These community contributions have come in many forms, including volunteer help, assistance with security, and donated space, materials, and supplies. These contributions have strengthened the communities’ involvement in and ownership of AIL projects and are part of ongoing efforts towards achieving sustainability.

AIL believes that educated women are the key to an effective, developed Afghanistan. With that in mind, AIL works to empower all Afghan women, by expanding their education and health opportunities and by fostering self-reliance and community participation through its Learning Centers. AIL also  provides training opportunities to teachers in interactive, critical thinking methodologies.

AIL serves the people of Afghanistan, either directly through education and health services, or indirectly through Radio Meraj, publications and pedagogical materials that are widely used.  Many people have been left behind, as war and poverty have left most citizens without the education and job training they need to sustain their livelihoods.

AIL also elevates understanding of and between people, by changing people's attitudes, beliefs and behaviors about education and the abilities of women. 

AIL’s teacher training programs focus on quality education to Afghan teachers, and they teach people to think critically, problem solve and to advocate for themselves.  

When Dr. Sakena Yacoobi began her work in the Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan in the mid-90s, there were very few educational or health programs available.  The refugee camps were administered by the Pakistan Commissionerate and UNHCR.  The few schools in the camps used Pakistani teachers and textbooks.  Initially, Afghans were not interested in having their children educated, as education had been forced on them by the Soviet Union when it invaded Afghanistan and that education did not reflect Afghan values and culture.  

However, after the defeat of the Soviet Union, Afghans began to realize that education was needed but they wanted to have control over who the teachers were and what was being taught.  Teachers were mostly untrained and taught students using rote memorization. Dr. Yacoobi had come to train female teachers teaching in the Afghan schools in interactive methodologies.  Her training was revolutionary.  Students liked going to school and learned quickly with these new methods of teaching.  Community leaders came to Dr. Yacoobi requesting assistance in opening schools and training teachers in their camps.  As a result, Dr. Yacoobi founded the Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL) in 1995.  

“Education is the key to unlocking human potential, but it only works when people are healthy, the economy is stable, and a country is secure. All of these things are tied together. The country must be secure in order for people to feel safe leaving their houses, which will lead to more people being educated, contributing to the economy and staying healthy.

 In order to unlock the human potential through education, you must not only give them knowledge, but also critical thinking skills and the ability to peacefully deal with conflicts that arise. Educated people are better able to get jobs that can support a family, and less likely to be lured into acting as puppets for those who wish to do harm, which in turn helps to make things more secure. But, in order for people to get jobs, the economy must be secure. Finally, people must be healthy in order to learn and contribute to the economy. The malnourished and sick cannot learn or work. 

In order to really unlock the human potential there must be a way to address all four issues: education, healthcare, economic stability and security.”

 Dr. Sakena Yacoobi, Executive Director

Dr. Yacoobi has devoted her life to the Afghan people and been instrumental in carrying the voice of Afghan women to the world. She focuses attention on the urgent need for women’s rights, education, training, healthcare and peace in Afghanistan and the world. She has an Afghan staff, training them to serve people in health and education as well as providing career skills training(weaving,sewing, computers).

Born in Herat, Afghanistan, Sakena came to the United States in the 1970s, earning a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from the University of the Pacific and a master’s degree in public health from Loma Linda University. Before returning to Afghanistan in 1992 to work with her people, Sakena was a professor at D’Etre University and a health consultant. While working with refugees in Pakistan, she published eight Dari language teacher training guides. During that time, she also served as delegate for the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR) working on the education portion of the United Nation’s Rehabilitation Plan for Afghanistan.  
 
This core value reflects Sakena's approach to this work:  "At AIL we don’t move forward with any plans or programs until we are assured of the whole community’s full support. We stress the need for each member and community to contribute something — whatever they can afford — as a sign of their commitment to support the project and their willingness to be a part of the solution. We raise the standards for participation, and in meeting them, their self-esteem grows..." 

Education in the time of the Taliban:  

When the Taliban took over Afghanistan in 1996 and banned girls' education, female teachers of girls, having heard of AIL’s work in the refugee camps, asked for support for underground home schools for girls.  The teacher had to show to AIL that all of the members of the community, where the secret school would be located, had agreed to this and would provide security.  An agreement was signed and AIL paid the salary of the teacher and provided supplies so schools could function. 

As trust in AIL’s work grew, so did the number of requests for support.  In addition to schools and training of teachers, communities requested preschools, health clinics, women’s centers,  health education and leadership and human rights workshops.  AIL began training midwives, health educators and leadership and human rights trainers.  Because there were no universities, AIL opened a university with degrees in computer science, business administration, and a unique degree for those trained as midwives, nurses and health educators.

By 2001, AIL was supporting 80 underground home schools for 3,000 girls in 5 provinces in Afghanistan  In the refugee camps of Pakistan, AIL was supporting 183 school and 8 health clinics. 

Sakena's leadership has been demonstrated in many ways over the years. One  example would be when the Taliban were defeated, she immediately shifted from secret underground schools to an open broad approach to teaching and learning in Afghanistan.

In 2002, AIL began working openly in Afghanistan as a new government was being formed.  AIL continued using its community-based approach to open Learning Centers for women and older children, who had not had the opportunity to learn, and to open health clinics.  

Afghans asked AIL to provide workshops and conferences on a wide variety of topics ranging from: administration, democracy, leadership, human rights, violence against women, good governance, and elections.   

Under the new government, AIL worked closely with various ministries primarily, women’s affairs, education, health, social matters and culture, to inform them of AIL’s activities and to coordinate various workshops and trainings with them.  For example, the ministry of education asked permission to use AIL’s teacher training curriculum and asked AIL to train preschool teachers.  The ministry of education in Herat asked AIL to provide training for all of its teachers.   A number of districts in other provinces have also requested that AIL provide training for their teachers. 

Please note: Creating Hope International (CHI) is the US based 501c3 organization which was formed to raise money for and support the work of the Herat-based Afghan Institute for Learning (AIL). At the time of their formation, it was considered more secure to have a separate US-based entity which could raise funds and provide them as needed for the work in Afghanistan.  CHI acts as fiscal sponsor for AIL. Dr. Yacoobi is CEO of CHI.

AIL has practiced its innovative model of community engagement based on established trust for over 25 years. Its holistic approach can be followed by  non-profits anywhere in the world. In the past two decades, AIL has supported 368 Learning Centers and 20 health clinics, and worked in 15 provinces of Afghanistan, including some of the more insecure regions. AIL works with all leaders, including Taliban, to ensure culturally acceptable programming and that projects proceed without issues. Currently, AIL is working in 9 provinces.         

AIL develops programs only when communities request them and are willing to contribute to their success. AIL works with community leaders in all aspects of the planning and implementation of projects. Communities do their part by providing facilities, security and some staff, setting goals, requesting specific training and collaborating on curriculum, to ensure it is designed around their specific needs.

AIL was the innovator of the Women’s Learning Center model. These centers teach academic subjects like literacy and income-generating skills (tailoring, carpet weaving, beauty shop operation, computers, English). The classes also include a variety of subjects requested by the students (miniature painting, drawing, glass blowing, calligraphy, poetry).  Incorporated into each class are messages on health, human rights, peace, gender equality, core values, democracy, citizenship, leadership and other topics requested by the students. AIL continues to be flexible in its approach and adaptive to changing needs. For example, it was the first to respond, in 1999, to the request by Afghan women for human rights and leadership training.

We like to say Afghanistan is being rebuilt one individual and one community at a time. It’s what we see every day in the community centers: women and girls, men and boys, the entire community transformed in the way they see themselves, their roles in society, and their potential as a people to progress towards higher goals. 

AIL is helping to bring about a cultural shift in Afghanistan through our quality education and training programs. As a result, Afghans have a raised awareness of democracy, the rights of citizens and rule of law. They have excelled in learning and believe in their ability to create a better future for their country.

Afghans have accepted their individual responsibility as change-makers and are willingly working together to restore Afghanistan to a land of peace, equality and harmony. At its core, our work is bringing balance and harmony to people’s lives. At the heart of this cultural shift are the five core values that guide all of our work at AIL and have found their way into the hearts and minds of the Afghan people we serve. 

1. Listen and learn: plant seeds of trust
2. Leverage community support: get people to join hands and work together
3. Lead the way: pave the path to reaching each person's goals
4. Evaluate your work: collaborative discussion results in new directions
5. New goals: innovation never stops

Each year, AIL produces an Impact Study for that year, and analyzes the links between activities, outputs and outcomes for both the immediate and long term. For example, in 2019, the activities led to the following outputs:

1. 536,605 Afghans received education, health services and teacher training or benefited from AIL teachers trained in 2019
2. 247,714 Afghans (70% women) received health services (lt outcome: better health for them and their families)
3. 169,394 Afghan women received health education (lt outcome: better health for them and their families)
4. 979 teachers trained (lt outcome: lifetime of teaching thousands of students)
5. Radio Meraj, the NPR of Afghanistan, many educational programs, including science and health as well as literacy and the rule of law (lt outcome: inspiration to building a better society)

In 2019, AIL served the following people:

1. 536,605 Afghans received education, health services and teacher trainings or benefited from AIL teachers trained in 2019
2. 247,714 Afghans (70% women) received health services (lt outcome: better health for them and their families
3. 169,394  Afghan women received health education (lt outcome: better health for them and their families)
4. 979 teachers trained (lt outcome: lifetime of teaching thousands of students)
5. Radio Meraj, the NPR of Afghanistan, many educational programs, including science and health as well as literacy and the rule of law (lt outcome: inspiration to building a better society)

In one year, AIL should be increasing these numbers by 10%.  In addition, in 2020 AIL is  serving thousands of Afghan families impacted by COVID-19. These activities include: PPE for hospitals, clinics and personnel; disinfectant kits to families; health education to the nation via Radio Meraj 18 times a day (on taking proper precautions and what to do if taken ill); tens of thousands of meals, masks and health sanitizing equipment to refugees returning from Iran and mental health support for families in need. 

 AIL Learning Centers teaching sewing immediately shifted to PPE production to meet the needs of health professionals and people unable to buy them.  AIL adapted its education program to distance learning while schools are closed. These immediate and effective actions showcase AIL's ability to face any crisis and adapt as necessary even in a pandemic. In five years our goal would be to increase these numbers by 50%.

From Dr. Yacoobi: "My goal for the immediate future is to continue AIL programs with the needed adaptation due to the coronavirus situation. This includes providing students with distance learning, supporting our health clinics by producing PPE and expanding our health education through all facilities and Radio Meraj and videos made by TV Meraj. We have also expanded our emergency food aid program to reach more families who have been impacted by the virus or economic hardship. As soon as the lock down restrictions are lifted we will reopen Learning Centers, schools and our workshop training programs.

In the next 5 years, I would like to expand our education and health programs to other provinces of Afghanistan. I want to consolidate our training and health and life skills education to promote better relationships within families and communities. This will include education about peace, violence against women, early child marriage, drug addiction and good citizenship."

The pandemic remains a difficult problem with the resulting
closure of programs and facilities. It is hard to put together a
timetable within this environment of uncertainty. Planning is still taking place, our offices are open and our centers’ staff continue to develop their plans.

Funding remains a challenge for the next 1- 5 year goals especially given the pressures placed on all institutions by the virus. There is much need in the world and yet places like Afghanistan suffer the most due to its fragile security situation and underdeveloped health, education and economic systems.

Our challenge is to keep Afghanistan in the world’s eye so people will know what is needed and want to help. A review of our marketing strategies will be done to maximize our reach during this unprecedented time.

AIL has always been both flexible and responsive to the needs of the communities it serves. We do what they ask for, not the other way round. This way of operating will be helpful as we navigate the pandemic environment, adapting our programs to what is possible and desired.

We are also focused on supporting these adaptations through encouragement and support helping people adapt to doing things differently. For example, we are encouraging students and families to participate in distance learning, as well as counseling families suffering the pressures of lockdown life.

Teachers at our Learning Centers and the schools we support, are providing education packs for students. They remain available to help students via email, telephone or by socially distant meetings. 

Although Learning Centers and training workshops are temporarily closed, distance learning is being made available, wherever possible, so children will not lose out on learning and lose the motivation to continue their education. In addition, AIL has helped the community fight COVID-19 through its healh clinics and through providing masks, PPE, food and other resources to the health care system, to its students and families and to refugees pouring over the border.  In other words, AIL has found new ways to serve in this environment.

Dr. Yacoobi attends many events, conferences, sits on panels and discussion forums in the USA and the world. She will continue to participate as much as possible to raise awareness of the plight of Afghans. 

Dr. Sakena Yacoobi has been very connected to the UN and its goals, and has served as a delegate to many of the UN conferences:

• NGO delegate to the United Nations Population Fund Conference on Gender
Violence, Bratislava, Slovakia (2002)
• Delegate to the Afghan Women’s Summit for Democracy sponsored by UNIFEM and partnering NGOs, Brussels, Belgium (2001)
• Delegate to the Roundtable on Women’s Leadership in Rebuilding Afghanistan sponsored by UNIFEM and the Belgian government, Brussels, Belgium (2001)
• Delegate to the United Nations Millennium Forum for NGOs, New York City,
United States (2000)
• NGO Delegate through Women’s Learning Partnership to UN Commission on the Status of Women. (2011)
• Delegate to Davos World Economic Forum (2011)

AIL's business model is to raise the money from donors in the USA and internationally to help build programs to help women, girls and boys and others in Afghanistan. It serves a population which is unable to pay, and the goal is to lift women and girls out of poverty, so they can be self-sustaining citizens in their lifetimes.

In addition to AIL, Dr. Yacoobi has started additional programs in Afghanistan which are funded separately.  Some of these are self-sustaining. For example, her four private high schools are partially funded by the students and thus in part self- sustaining.  In addition, she started Radio Meraj (the NPR of Afghanistan) and will soon open TV Meraj. Though they started with donor money, the goal is to have these stations be self-sustaining in the long run. The hospital which she founded and still sends some supplies to, is now separately funded by the government.

CHI raises money for AIL from grants, including individual donors, family foundations, corporations and others.  Many of these sources are recurring support and will continue into the foreseeable future.  It does not have funding from debt or equity.

We are putting in place a plan to fundraise for an endowment fund of $5 -7 million to ensure AIL’s future. We are currently looking at areas we might be able to develop with regard to fundraising such as corporate grantors and increasing our engagement with the public, especially in the USA.

We have many individual donors through the crowdfunding platform, Global Giving which usually generates approximately $100,000 per year.

We have grantors both individuals and family foundations such as Ray of Light Foundation and Emerson Collective.

We have also received in-kind donations of medicines such as from Direct Relief and mobile phone pregnancy tracking services through ZMQ.

We are approaching grantors, both individuals and family foundations, for support for our programs and our COVID-19 adapted programs and relief work.

Estimated expenses for 2020 for the baseline programs of AIL will be $2 million, not counting additional programs to deal with the fallout from COVID-19.

If needed, we can share more expense detail at a later date. 

Dr. Sakena Yacoobi is a premier example of a Global Hero.  She is a "force of nature" who has given her life to serving the people of Afghanistan, and has changed society there, in many ways over the past 25 years.  She brings enormous energy, ideas and solutions to help solve the dearth of education and health care for women and girls in Afghanistan.  She has started innovative programs that have catalyzed the entire country in education, has trained thousands of teachers and has served, through these teachers and programs, millions of students since 1995. 

In addition, Dr. Yacoobi has been a global leader in establishing the UN goals for women's literacy globally and has worked with the UN, as it helps to increase education and health care for all women.  Dr. Yacoobi has widely promoted the UN goals to help women's equality.

The Elevate Prize is very prestigious and it would be an honor to receive it.  The prize money would be an enormous help to AIL, as we work our way through the challenges of the coronavirus and the next few years.The prize would help AIL and Dr. Yacoobi to bring quality education, health care and health education to millions more women and girls in Afghanistan.  In addition, it would be very helpful to have support via more computers, internet service, smart phones and other technologies (as well as technical training) to help us adapt our education programs to the new online environment. 

CHI, the US-based non-profit needs some additional board members who could help in its governance and fundraising.  It could also use a COO and/or fundraising lead to help CHI build its capacity. Marketing and media exposure always helps because it can bring in new partners and donors. 

There are many ways in which partners or mentors could support the work of AIL as it pivots to a COVID-19 world, in which education must be remote and more computer-based with greater technical demands and the need for technical training.  Just as US schools are scrambling to support their students and teachers in new ways, this is even more true in Afghanistan, where few families have computers, broadband, or even smart phones.  Without more help in these areas, AIL will not be able to provide the women and girls' education and health education to the quality level it desires.

The types of organizations which would be great to partner with include the following:

> Suppliers of health products and medicines

> Multi-year partners for the health, training and education programs

> Partners with media (TV, radio) expertise who could help establish our TV station and continue Radio Meraj