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HOPE IN ACTION THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD
By KARIN RONNOW
A fghanistan and Pakistan are among the top 10 countries in the world where being born female is still a distinct disadvantage.
These are countries“ where girls are especially struggling to get an education, sometimes literally risking their lives to do so,” Rebecca Winthrop and Eileen McGivney wrote in a recent Brookings Institute report.“ These hotspots are characterized by far fewer girls than boys enrolled in secondary school, high rates of child marriage, and attacks on girls’ education.”
They also happen to be two of the three countries where Central Asia Institute works to improve access to education, especially for girls, in isolated and neglected mountain communities. The organization has made tremendous progress over the past 18 years, working with communities to build schools and enroll girls, often in places where extreme poverty, traditional mind sets, and isolation are formidable opponents. War and extremism are also daily realities for too many of our partners.
“ I remain in awe of the courage of the girls who attend our schools, and am grateful to their incredible parents, who often make huge sacrifices or even risk their lives so that their daughters can go to school,” CAI Co- Founder Greg Mortenson said.
“ In the Warduj district of Badakhshan province in Afghanistan, some of the girls go to extreme lengths to avoid being seen walking to school on the main paths or road. In Kapisa province some younger girls disguise themselves as boys so they will not be taunted or abused on their walk to school,” he said.“ Our teachers also take great pride in their jobs, even though some are at risk for teaching girls.”
Promoting education, especially for girls, remains an uphill battle. Change is slow.
In Afghanistan, there are still only 55 girls for every 100 boys enrolled in secondary school, according to the Brookings report. Forty percent of Afghan girls are married before age 18, which typically marks the end of their education. As the Brookings report points out— it’ s hard to be a girl in Afghanistan.
But CAI’ s partner communities, teachers, and students in its schools, and its supporters around the world know this is a battle worth fighting.
“ We know improving education is the only way out,” teacher Umar Rafee said about his
“ Our core mission is doing what we do in places where no one else can or will do it, remote places at the end of the road.”
— Steve Barrett, CAI Board Chairman village in Pakistan’ s Broghil Valley( eight miles past the end of the road), where the literacy rate is“ much lower compared to other parts of the district— less than 10 percent.”
TIME OF CHANGE But the good news is that in CAI’ s partner communities, things ARE changing— for girls and for everyone else.
Since 1996, CAI has worked with communities to build or support nearly 400 projects in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Hundreds of thousands of children have received an education because of these combined efforts. The first generation of boys and girls who attend CAI-supported schools are growing up, getting jobs, and giving birth to the second-ever generation of literate children. Thousands of adult women have earned a primary school-level education in our literacy centers. Hundreds of girls have fulfilled their dreams of higher education with the help of our scholarships.
Like its students, CAI has also come of age, said Jim Thaden, CAI’ s new executive director.
“ Because of the colossal success of Greg’ s books, CAI grew far faster than anyone anticipated,” Thaden said.“ Under the pressure of extremely high growth we broke at the seams.”
That was in 2011. In the three years since,“ We’ ve made major changes to the way we do business in the United States,” Thaden said.“ We’ ve shored up our processes, procedures
2 | Journey of Hope C E N T R A L A S I A I N S T I T U T E