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For decades Afghans lived as refugees and many of them continue to do so today. People lost their values, their way of life and I realized that people, culture, values all are lost if there is no education. If women are ignored like in the case of our society, we are missing out on half the population that can contribute towards the success of the nation. Education is more than just books, I wanted to replace rote learning with idea learning. Education is all about ideating, debating and sharing. We teach them how to interact, share, ideate, reconnect with the outside world, respect and appreciate others, and encourage critical thinking and debate. Participatory methods of teaching is the way that ideas can be shared and debated this enables people to learn how to debate and analyze issues for themselves. |
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Other friends of the Afghan Institute of Learning include:
National Endowment for Democracy Peace Education Center, Teachers College, Columbia University The Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding
The Bon Foundation
We have also received donations from hundreds of individual contributors. To protect their identities we cannot list them here, but they are always in our hearts.
Featured Donor
Millsaps College, Jackson , Mississippi - Catapult team
This enterprising group of activists have a motto "Across the street and around the globe!" and students at Millsaps College are taking this message and putting it into action uniting to raise money for girls education worldwide! They formed a team under the Catapult website which focuses fundraising efforts for girls education and kicked off their efforts with a showing of the Half the Sky film which recently aired on PBS following this various organizations were chosen and a vote taken as to which one to support - AIL won the vote.
Their student manager told us of their various efforts, "We held an awareness day to expose some of the oppression that women and girls face around the world on October 11, the International Day of the Girl, and began selling handmade t-shirts to the growing number of activists on our campus. We worked hard to raise awareness on campus and involved many organizations like Amnesty International in this process. By selling t-shirts and collecting donations outside our cafeteria, we have raised over $1000 dollars in just under two months. We make all our fundraisers fun with music and free candy, which really draws people in. Our latest fundraising adventure has been "Cups for Change," where 20 committed activists, inspired by the work of AIL and the message of Half the Sky, carried around cups all week asking for loose change. I am still collecting cups from students, but it looks like that fundraiser collected about $100! I think we have been successful because of our ongoing effort to actively engage the student body in awareness building, then empowering students who become passionate about the project to fundraising independently, with Catapult as our fundraising "headquarters.We will keep going with this project because we believe in its message: that all girls deserve to have the opportunity to go to school."
The Millsaps team were able to raise over $1000 which they kindly donated to one of AIL's projects - Scholarships for Afghan girls. This generous donation means we are now one third of the way to fully funding this project under Catapult. Thank you Millsaps! We are delighted by the success of your efforts and also that you have engaged young people in the cause and want to continue to support girls education.
The Bon Foundation
We have also received donations from hundreds of individual contributors. To protect their identities we cannot list them here, but they are always in our hearts.
Featured Donor
Millsaps College, Jackson , Mississippi - Catapult team
This enterprising group of activists have a motto "Across the street and around the globe!" and students at Millsaps College are taking this message and putting it into action uniting to raise money for girls education worldwide! They formed a team under the Catapult website which focuses fundraising efforts for girls education and kicked off their efforts with a showing of the Half the Sky film which recently aired on PBS following this various organizations were chosen and a vote taken as to which one to support - AIL won the vote.
Their student manager told us of their various efforts, "We held an awareness day to expose some of the oppression that women and girls face around the world on October 11, the International Day of the Girl, and began selling handmade t-shirts to the growing number of activists on our campus. We worked hard to raise awareness on campus and involved many organizations like Amnesty International in this process. By selling t-shirts and collecting donations outside our cafeteria, we have raised over $1000 dollars in just under two months. We make all our fundraisers fun with music and free candy, which really draws people in. Our latest fundraising adventure has been "Cups for Change," where 20 committed activists, inspired by the work of AIL and the message of Half the Sky, carried around cups all week asking for loose change. I am still collecting cups from students, but it looks like that fundraiser collected about $100! I think we have been successful because of our ongoing effort to actively engage the student body in awareness building, then empowering students who become passionate about the project to fundraising independently, with Catapult as our fundraising "headquarters.We will keep going with this project because we believe in its message: that all girls deserve to have the opportunity to go to school."
The Millsaps team were able to raise over $1000 which they kindly donated to one of AIL's projects - Scholarships for Afghan girls. This generous donation means we are now one third of the way to fully funding this project under Catapult. Thank you Millsaps! We are delighted by the success of your efforts and also that you have engaged young people in the cause and want to continue to support girls education.
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Helping Hands Club, Alcott Elementary School, Chicago Illinois USA
September 2012 - AIL recently received a donation from a unique source: a group of elementary students(mostly kindergarten and 1st grade) from the Helping Hands Club of Alcott Elementary School, Chicago Illinois.
These students are part of an after school group that meets for several hours each week. They are engaged in a global outreach project to learn about different countries by participating in activities including playing games from the country they are studying. They select a cause from the country to support and spend the second half of meetings planning ways to fundraise for that cause. During March and April 2012 the group learned about Afghanistan and chose AIL as the organization they wished to support.
With the help of their group leader, parents and teachers, these students gathered used books and held a sale after school for several hours each week. They set up tables in the hall and talked to parents about AIL and encouraged them to visit the used book sale table. In the words of the leader: "It was great to see the students in the club give up so much of their play time and become so passionate about the cause!"
Through their concern for others, creative thinking and hard work these young children were able to raise over $300 to help students half a world away. We are so grateful for their hard work and donation. Thank you Alcott Elementary School Helping Hands Club members!!
