LATEST NEWS from Afghan Institute of Learning
AIL is part of this exciting Crowdrise challenge - where charities compete to raise the most money for their causes and win bonus donations totaling $75,000 . We would love your support! Challenge runs through June 6th at 5pm EST. To donate go to our Crowdrise page http://www.crowdrise.com/afghaninstituteoflearning-RFW
AIL featured on Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/afghan-institute-of-learning/a-quiet-transformation-af_b_3240860.html
Yacoobi featured in Dare to Imagine video from the Skoll Foundation's Skoll World Forum 2013.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1eIYZjzO7A&feature=youtu.be
 The Afghan Institute of Learning.
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Impact since 1996
Impact 10 million Students 294,772 Centers 332 Clinics 15 Teachers Trained 21,364 Capacity Trained 10,930 Patients 1,686,546 Health Education 2,183,315 Trained in Health Workshops 10,536 Provinces AIL has worked in 11 Year 2012 Direct beneficiaries 361,664 Direct / indirect beneficiaries 1,062,584 Students 19,474 Medical Clinics 5 Learning Centers 38 Afghans Employed 425    |
_The Afghan Institute of Learning
(AIL) is committed to bringing peace and dignity to the Afghan people as they struggle to overcome poverty, oppression, economic devastation, and injustice wrought by the last thirty years of war and sectarian violence. AIL works will all people, women, girls, men and boys. AIL is there for all the disadvantaged who need help. Approximately 70% of the direct beneficiaries of AIL's programs are female but men and boys also need the chance to make changes in their lives and communities. That opportunity to make a small change is what makes a huge difference in people's lives. About Us AIL is an Afghan, women run, non-governmental organization (NGO) which was founded in 1995 by Dr. Sakena Yacoobi to help address the crisis of poor access to education and health services for Afghan people especially women and children. These people cannot support their lives, and this has a huge impact on Afghan society as a whole. AIL’s internationally recognized work plays a major role by creating or reconstructing education and health systems capable of reaching the women and children and men of Afghanistan--whether in refugee camps or in their homeland. AIL’s visionary programs have had a major impact and are now being replicated by the Afghan government and other NGOs in the region. AIL presently has offices in Kabul and Herat, Afghanistan and in Peshawar, Pakistan. It is run by women and 70% of its employees are women. AIL has offered pre-school through university education, training opportunities to teachers in interactive, critical thinking methodologies and training for members of civil society in subjects such as human rights, women’s rights, leadership, and peace. AIL also provides health education and health care through its clinics, health outreach to places such as orphanages and schools and through the wide reaching Community Health Workers Program. AIL believes that an educated people are the key to a future developed Afghanistan. With that in mind, AIL works to empower all Afghans who are needy and oppressed by expanding their education and health opportunities and by fostering self-reliance and community participation. AIL’s goals are to lay a foundation for quality education and good health for years to come and to provide comprehensive education and health services to Afghan women and children, so that they can support and care for themselves. "Education is the key to improving women's lives. Educating a girl, transforms her life and the life of her family, changing a community and through that you change a nation for the better. Health education is what creates sustainable improvement in the health of communities." Dr. Sakena Yacoobi "When you work at the grass roots level, working with all kinds of people- that power of people will never be matched by anything else." Dr. Sakena Yacoobi - Skoll World Forum "Dare to Imagine" video |
     Wendy Maharry Painting |
Where did we start? Home schools
AIL started during a desperate and dangerous time for education in Afghanistan. Through its Home School Program, AIL kept education for girls alive during the Taliban regime. AIL provided grade 1 through 8 education for girls in an underground system. Underground home schools were the only educational option available to these girls for more than 4 years. In 2001 (the last year of the underground home schools), AIL had 3,000 girls in 80 home schools in Jalalabad, Kabul, Herat, and Logar. AIL had trained more than 80 teachers for the schools. Mobile libraries in Herat and Jalalabad transported reading material between the underground schools. AIL had also begun health programs in Kabul and Jalalabad and an income generating skills class in Herat. The underground schools and health programs gave hope to the students, the community, and the nation.
AIL worked with community members to realize their common desire to keep education alive in Afghanistan by allowing some girls to continue their education. Community members cooperated with each other and AIL to secure space for the schools and to ensure that the schools, teachers, and students could teach and learn safely.
AIL’s Approach
AIL requires community participation in all of its projects whether educational or health related, believing that the best results are achieved when everyone is invested and integral to the project. AIL will only take on a project when the community has requested help and then AIL works closely with community leaders in the development and implementation. This visionary strategy has contributed to the fact that communities now contribute 30 to 50 percent of the resources needed for a project some even provide 90% of the cost with AIL providing administrative and teacher training, oversight and a small amount of funding for partial salaries. These community contributions can come in many forms, including volunteer help, assistance with security, and donated space, materials, and supplies. This direct contribution strengthens the community’s involvement in, and ownership of the project and is part of the underlying mission of creating self sustaining development.
Another of AIL’s innovative strategies is to take a holistic approach to its provision of services. AIL believes people need to receive health care but also at the same time health education so the cycle of illness and disease can be broken. Teachers need training in new interactive teaching methodologies but also need to know about peace, leadership, health and human rights so they can pass these onto their students. Illiterate women come to centers to learn an income generating skill like sewing but are encouraged to also enter classes to learn to read and write and do math.
AIL has a track record of 15 years of success seen on the ground in Afghanistan and in recognition received nationally and internationally (see Awards page) as well as shown in the confidence of our supporters but perhaps the greatest testament to its success come in the words of a student.
Malika’s Story
“At 22, my hand was not used to holding pen and chalk. I had never seen anyone in my family write or read but my teachers encouraged and helped me. I have not only become a literate person, but know many things like famous poets, about the human body and health and I have learned math and geometry. I help my son who is in second grade, and my daughter in fifth grade.... This year, because so many more girls are coming to our center, I became a teacher of the first grade….. I earn good money from my sewing skills and use that money for my children’s education. Recently I started training in the Community Health Worker program in our village. I am able to do all of this because I am literate and now I can have an effect on others. I learned from AIL, and now I help others learn. That is the new meaning in my life.”
AIL started during a desperate and dangerous time for education in Afghanistan. Through its Home School Program, AIL kept education for girls alive during the Taliban regime. AIL provided grade 1 through 8 education for girls in an underground system. Underground home schools were the only educational option available to these girls for more than 4 years. In 2001 (the last year of the underground home schools), AIL had 3,000 girls in 80 home schools in Jalalabad, Kabul, Herat, and Logar. AIL had trained more than 80 teachers for the schools. Mobile libraries in Herat and Jalalabad transported reading material between the underground schools. AIL had also begun health programs in Kabul and Jalalabad and an income generating skills class in Herat. The underground schools and health programs gave hope to the students, the community, and the nation.
AIL worked with community members to realize their common desire to keep education alive in Afghanistan by allowing some girls to continue their education. Community members cooperated with each other and AIL to secure space for the schools and to ensure that the schools, teachers, and students could teach and learn safely.
AIL’s Approach
AIL requires community participation in all of its projects whether educational or health related, believing that the best results are achieved when everyone is invested and integral to the project. AIL will only take on a project when the community has requested help and then AIL works closely with community leaders in the development and implementation. This visionary strategy has contributed to the fact that communities now contribute 30 to 50 percent of the resources needed for a project some even provide 90% of the cost with AIL providing administrative and teacher training, oversight and a small amount of funding for partial salaries. These community contributions can come in many forms, including volunteer help, assistance with security, and donated space, materials, and supplies. This direct contribution strengthens the community’s involvement in, and ownership of the project and is part of the underlying mission of creating self sustaining development.
Another of AIL’s innovative strategies is to take a holistic approach to its provision of services. AIL believes people need to receive health care but also at the same time health education so the cycle of illness and disease can be broken. Teachers need training in new interactive teaching methodologies but also need to know about peace, leadership, health and human rights so they can pass these onto their students. Illiterate women come to centers to learn an income generating skill like sewing but are encouraged to also enter classes to learn to read and write and do math.
AIL has a track record of 15 years of success seen on the ground in Afghanistan and in recognition received nationally and internationally (see Awards page) as well as shown in the confidence of our supporters but perhaps the greatest testament to its success come in the words of a student.
Malika’s Story
“At 22, my hand was not used to holding pen and chalk. I had never seen anyone in my family write or read but my teachers encouraged and helped me. I have not only become a literate person, but know many things like famous poets, about the human body and health and I have learned math and geometry. I help my son who is in second grade, and my daughter in fifth grade.... This year, because so many more girls are coming to our center, I became a teacher of the first grade….. I earn good money from my sewing skills and use that money for my children’s education. Recently I started training in the Community Health Worker program in our village. I am able to do all of this because I am literate and now I can have an effect on others. I learned from AIL, and now I help others learn. That is the new meaning in my life.”
Afghan Institute of Learning, c/o Creating Hope International, PO Box 1058, Dearborn, Michigan 48121. Tel: 313 278 5806 chi@creatinghope.org
