Registration Woes

The following five blogs were written in October 2005, during a visit to Afghanistan. Iain Guest visited the Oruj Learning Center, which supports the education of girls in Wardak province and the town of Jalalabad (Nangahar). The Center was established by Sadiqa Basiri, a former Afghan refugee, in 2003 with support from the Advocacy Project. By late 2005, [...]

The Women Teachers of Fatima Zahra

Fatima Zahra school, Jalalabad, October 16: The school of Fatima Zahra is named after one of the Prophet Mohamed’s three daughters. Appropriately enough, the school compound – a former agricultural center – feels like a sanctum for women and girls. This is mainly because almost all of its teachers are women. They move through the [...]

Cooking Pans and Sunburnt Camels

Kabul October 13, 2005. I have been assigned to deliver some important letters on this visit to Afghanistan. These are the product of an idea that arose earlier in the year when we talked to Sadiqa about connecting some of her Afghan students with an American school.
Stacy Kosko, the outreach coordinator for our project, contacted [...]

The Work Plan

Kabul October 13, 2005. My first visit is to the suburb of Kart-i-char, where Omid shares an office with another organization, the Noor Educational Center. Jamila Afghani, who heads the Noor Center, is on Omid’s board and a strong supporter. She also runs a very good organization.
When I heard that Sadiqa planned to study in [...]

Shocking News

Kabul, October 12, 2005. I spend my first day in Afghanistan in the company of Igrar Gul, the husband of Sadiqa Basiri, and Janadgur Basiri, her father. As visitors to this site will know, Sadiqa founded the Omid Learning Center, which supports four girls’ schools in Afghanistan. AP has been working closely with Omid for [...]