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.
- Elevating opportunities for all people, especially those who are traditionally left behind
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.
- Nonprofit
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.
Board Member
CEO