by lwang | Feb 25, 2015 | AIL, Education, Kravis Prize, Sakena Yacoobi
In the pages of the Christian Science Monitor, Afghan Institute of Learning founder Sakena Yacoobi offers a passionate commentary about lowering the cultural barriers to educating women and girls with outreach that includes males, too. “The women who come to our centers feel the same way,” she says of AIL’s centers, whose health and education efforts were recognized with the Henry R. Kravis Prize in Nonprofit Leadership in 2009. “Men and boys need to be educated, not ignored.” Development efforts in disadvantaged countries can cut two ways, especially when those efforts highlight and publicize one group to such a degree that another group feels forgotten. Yacoobi’s Monitor article, “In Afghanistan, teaching men that education is not a threat,” points out that while AIL’s work has focused on one specific segment, the actual goal is more universal, more all-embracing than her organization’s stated mission. “Educated, wise men,” she writes, thinking of her own father, who supported her pursuit of an education (she holds U.S. degrees from the University of the Pacific and Loma Linda University), “do not abuse women or children and recognize the worth and value of women and children.” Since AIL’s founding in 1995, the lives of more than 10 million people have been affected by the organization’s work. Yacoobi, however, acknowledges that this impact must be broader, and more inclusive, as she shares in the following anecdote, which is included in the Monitor article: One day in early 2002, I went with my female staff to visit one of our Women’s Learning Centers in rural Kabul. Suddenly a group of teenage boys with weapons appeared, blocking the...
by lwang | Nov 14, 2013 | AIL, Female Empowerment, Health, Kravis Prize, Sakena Yacoobi
Sakena Yacoobi’s long efforts to improve the educational opportunities for women and children in Afghanistan have been awarded this year’s Opus Prize by the private, independent nonprofit Opus Prize Foundation. Yacoobi, 2009 recipient of the Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership, received the top $1 million prize for humanitarian work along with two runner-ups who each received $75,000. Yacoobi founded the Afghan Institute of Learning in 1995 to first establish learning centers in Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan. Prior to this, her own education in medicine and public health care occurred in the United States, where she studied at the University of California, Stockton, and at Loma Linda University. She began her career as a professor at the University of Detroit before being hired to survey a refugee camp in Pakistan by the International Rescue Committee. That was the beginning of her life’s work. Today, AIL is the largest Afghan NGO. “At that moment, as soon as I arrived … I said, ‘I have to do something, and what could I do as an individual? How could I help them?’ ” she says in an interview conducted for the Opus Prize. Yacoobi’s fellow Opus Prize recipients this year are Fahmina Institute, a center of progressive Islamic research in Cirebon, Indonesia; and Sr. Carol Keehan of the Catholic Health Association. The Opus Prize, according to the prize website, is a faith-based humanitarian award “given annually to recognize unsung heroes of any faith tradition, anywhere in the world, solving today’s most persistent social problems.” RELATED LINKS: About the Opus...
by lwang | Jun 18, 2013 | AIL, Education, Female Empowerment, Sakena Yacoobi
Sakena Yacoobi, Founder and Executive Director of the Afghan Institute of Learning, was among an esteemed group of recipients who were presented earlier this month with honorary degrees during the 266th Commencement Ceremony at Princeton University. Yacoobi, who was selected for her efforts to educate women and children in Afghanistan with her organization AIL, was joined on the Princeton stage by novelist Toni Morrison and architect Frank Gehry, among several others. Also in June, the Huffington Post featured a piece by Sakena Yacoobi entitled, “Literacy and Networking for Afghan Women Through Texting.” Yacoobi writes about the lack of literacy in Afghanistan, especially among women. The article documents the efforts of her organization to empower women through education and to improve conditions in Afghanistan as a whole. Sakena writes that the organization could be used as model by other nations that wish to accelerate literacy education and provides a network for Afghan women to build relationships and foster more interaction and dialogue in their society. In the West, we take this sense of interconnectedness for granted, but for the women of Afghanistan, Yacoobi says, it is an exciting, new development: “The women of Afghanistan become energized by learning and they are also excited to have a way to communicate with one another. This program could be used in other nations to help accelerate literacy education, but the impact that access to mobile phones and knowledge of how to use them has on Afghan women is far greater than just accelerating literacy. The women can build and maintain relationships with other women to whom they are not related, something which is incredibly difficult in Afghan society....
by lwang | May 2, 2013 | AIL, Johann Olav Koss, Pratham, Right 2 Play
“Maternal mortality is still a huge problem in Afghanistan, where being pregnant and giving birth are a risky business,” writes Sakena Yacoobi on the interactive women’s empowerment site, World Pulse. As executive director of the Afghan Institute of Learning, Yacoobi was invited by the media site to describe how AIL’s workshop for expectant mothers is combating misinformation and “old wives’ tales,” and encouraging more women to receive clinic care. Since the first workshops started in 2010, Yacoobi notes vastly better results in safe, healthy births for both mother and infant. She ends her report on an optimistic note about the power of education and the receptiveness of Afghan women: [I]t shows the situation within our culture is not intractable; change and improvement in outcome is possible. Afghan women just need the opportunity of education; they will seize the opportunity and then they will take responsibility to look after themselves and their children in the best way possible. There is no uphill battle to be fought in persuading a change in attitude; it is a question of access to knowledge which is the catalyst for a shift in what is normal behavior. **** **** Pratham co-founder Madhav Chavan finished a 9-city tour of the U.S. with a stop in Houston for the Pratham Annual Gala, held at the Hilton Americas Hotel in downtown Houston. His American travels included a visit in April to CMC to attend ceremonies for 2013 Kravis Prize recipient Johann Olav Koss. His Claremont trip included participating in a lively panel discussion with other past Kravis Prize recipients (Pratham received the Prize in 2010). In Houston, Chavan...
by lwang | Aug 10, 2012 | AIL, Community Development, Education, Female Empowerment, Health, Sakena Yacoobi
In June, Voice America’s Audrey Kitagawa interviewed Sakena Yacoobi for her radio segment on love, spirituality and forgiveness. Yacoobi discussed her work at the Afghan Institute of Learning and her reasons behind focusing on providing education and health care services to people in Afghanistan: “Ninety-five percent of people of Afghanistan live in poverty so health education is very, very important. [If] a mother is healthy, she will make sure that her child is healthy. And if her child is healthy, you know and I know that a child that is healthy can learn better. … I believe in education and I think that education is the key issue for really reaching out to people.” She also shared AIL’s goal and the impact that the organization is attempting to achieve: “The issue is that we want to transform life. We want to change the status of the life of the people … We are trying to make people educated, we try to help people to be healthy and we try to make people to be economically sustainable that they have a better life.” Given the progress AIL’s made, it’s safe to say they’re not only improving people’s lives in Afghanistan, but also imparting hope on those who have suffered in the past! Listen to the full radio interview...
by lwang | Jun 22, 2012 | AIL, Award Ceremony, Community Development, Education, Female Empowerment, Health, Sakena Yacoobi
On June 7, Sakena Yacoobi, 2009 Kravis Prize winner and founder of the Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL), was honored with the Asia Foundation’s 2012 Lotus Leadership Award. The award recognizes outstanding individuals and organizations that have made major contributions to the wellbeing of women and their communities in Asia. At the awards ceremony, the Foundation screened this never-before-seen video of Yacoobi discussing the circumstances under which she started her organization. “It was scary. If I was caught, or if one of my teachers would be caught, they would be killed because the policy of that time was … no education at all. But we were doing something against the system. Through education, you can really, completely change an entire family. … Through this program, we graduate thousands and thousands of students.” Yacoobi also discussed the impact and goals of AIL: “Today in Afghanistan, AIL has reached 9.1 million people. I am proud of that. And when you have the power of people, you don’t have to fight with gun[s]. You can communicate and through understanding, you can really bring peace to Afghanistan.” She closed with a powerful message: “I will continue this fight because this fight is not finished yet, for the women of Afghanistan.” Another example of a Kravis Prize winner perpetually fighting for social...
