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...
by lwang | Apr 19, 2012 | Community Development, Education, Female Empowerment, Health, Sakena Yacoobi
Last month, Kravis Prize winner Sakena Yacoobi attended a 10th-anniversary gathering of the Global Peace Initiative of Women, where she discussed global issues including peace and reconciliation with religious leaders. According to the National Catholic Reporter, the event in Kenya, “Awakening the Healing Heart: Transforming Communities through Love and Compassion,” was conducted over eight days. Yacoobi shared her thoughts with people including Shomberwa Marina Ntamwenge, president of the Federation of Protestant Women in the Ecumenical Church of Democratic Republic of Congo, and Jessica Okello, general secretary of Pan Africa Christian Women Association. What’s even more fascinating is Yacoobi’s story. The article provided a synopsis of her amazing journey: “Dr. Sakena Yacoobi seemed to exemplify the possibilities of the individual against great odds in the extreme. The 61-year-old from Afghanistan came to the United States as a lone teenager just out of high school in the early 1970s at the encouragement of some U.S. Peace Corps volunteers who, she said, recognized that she had potential and that it would not be fully realized in her home country. … She eventually did a master’s in public health at Loma Linda University, and later completed a doctorate in that field.” In addition: “Along the way, she worked four jobs simultaneously at times to supplement scholarship money and in 1987, after her family escaped during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan to refugee camps in Iran, she was able to purchase a house in Michigan and sponsored 13 members of her family to the United States. Once they were settled, she took off for the Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan and began collecting the...
by lwang | Jan 5, 2012 | AIL, Community Development, Female Empowerment, Sakena Yacoobi
In 2010, Sakena Yacoobi participated in the public forum “Health at Whose Cost?”, part of the Melbourne Conversations series, as a delegate at the United Nations Advance Global Health conference. She shared her thoughts about Afghanistan and discussed how the Afghan Institute of Learning is working to achieve the U.N. Millennium Development Goals by generating awareness and educating Afghan society about pertinent issues: “Our organization decided to really target universal education, gender equality and child maternal health. … As an individual, everyone is responsible to take care of everyone else’s health and to try to help. In order to help, you must give them training to be able to teach them how to help [themselves].” While discussing the importance of women’s rights, Yacoobi said: “Why [do] we target gender equality? Because in Afghanistan, you know, always half of the population has been considered. The other half, or more than the other half, are women. Women have been completely ignored. So if you really want to have a healthy nation, you must target the other half of the population. Because those half are the ones who are taking care of the rest of the population. So we must really try to teach them and work with both sex[es], male and female.” How’s that for food for thought? Listen to Yacoobi speak at the 0:29:15 mark and check out other inspiring speakers in the...
by lwang | Dec 1, 2011 | AIL, Community Development, Education, Sakena Yacoobi
With their profound and inspiring work, it’s no surprise that Kravis Prize winners are acknowledged worldwide by prestigious organizations. In fact, 2009 Kravis Prize winner and Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL) Founder Sakena Yacoobi was honored as the 2006 Skoll Social Entrepreneur. The Skoll Foundation also produced a great video of Sakena Yacoobi telling the story of the people of Afghanistan. In the video, she says that the Taliban in Afghanistan caused the country to lose an “educated society.” So how is AIL remedying this problem? Yacoobi explains it best: “Afghan Institute of Learning is a non-profit organization mainly run by women. We run program[s] in the area of education, health, leadership, human rights, women’s rights, gender issues, management and peace education. So far AIL has trained 16,000 teachers and we have reached 6.8 million people.” One of the driving forces behind AIL’s success is Yacoobi’s optimism and persistence: “The future is bright because the people have this strength in them that they really want to be independent. They want to be self-sufficient. Believe me, the people of Afghanistan have the potential, have the energy to overcome and to that, I see a beautiful, very bright future of people in Afghanistan and for the new generation of Afghanistan. That would be my dream come true.” Enjoy the video below and let us know how Sakena Yacoobi and her work with AIL inspire...
by lwang | Nov 23, 2011 | AIL, Civil Society, Community Development, Female Empowerment, Sakena Yacoobi
Regina Starr Ridley, publishing director of the Stanford Social Innovation Review, met with 2009 Kravis Prize winner and Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL) Founder Sakeena Yacoobi last month at the global poverty alleviation convention, Opportunity Collaboration, in Mexico. Yacoobi shared her thoughts with Ridley on the growing sense of empowerment among Afghani women: “Women’s lives are changing rapidly for the good. It’s changed 180 degrees. Women are going into professions of all kinds. But the women of Afghanistan still need the international community to back them up. It takes awhile—Afghanistan has been at war 30 years. Everything cannot be changed right away.” While discussing developments in Afghanistan, Yacoobi said: “Afghanistan is doing better, the villages are cleaner, people are healthier, and people know more about hygiene and reproductive health. Now we need infrastructure support, and we need to develop our civil society.” Due to Yacoobi’s keen knowledge and tireless drive, AIL has already taken steps towards developing Afghanistan’s civil society through workshops on democracy, leadership and peace. AIL’s emerging youth group, which started with 25 students, has now grown to over 200. Thanks to Yacoobi and AIL, women and youths in Afghanistan are stepping in to help shape the country’s social development. “Afghanistan: Update from Sakena Yacoobi” [The Stanford Social Innovation Review, November 8, 2011] To learn more about Sakena Yacoobi, visit our...
by lwang | Oct 5, 2011 | AIL, Community Development, Education, Sakena Yacoobi
We’re honored to be able to help nonprofit leaders all over the world, such as Sakeena Yacoobi, make a difference. In Forbes’ “Dr. Sakena Yacoobi: A Case Study in Leadership, Courage, and Conviction,” it is clear that others recognize the inspiring mission of Yacoobi’s Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL) too. Forbes interviews Yacoobi on the conception of AIL, what the organization does and how it has transformed. The core philosophy behind AIL, she says is to “involv[e] people, listen to them, honor and respect who they are, trust will grow and, working together, individuals and communities can be transformed to be peaceful, happy, fair, just and prosperous.” With this philosophy in hand, AIL continues to shape community development in Afghanistan in so many different ways! “Listening to the community members, we offer what they ask for. Over the years, that has meant that we are offering many different kinds of services. We offer schools for children; educational learning centers for women and children which offer many types of classes including literacy, tailoring, beauty shop management, carpet weaving, calligraphy, miniature painting, computer, English , Arabic and many more subjects; health services and health education in our clinics; and training in such topics as pedagogy, leadership, human rights, gender issues, management, women’s health and many other specific health topics, peace, self-immolation and...
