To celebrate International Literacy Day, here’s a post written by Katie Murray at Barakat, one of our nonprofit partners, about the work they do to provide education to women in South and Central Asia.

At the age of 18, Nazeera is attending school for the first time. Like many Afghan women, she didn’t attend school as a child because her parents resisted educating her. But now Nazeera attends a literacy program run by Jolkona partner Barakat, where she is finally learning to read and write. Having been denied the opportunity to gain a formal education at a younger age, Nazeera plans to pass on her belief in the importance of education to her children. Thanks to Jolkona donors, Nazeera and nearly 250 other women and girls in Afghanistan and Pakistan have been able to receive an education and improve their lives and the lives of their families.

An innovative approach to women’s literacy

Only approximately 13 percent of females in Afghanistan are literate. After 25 years of war, the education and empowerment of women and children is crucial to the future of Afghanistan. As a recent post about the United Nations Millennium Development Goals explains, educating women is a key to their empowerment and to the long-term development of nations.

In Afghanistan, however, girls are sometimes forbidden from being educated if programs are not separated by gender, because there are strict cultural codes that restrict the interactions between boys and girls. Barakat’s Women’s Literacy Program provides education for women and girls who are not able to attend school for cultural and religious regions. Instead, these women are taught in the homes of local families. This is a valuable incentive for parents like Nazeera’s who may be reluctant to send their daughters to a public school. Barakat offers both lower-level literacy courses (called Sowat Amausi, meaning “to teach one to become literate”) and higher-level literacy courses (called Sowat Hayati, which means “literate for life”).

Nazeera’s situation is all too prevalent across Afghanistan. Barakat’s literacy courses work to raise awareness about the right to an education, while improving the low literacy rates in the regions where it operates. Barakat believes that the way forward in Afghanistan can only be paved by an educated, empowered populace that respects individual and human rights.

About Barakat

Barakat works to strengthen the fundamental human right to education in South and Central Asia by providing exemplary basic education, increasing access to higher education and advancing literacy, particularly for women and children. Running five schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Barakat works towards its mission by supporting local, innovative organizations that are making a real difference in the places they work.

This summer, Katie Murray interned as a Development Assistant at Barakat in Cambridge, Mass. She is currently entering her senior year at Boston University, where she studies International Relations. After graduating, she hopes to pursue a career in the field of international development with a focus on gender.

Hello from India! These past few weeks have flown by and I am finally beginning to feel somewhat settled here in the bustling, ever-vibrant city of Hyderabad. My first official duty included site visits out to five of the six schools that the Rural Development Foundation (RDF) operates. This was my first ever in-depth taste of rural India, and I was excited to get a sense of the lifestyles of these students, especially the impact an RDF education is making on their lives. The multi-school tour began with Kalleda, the flagship school established in 1996; which, having been established first, has received the most funding, resources, and attention of all the schools.

Kalleda Morning Assembly

Read the rest of this entry »

Somehow, the lyrics to the old Peaches and Herb classic ‘Reunited’ are on repeat in my head as I finish clean-up from my goodbye party here in Seattle. I’ve been home for about two months from my latest bout of career adventures in Toronto, Canada and although it’s been nice to unwind and reunite with family and old friends, I’ve found myself eagerly anticipating a whole different kind of reunion.

On July 30th, 2010 I will reunite with India – my country of birth but also a country that has become foreign to me after having gone over a decade without a visit. The anticipation of such a reunion fills me with many overwhelming emotions – excitement, fear, joy, nervousness, and at the best of times, an insatiable need to dance crazily to my favorite Bollywood hits. My mind is abuzz with incessant questions – Will I be accepted? Will I feel Indian? Will I be able to handle living there? But somehow in the background hums a current of calm knowingness that this is the homecoming I’ve been yearning for.

What adds to this sense of calm is my observations of friends and other second generation Indians who, despite having been raised abroad, have slipped comfortably and successfully into study and work positions in India. Their tales consistently include exciting adventures, travels, and, above all, a recognition of parts of themselves within the culture there. Confidence boosted, I too, set forth on a journey of self-discovery.  Read the rest of this entry »