The Safer World Fund

Amazing changes are taking place in Afghanistan and Pakistan, thanks to your support of the projects in The Safer World Fund. In rural Afghanistan, a school for girls and boys now boasts four new classrooms and many new desks as well as transportation so that teachers can attend training. In Mazar-i-Sharif, a school for 3000 girls has a new computer center, a reinforced roof, and an enhanced security wall. In Herat and Balkh provinces, ten wives of religious leaders have been trained and are currently dispensing information and providing counseling about family planning and reproductive health in their communities.

But continued progress is not guaranteed going forward as the security situation across the region remains unsettled. Girls and women in particular need our continued support as they learn to help their families and their communities. As Mother’s Day approaches, consider honoring the special mother or daughter in your life with a donation to help girls and women in another part of the world with education, medical care, and training. Donations up to $2000 are still matched at 50 percent.

To make it extra easy to honor a special person, the folks at GlobalGiving have developed Gift Cards to let you give the gift of giving. The recipient gets to pick the projects that they want to support and then see how their money has been put to work through regular updates from the field. Buy email gift cards, print-at-home gift cards, or biodegradable gift cards, and don’t be shy about mentioning The Safer World Fund!

Last month I spent an evening with Sakena Yacoobi, the founder and executive director of the Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL). The Institute manages “Fast-Tracking Education for Afghan Women and Girls,” one of the projects in the Safer World Fund.  In just a couple of hours, my admiration for educators in that part of the world quadrupled.

Sakena is a remarkable woman who has offered learning opportunities to countless women and girls in Afghanistan for several decades. She understands well the setback caused by many years of Taliban rule in her country when girls and women were forbidden from going to school. But today she is optimistic about her country’s future as she sees a keen hunger for education amidst all the challenges. The schools provided by the government have lower standards than she would like, so she works tirelessly to train teachers, develop curriculum, provide learning materials and build schools through AIL. 

The Afghan Institute of Learning is just one example of the terrific work of the nine organizations in the Safer World Fund. Please tell your friends and family to be inspired and take advantage of the remaining matching funds today. Thank you so much for your support of education, training, and health care--especially for women and girls--in Afghanistan and Pakistan.