“This work takes time,” admits
Mortenson. “It takes patience
and persistence, continuity and
commitment.”
A Matter of Life and Death
To put it in perspective, consider that
not one of the ninth-grade students at
CAI-supported Sheshp High School in
the Afghan Wakhan has ever used the
Internet, watched television, or used a
cell phone. They’ve never even ridden
in a car; they’ve only seen them pass
by on the only road – a rugged track
more often walked than driven. As the
2010 Afghanistan Education Sector
Analysis by London-based Adam
Smith International puts it: “Until
the last decade, many people in
Afghanistan lived in such isolation
that they were largely untouched by
the modern world.”
Conflict and violence also weigh
heavily on the region. Thirty-six
years of war in Afghanistan and
increasing extremism and sectarian
violence in Pakistan have taken a
toll. The prevalence of weapons;
the illegal drug trade and opium
addiction; displaced families; killings;
executions; disappearances; rocket
attacks and gunfire; revenge and
ethnic divisions –people are very
weary. They simply want peace.
“Education is a matter of life and
death for us,” says Mohammad Hanifa,
a ninth-grader at a CAI-supported
school in northern Pakistan’s Hushe
Valley. “We all know the importance
of education. Without education, any
nation cannot progress. The world
is progressing rapidly [and] without
requisite advance in education not
only shall we be left behind others, but
we may be wiped out altogether.”Girls’ Education
Asia’s economic powerhouses are
built on quality education. Yet, while
most Asian countries are now on an
educational par with the rest of the
world, Pakistan and Afghanistan still
lag far behind in access to education –
especially for girls.
CAI has always emphasised the
importance of girls’ education: if
a village wants a school, it has to
include girls. But this is not always
an easy sell. These remote areas
are patriarchal and traditional.
The hierarchical and authoritarian
societies are built on family, kinship
and clan, which means relationships
with the right people are key to
changing minds. New ideas need time
to take root.
No one could make the argument
for girls’ schools quite like the late
Sarfraz Khan, who spearheaded CAI’s
most remote projects.
“We tell them, ‘If the mother
is educated, she can teach all theThirty-six years of war in Afghanistan and increasing
extremism and sectarian violence in Pakistan have
taken a toll.
A girl listens to her teacher
during class at the CAI-
supported school in Broghil,
Pakistan, a small village just
south of the Afghanistan-
Pakistan borderchildren,’” he said in 2012. “Father is
not teaching children; he is out of the
house, going to work in the fields. But
mother is inside the house. Education
starts in the home, from the mother. If
the mother has a good education, then
she can teach her children. After that,
your daughter’s children become good
people and then we have peace. That
is why we need girls’ education.’”
Global research proves that
girls’ education is one of the most
powerful investments that a society
can make, which results in better
health, financial stability and civic
engagement – for the girl, her family
and the entire community.
Yet, obstacles remain. For example,
Afghanistan has been “in a protracted
state of conflict and instability” for
three decades, as a UNICEF report
puts it. Everyone suffers, but women
in particular get the short end of
the stick. A 2011 Thomson Reuters
Foundation poll ranked Afghanistan
the most dangerous country in the
world for women. Even if it wants to