the developing world
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History of Ayni
When Julia Bolz and her
American colleagues first started working in north-central Afghanistan in
January 2002, Afghanistan led the world in child and maternal mortality,
homelessness, and landmine victims. Life expectancy was 43 years of age. And,
in north-central Afghanistan, the literacy rate was 6.5%. There was no hope or
opportunity, especially for women.
Julia’s team spoke extensively with community, government and religious leaders. Time after time, they heard, “Schools. Build us schools!” Although there were only a few teachers, books, or pencils, leaders understood that education is a building block to eliminating poverty, oppression, and extremism, and without it, their country had literally become the most poor and oppressed in the world.
Eight years later, Julia and her colleagues are still in Afghanistan having now built (or rebuilt) and supplied dozens of schools and two teacher training centers, serving over 25,000 Afghan students and hundreds of teachers. Fellow development workers have been shot, killed, run off the road, kidnapped and killed in a plane crash. They are still in the field, however, because the Afghans they support (mostly women and girls) believe education is so important that they are literally putting their lives on the line every single day to teach or attend school. More important, the results they have found are not simply good but phenomenal.
AEI’s work is not simply about building schools. Having worked and traveled throughout the world, Julia realized there were many misunderstanding and misperceptions between the United States and Afghanistan, especially after 9-11. After returning to Seattle in 2002, Julia not only started to raise funds to build schools but to talk about her work and experiences in Afghanistan, including Afghan history and culture, Islam, what it is like to live on a $1/day, the importance of education and what we can do to help.
Over the past eight years, Julia and her colleagues have given almost 500 “show and tells” around the country, from elementary schools to the Aspen Institute’s Ideas Festival. Each time they speak, they have found Americans eager to help the children of Afghanistan and engage however they can. Uniquely, some 50,000 Americans are “journeying” with our Afghan schools, including school students, book clubs, giving circles, foundations, businesses and other non-profits, like National Geographic Society and Rotary.
Julia’s team spoke extensively with community, government and religious leaders. Time after time, they heard, “Schools. Build us schools!” Although there were only a few teachers, books, or pencils, leaders understood that education is a building block to eliminating poverty, oppression, and extremism, and without it, their country had literally become the most poor and oppressed in the world.
Eight years later, Julia and her colleagues are still in Afghanistan having now built (or rebuilt) and supplied dozens of schools and two teacher training centers, serving over 25,000 Afghan students and hundreds of teachers. Fellow development workers have been shot, killed, run off the road, kidnapped and killed in a plane crash. They are still in the field, however, because the Afghans they support (mostly women and girls) believe education is so important that they are literally putting their lives on the line every single day to teach or attend school. More important, the results they have found are not simply good but phenomenal.
AEI’s work is not simply about building schools. Having worked and traveled throughout the world, Julia realized there were many misunderstanding and misperceptions between the United States and Afghanistan, especially after 9-11. After returning to Seattle in 2002, Julia not only started to raise funds to build schools but to talk about her work and experiences in Afghanistan, including Afghan history and culture, Islam, what it is like to live on a $1/day, the importance of education and what we can do to help.
Over the past eight years, Julia and her colleagues have given almost 500 “show and tells” around the country, from elementary schools to the Aspen Institute’s Ideas Festival. Each time they speak, they have found Americans eager to help the children of Afghanistan and engage however they can. Uniquely, some 50,000 Americans are “journeying” with our Afghan schools, including school students, book clubs, giving circles, foundations, businesses and other non-profits, like National Geographic Society and Rotary.
Content copyright Ayni Education International 2009. All rights reserved.