This Friday, the SAGE Club
(Students for Advancement of Global Education) at Acalanes High School, in Lafayette, will be showing the movie,
Girl Rising, on campus. It's open to the public and starts at 7:00 PM. I have been given the opportunity to discuss our experience and work in Afghanistan following the movie. I'll discuss what has succeeded and what hasn't.
In an previous newsletter I wrote that the 75 students sponsored through our sponsorship program were doing extremely well, except for one student. Her rising has been brought to an end.
Last month, I received the following from Qudsia,director of our sponsorship program. I changed the student's name out of concern for her safety:
"Today Zohra's family called and said that her step brother came and took her with him yesterday and he said we will not let her to go to school any more and he also mentioned that she is a girl she should learn how to cook and how to do the house chores. Zohra was living with her uncle and his family. Her father died in an accident and mother got married with someone when she was two years old. She was very happy with her uncle's family, but now she can not go to school any more because of her step father and brothers."
Zohra has been sponsored through TIE since 2009.
Zohra wrote the following to her sponsor in April of this year;
"I would like to become a good doctor one day so that I can help people. So that I can be happy in life, I would like to study and I enjoy helping poor kids who are unfortunate and are facing difficulties and I am so glad that I am educated and have become the author of an upcoming book that has not been published yet. The title of this book is
The Girl in Search of the Key to Paradise. This book is dedicated to you (her sponsor)."
It's been over a month and I still think and worry about her.
For information about the sponsorship program
click here. It's a life altering program.
Education will change minds, but not all. Too many men perceive male supremacy as the natural order of things. They aren't going to part with the control they have. There must be laws establishing equal rights for women and men and they must be enforced.
You and I can not enact or enforce laws.We can, however, help Afghans educate their children and support Afghans advocating gender equality. Educated men are much more likely to support equal rights for women, and educated women are less dependent upon men for their support.
Progress will be slow, there will be setbacks and there are things we can do to move the agenda forward. See you Friday.
Budd
PS We can also petition our government to do more than advocate, educate, and commiserate. click here for details.
