Seasons Greetings from the Barakat Family

from Barakat's family to your family. May 2020 be a year of loving and giving for you and yours.

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As 2019 draws to a close we, at Barakat, continue our work into the New Year. In asking you to donate generously to our work and our students, a few lines from the poet/philosopher Hafiz come to mind:

"Out of a great need we are holding hands and climbing.

Not loving is a letting go.

Listen, the terrain around here is far too steep and dangerous for that."

The terrain around here, in this world that we share, is indeed far too dangerous for us to let go of each other. Your support is what keeps us going.

Thank you.

Abdul Sattar Karimi, a Turkmen donor steps up to help his people

"The prevailing attitude towards education for girls (in Afghanistan) needs to be changed and the only way is for the kids to be educated so they can educate their parents."

Mr. Karimi who grew up in Andkhoy, Haripur and Lahore knows something about the difficulties of getting an education. As a 9 year old refugee in Haripur, Pakistan he used to walk 15 kms each way to school and back.

Now settled with his immediate family in the United States, a successful businessman, Mr. Karimi still has extended family living in Andkhoy where he was born. He acknowledges that "families (i.e., fathers) will let girls study but only up to a point." That cut-off point is near about the 8th grade when girls are considered marriageable.

Not only do girls bring in bride price to their parents' family upon marriage; they also add to the family income by weaving carpets. Given this economic nexus along with concerns for their safety, especially due to the growing presence of the Taliban, families are reluctant to send their daughters to school.

"Social pressure cannot be underestimated," insists Mr. Karimi. At the same time the community would like to have female doctors who they can turn to for child and maternal health services.

Looking towards 2020 Mr. Karimi reflects, " Our primary hope is that our schools will survive in 2020 and they will continue; that conditions will return to Andkhoy in a way that they not just survive but flourish."

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