Sakena Yacoobi and the Afghan Institute of Learning

When Sakena Yacoobi was a child in Herat , Afghanistan, she saw many women suffer. They had no education and little or no medical care. Many died in childbirth.

In the nineteen seventies she came to the United States. She became a professor and health consultant. But in nineteen ninety-two, she visited Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan. What she saw persuaded her to return to her homeland.

In nineteen ninety-five she started the Afghan Institute of Learning. The organization began by serving Afghan women and girls in the camps in neighboring Pakistan.

At that time, the Taliban controlled most of Afghanistan. The rulers would not let girls go to school. Sakena Yacoobi risked her life to set up eighty secret schools in Afghan homes. About three thousand girls attended these schools.

American-led forces ousted the Taliban from power in late two thousand one, after the terrorist attacks on the United States.

Today Sakena Yacoobi says her organization avoids the most dangerous provinces. It operates education and health centers and traveling clinics. The institute has trained more than fifteen thousand teachers and has provided health education for half a million women. Seventy percent of its four hundred fifty staff members are women.

The group invites men as well as women to discussions on the Koran's teachings about the equality of the sexes.

In two thousand three, to educate women, the institute established Gawhar Shad University in Peshawar, Pakistan. The university currently has about one hundred eighty students. Around the same number already have graduated. The university offers degrees in education, business, nursing, health education, math and computer science.

Each year, the Afghan Institute of Learning serves about three hundred fifty thousand women and children in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Sakena Yacoobi has received many awards, including this year's two hundred fifty thousand dollar Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership. In accepting the award from Claremont McKenna College in California, she said: "Every day, I see the impact of education, and that's the force that keeps me going on."

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jerilyn Watson, with reporting by Carolyn Weaver.

当Sakena Yacoobi还是一个小孩子，她居住在阿富汗的Herat，目睹了许多妇女的苦难。她们不能接受教育，也没有医疗设施。许多妇女死于难产。

七十年代，Sakena Yacoobi来到美国。她成为教授和健康咨询师。但是1992年，她访问了阿富汗在巴基斯坦境内的难民营。她目睹的一切说服她重新回到自己的祖国。

1995年，她开办了阿富汗学习协会。该组织最初的工作是帮助邻国巴基斯坦境内难民营中的妇女和女孩。

那时，塔利班分子控制着阿富汗的大部分。统治者不允许女孩去上学。 Sakena Yacoobi冒着生命危险在阿富汗居民家中建立了80所秘密学校。大约有3,000个女孩在这些学校就读。

2001年末，美国发生恐怖分子袭击之后，美国领导的军队将塔利班政权驱逐出去。今天，Sakena Yacoobi说，她的组织尽量避免在最危险的省份开办学校。该组织经营教育和健康中心，以及流动诊所。该协会训练了15,000多名教师，为50多万名妇女提供健康教育。该组织450名员工中有70%都是女性。

该组织邀请男女参加古兰经的教学，共同讨论男女平等的问题。

2003年，为了给女性提供教育机会，该协会在巴基斯坦的白沙瓦建立Gawhar Shad大学。这所大学目前有180名学生。大约同样数量的学生已经毕业。学校提供教育，商业，护理，健康教育，数学和计算机科学学位。

每年，阿富汗学习协会为阿富汗和巴基斯坦的35万多名妇女儿童提供服务。Sakena Yacoobi荣获许多奖项，包括今年25万美元的亨利·R·克拉维斯奖。在加利福尼亚接受克莱蒙特·麦肯纳学院的颁奖时，她说：“每天我都看到教育的影响，这是让我们不断向前的动力。”