Author: Isabelle Shively
We are so thankful for the Skyline High School and Issaquah High School students who raised $1,500 for Sahar’s Digital Literacy program. It is inspiring to see American students supporting Afghan students – the global citizenry demonstrated by these high school students is the change we need in the world. Thank you to the supporters, donors, and the businesses which collaborated with We Care Club to make the charitable banquet a huge success!
We’ve had a Banner Spring at Sahar! Here’s a couple of exciting updates:
Seattle 4 International Rotary Grant:
We’ve received a $8,000 grant from one of the world’s largest Rotary clubs for the Sahar Boarding School Kitchen and Cafeteria Build-out. Seattle 4 has been a long-standing supporter of Sahar and we appreciate their deep commitment to global women’s empowerment.
Causality Brand Grant:
We’ve received a matching grant from Causality to design dynamic and sustainable communication elements for our public boarding school for rural Afghan girls. This grant will be a key component to our success – it will allow us to communicate about our work more effectively!
Churchwomen of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church Grant:
The Churchwomen of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church have supported Sahar with a $4,800 grant. This grant provides transportation for 100 Afghan girls to travel to a teacher training center. The lack of teachers is a significant problem in Afghanistan where the school system has been flooded by students since the fall of Taliban rule. Custom dictates that girls must be taught by women beginning in middle school and women teachers are especially in need. We fund teachers’ transportation from their villages into urban teacher training centers, allowing the women to receive certification. Training these teachers effectively sustains programs for girls’ education in rural areas.
This 2018 spring has been a dynamic time for Sahar. We appreciate all of the support from our donors! Thank you!
On Friday, May 25th our Fellow, Mahsheed Mahjor and our intern, Eman Hamid, spent the day at Seattle’s Lakeside Middle School. Mahsheed and Eman worked on engaging six graders into conversations about Early Marriage issues around the world, specifically in Afghanistan, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Lakeside sessions were modeled after our Early Marriage Prevention Program (EMPP) curriculum. The day was filled with new information, group work, and curiosity. The students asked about the life of children their age in Afghanistan and ways in which they could engage with Afghan students.
It was wonderful to see that students in sixth grade can learn about such important issues and be aware of them at such early age. This kind of exposure will help them to become engaged and active members of society. It was absolutely a pleasure to share our work with the Lakeside students and engage another school in the area, something that Sahar is very committed to.
Thank you for hosting us, Lakeside!
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has selected the 2018 recipients of the Institute Honor Awards, the profession’s highest recognition of works that exemplify excellence in architecture, interior architecture and urban design. Selected from roughly 500 submissions, 17 recipients located throughout the world will be honored at the AIA Conference on Architecture 2018 in New York City.
The AIA Institute Honor Award recognizes excellence in architecture, interior architecture, and regional & urban design: Gawhar Khatoon.
This new school replacing an older school in an extreme state of disrepair serves nearly 3,000 K–12 students per day. An urban oasis for girls and young women, the school also provides children critical access to fresh air, plants, and trees in an area experiencing rapid urbanization.
Girls’ schools play a major role in the country’s movement toward development, and Gohar Khatoon is positioned to be a key institution for educating several thousand women in an important urban center that is home to a number of universities. Empowering young women as they negotiate the transition into Afghan society, this project supports the process by providing a place of stability and comfort.
“This space and the process communicates a new era for girls and women very powerfully.” ~ Jury statement
From the outset, the design team involved girls to help inform the program and choose finishes, developing a sustainable school model that values their input and choices about their environment. Because most forms of artwork were banned during the Taliban’s rule of Afghanistan, an important community-building activity during the design process was a women-only mural design competition. Six winning entries, installed by professional artists, are on view throughout the school.
Outside, the school’s façade takes its cues from the country’s rich history of masonry construction with red, yellow, and turquoise windows made by local craftsmen referencing the city’s famed Blue Mosque. Culturally appropriate activity spaces for physical fitness and social interaction between students surround the school. Educational gardening, a storied tradition in Persian culture, is pursued in areas where fruit-bearing trees and vegetable gardens are tended by students.
Sustainable strategies were key to the project’s success, given that Afghanistan’s schools are often connected to limited or unstable power supplies and operate on minimal budgets with little funds for heating fuel. As aid to the country dries up and NATO troops continue to depart, the team implemented a number of low-tech climate responses, such as central stairwells in each classroom block that capture heat and large seasonal doors that pull air through the building to provide long-term comfort.
“It is remarkably resourceful by integrating natural sustainability measures while operating within a weak infrastructure in the country.” ~ Jury statement
Award press release: https://www.aia.org/press-releases/172561-2018-aia-institute-honor-awards-recognize-e
Detailed information about Gawhar Khatoon: https://www.aia.org/showcases/169346-gohar-khatoon-girls-school
AIA conference website: http://conferenceonarchitecture.com/
Photo: Nic Lehoux
Sahar partners with the Ministry of Education and Afghan-based organizations to build schools and educational programs for girls in Afghanistan, empowering and inspiring children and their families to build peaceful, thriving communities.
Education starts a virtuous cycle in which Afghan girls, their children, and generations to come will have better, more peaceful lives, with potential for entrepreneurship, innovation, and economic empowerment. Every year of school increases future wages by up to 25 percent. If a girl receives seven or more years of education, she will marry four years later, have 2.2 fewer children, and be much less likely to die in childbirth or be abused by a husband.
Our Night at the Museum brings together speakers and performers with deep Afghan roots and personal investment in the future of the country. With each presentation, we will learn more about the rich cultural heritage of Afghanistan – and the need to stand up on behalf of the country’s girls, who have the power to secure a meaningful future for the nation.
Sat, July 14, 2018
Doors Open: 5PM
Dali Gallery viewing: 5PM – 6PM
Program: 6PM – 8PM
Desserts, Coffee & Tea 8PM-8:30PM
Dress: Cocktail Attire
Dali17 Museum
5 Custom House Plaza
Monterey, CA 93940
Tickets HERE.
Dr. Nadia Hashimi was born and raised in New York and New Jersey. Both her parents were born in Afghanistan and left in the early 1970s, before the Soviet invasion. Nadia is an pediatrician, novelist, and a Democratic congressional candidate for the United States House of Representatives for Maryland’s 6th congressional district. She’s one of the leading female candidates running for office in the country!
Kabul Dreams, the first Afghan rock band, established itself in 2008 in Kabul, Afghanistan. The band consists of Sulyman Qardash (lead singer and guitarist), Raby Adib (drummer) and Siddique Ahmad (bassist). Kabul Dreams has paved the way for a modest but growing rock scene in the country, which is rebuilding itself after decades of war. The band’s motivation to perform came from their own love for music, but also from a public hunger for a new life after war – a life that included new music and art.
Ariana Delawari is an Afghan American filmmaker, musician, and activist. Ariana graduated with a B.A. in film production from USC School of Cinematic Arts. We Came Home was her award winning feature length directorial debut. The film is a ten year documentation of post 9/11 Afghanistan, her family story, and the story of the making of her first album Lion of Panjshir. Lion of Panjshir was recorded in both Kabul and Los Angeles.
Questions?
Qxhna Titcomb
[email protected]
Phone Number: 206-331-3786
Tina Chang
[email protected]
Phone Number: 917-679-7123