Not A Lost Cause: The Fight for Girls’ Education in Afghanistan
By Rida I grew up in Balochistan, Pakistan, a community where education was a luxury girls had to earn. Every school I attended, every exam I took, every degree I obtained, were made possible because someone, somewhere, believed in the importance of investing in girls. Scholarships carried me when circumstances could not. From my earliest […]
More than Education: Breaking down Menstrual Barriers
By Bella Pich Imagine being a young girl growing up in a remote mountain village in Pakistan, with access to few resources. While there is no government school located close enough to your village for you to reach on foot, you are overjoyed to be enrolled in a community school established by Central Asia Institute. […]
Traveling to Tajikistan: A Photo Journal
By Alice Thomas, Executive Director, CAI This August, I traveled to Tajikistan, where Central Asia Institute has been supporting access to quality education and women’s economic empowerment since 2012. Posing for a photo with Muqaddas, a scholarship recipient who is studying to be a lab technician. When I arrived, I made the long journey—12 hours […]
Afghan Female Olympians Take the Fight for Women’s Rights to the 2024 Paris Games
It’s been three years this week since the United States pulled out of Afghanistan, allowing the Taliban to retake control of the country and clamp down on women’s rights. Since then, women who were government officials, judges, lawyers, and business leaders have been removed from any role in society. Female athletes are banned from sports. […]
Get to know our summer intern: Rida
Each summer, Central Asia Institute welcomes students from around the country – and the world – to work as summer interns. Our internship program not only affords students the opportunity to work alongside our team and gain firsthand experience in international development and non-profit management. It also provides CAI with valuable input and support from […]
Welcome to Preschool #2!
As many of you will recall, Preschool #2 is located in the mountain town of Barushan in Tajikistan. Barushan is located in Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO), a remote and marginalized region of the country situated among the Pamir Mountain range and some of the highest peaks in the world. One-third of GBAO’s inhabitants live in […]
Rana Dreams Big
Read our 2023 Impact Report In the remote Rast Qol village of Afghanistan, eight-year-old Rana and her grandmother are the best of friends. After Rana tragically lost both parents in a car accident at the age of three, her grandmother became her full-time caregiver. They got by on subsistence agriculture and income from Rana’s uncle, […]
Kabirova’s Journey to Leadership
Kabirova’s journey is a testament to resilience. An early marriage forced her to halt her education prematurely. Eager to find ways to use her skills and contribute to her family’s income, she pursued her passion for sewing, selling her first creation for $0.18 cents. Juggling family responsibilities and her budding business, Kabirova established a sewing […]
Zehra’s Season for Success
In Marudo Kharmang, Pakistan, Zehra has long appreciated the sweet taste and economic potential of the simple apricot. And yet, she struggled to raise consistent harvests and make the business viable and reliable. But she wasn’t ready to give up. Central Asia Institute’s apricot program began with the goal of finding women like Zehra—already invested […]
Wajmah forges her own path in Afghanistan
“I couldn’t write or read until last year, not even a single word,” shared 16-year-old Wajmah. As a girl in rural Afghanistan, Wajmah had been unable to attend school at all during her childhood. In addition to the geographic constraints of distant schools, and the restrictive policies of the Taliban, Wajmah had suffered an early […]
Zarafshon’s Future Looks Delicious
At 49 years old, Zarafshan has experienced significant strife in her home country of Tajikistan. Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, civil war broke out between the Gorno-Badakhshan region where she lives and the rest of the country. While peace was reached, the local population remains marginalized and government services are scarce, compounding poverty. […]
Celebrating Women’s Month
This International Women’s Month, Join CAI in Celebrating the Women and Girls of Central Asia Throughout the month of March, Central Asia Institute is celebrating all the incredibly inspiring and dedicated women and girls of Central Asia. But to fully understand the extraordinary things they are achieving each day, it’s important to first understand the […]
Tajikistan’s Preschool #2 Comes to Life
Supporters of Preschool #2 (P2) in Tajikistan will be able to celebrate soon! Four years ago, we broke ground on P2, and so many of our dedicated donors immediately joined us in the project as Brick Layers, funding the construction of this model school that will serve the Khorog community for many years to come. […]
Emergency Response to Herat Earthquake
Between 7 and 15 October 2023, Herat Province, Afghanistan, endured a series of three powerful earthquakes, each registering a magnitude of 6.3 on the Richter scale. The initial two earthquakes, occurring on 7 and 11 October, inflicted profound devastation, resulting in the tragic loss of 1,480 lives and leaving 1,950 individuals injured. With your support, […]
Golden Harvest: Apricot Innovation in Baltistan
In March 2023, Central Asia Institute and Pakistan partner Moawin Foundation launched a new economic empowerment project for women in the breathtaking region of Baltistan. Focused on harnessing the potential of apricots, the initiative aimed to tackle the longstanding issue of mismanagement of this valuable fruit in various parts of Baltistan. Mapping Potential The project, […]