This year Pennies for Peace (P4P) raised $40,000 to rebuild the Dasht School in Tajikistan through penny collections completed by school children and community groups across the U.S. and internationally. While we often give credit to the kids for collecting pennies and accomplishing their projects, on National Parents' Day we want to say thank you to the parents behind the scenes encouraging and helping their children along the way.
“Tajik women must be educated for a healthy and a happy life. An educated woman can be a better human being, successful mother and a responsible citizen.” These words come from Ayperi Kubanichbekova, a shining example of determination and passion for learning exhibited by CAI scholarship students the keep girls in school.
This month our friends in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan, as well as Muslims all around the world, are celebrating Ramadan. During this holy month, which began on May 27 and will last until June 25, Muslims honor the receipt of the 1st revolation by the Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) through fasting from sunrise through sundown, prayers, and introspection. We sat down with one of our board members to talk about the importance of giving, not only for Ramadan, but to create change year round.
Today on Global Running Day people all across the world are celebrating the joy, passion, and sometimes pain of running. Running is an easy way to connect people all over the globe, and help them accomplish numerous goals, even goals like access to girls’ education. One person who will log a few miles today is Anna Robbins, a champion for girls’ education who is raising money for CAI during her first half marathon at the Rock n’ Roll Marathon Series in Philadelphia, PA this fall.
Today is a big day for CAI – we’re celebrating 21 years of providing education to some of the most remote areas of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. We’re marking this occasion with a huge announcement that honors our past as pioneers of innovation and looking to the future needs of the people we serve. Please welcome the Pioneer Fund.
For 20 years CAI has focused our efforts on educating people, especially women, in the most remote areas of the world, knowing they will have the biggest impact. This journey is long and difficult, and we’ve learned that even the best-laid plans sometimes need to shift. This is the case with the Ray-e-Abisham primary school in Ishkashim, Afghanistan, one of the featured projects we’ve been writing about in our Spring Construction Campaign.
Just as summer has finally arrived in the mountains of Montana, Central Asia Institute’s Muslim friends around the world have begun to observe the month of Ramadan.
Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic (lunar) calendar and represents the historic period during which the Koran was revealed to Prophet Muhammad. The Koran is “the sacred scripture that Muslims revere as the words of God,” Imam Sohaib Sultan, of Princeton University, wrote for Time magazine.
“For most of the rest of July, […]
This Mother’s Day we want to honor Mahbuba Qurbonalieva, the director of Central Asia Institute Tajikistan (CAI-T) and an amazing mother who champions education for all girls. CAI asked Mahbuba to share some of her insights, important lessons she learned from her mother, and wisdom she wants to pass on to her daughter. Below are her thoughtful answers to our questions about motherhood, education, and raising strong women.
“The only way to prevent Afghanistan from going backward is education.” These words hung heavily in the hot air of a teacher’s lounge in a small village in Nangarhar province last year during a conversation about the future of Afghanistan with CAI Communications Director Hannah White. They were spoken by Muhammad Asif, an Islamic Studies teacher for grades 9 – 12 at Khodi Dust Girls’ Higher Secondary School. Muhammad is passionate about education, and he truly believes it is the only thing that can save his country
Earlier this year, we wrote about the urgent need to replace the Dasht School, a rural school in the Rushan district of Tajikistan whose Soviet-era walls were crumbling from years of harsh weather and a terrible earthquake that made it unsafe for students. Pennies for Peace (P4P), CAI’s service-learning program for students, teachers and community groups, has taken on this project with the goal of raising funds for a new school for the 60 children determined to get an education no matter where they have to learn.
