Dear Donors and Supporters of Barakat,
I am writing to you as the new Executive Director of Barakat, Inc. but am not entirely new to our work in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. I previously worked as Program Director for the organization from Nov. 2007 to Nov. 2011. Even as I thank Sana Saeed, my predecessor, for her hard work, I look forward to renewing my acquaintance with our program staff in the two countries where our presence continues to be a force for girl's and women's education in an unbroken line of support - in Pakistan since 2000 and in Afghanistan since 2002.
Need I add this chain of support extends from you, our donors, to us and through us to our country NGOs, Barakat Pakistan headed by Ms. Sumera Sahar since 1994 & Barakat Afghanistan headed by Mr. Fraidoon.
As the new Director for this organization it is my aim that Barakat's work continue in the face of a demanding financial situation. My appeal to you is on behalf of our 330 female students who are learning how to read and write from a 1st to 9th grade level through our Literacy Courses for Girls and Women in the two northern provinces of Faryab and Jowzjan in Afghanistan. My appeal to you is also on behalf of the 380 girls who are enrolled in our Evening School for Girls and Women in Attock, Punjab, Pakistan. These two programs are solely targeted towards female participants and exclude our three co-ed schools in Pakistan and two in Afghanistan.
What these two programs for girls and women have in the common is their ability to provide them with a fundamental human right: Education. In order to so, we have adapted creatively to the particular socio-cultural dynamics of the participants. In Afghanistan, the Literacy Courses reach out to students from 15 to 65 years of age; in Pakistan the Evening Schools for Girls meet the needs of girls as young as 10 years old to young women of 25.
The barriers to education for females that exist in Afghanistan and among the Afghan refugee community in Pakistan are known to us: a reluctance to allow women to leave the premises of the house for real and perceived security reasons as much as to ensure their obedience to the current status quo. Our programs seek to provide education despite these barriers by being run at a time of day when the girls and women can get away from their household chores to study; by employing all female staff; by conducting these programs (in Afghanistan) in the houses of participating neighbors; by running female-only programs; by recruiting students through word-of-mouth from trusted intermediaries of the families.
These strategies allow us to create a safe space for girls and women to become literate and it allows our program participants a safe space to learn, to socialize, to 'be' with other women, outside of the four walls of their house. This is one indirect benefit of the programs that one must not under estimate. In this world of inter-connected social media, there are still women and girls who live cloistered lives and not by choice!
I would urge you to take this day as a day of giving to Barakat if you believe we stand for your values. Unlike large NGOs, Barakat's bigger arms are with the two local NGOs in the countries where we work, while our presence and our budget here in the United States is extremely limited. We know that your dollar goes much further in Pakistan and Afghanistan than it would over here and we respect that truth fundamentally.
Apart from having worked in the NGO sector before the birth of my second child, I have a doctorate in Education from Boston University. I hope to bring my knowledge to bear upon the problems that face our programs with the goal of ensuring their sustainable survival into the future until such time as the very need that created them is eradicated.
Yours truly,
Dr. Arti Pandey
