After the fall of the Taliban in 2002, Sadiqa Basiri Saleem returned home from a refugee camp in Pakistan to find 150,000 girls in her eastern Afghanistan province lacking the resources, security and support to go to school. Sadiqa and three other women pooled their money together and founded the Oruj Learning Center, which provided uniforms, supplies, and funding for 36 girls to study in an abandoned mosque.

In just six years, the Oruj Learning Center has grown in size, scope, and promise. Last year, Oruj provided for the education of over 2,700 girls in six schools and 200 women at four literacy centers throughout Wardak province. The center has launched a program for gifted students, focusing on English and computer skills. Its Family Welfare Center for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, a domestic violence prevention project, provides services to 14,000 Afghan women, trains government staff on domestic violence and encourages spiritual leaders to discuss women’s issues constructively. The center supports training programs for teachers and human rights awareness seminars for the public.

The Vital Voices team first discovered Sadiqa‘s talents and commitment during our 2002 launch of our ‘Back to Work, Back to School Afghan Uniform Project to Support Women and Girls,’ a publicprivate partnership of non-governmental organizations, corporations, individuals and the U.S. government to assist girls in obtaining much-needed uniforms, shoes, and socks for school by employing impoverished Afghan widows to make them. Sadiqa became indispensable as our eyes and ears on the ground - meeting with the women stitching the uniforms, facilitating the distribution of the products, and ultimately relishing the newfound sense of pride among the students in her school who - many for the first time - arrived to class wearing formal clothes.

While finishing her undergraduate degree at Mount Holyoke College, Sadiqa is passionately planning her return to Kabul. She aims to expand the gifted students program, establish two new schools for returnees and internally displaced persons, and establish an Afghan Women’s Leadership Institute to train high school graduates on business management and leadership skills.