Brilliance in Afghanistan

When I was in high school I had the honor of becoming a colleague of a young woman named Clotilde Dedecker.  She is a brilliant and compassionate mind from a rival all-girls high school near mine who created the idea of raising money to build a school for girls in Afghanistan at a time when the world was reeling post-9/11, chaos reigned in the area, and women were grossly under-represented, if allowed to attend school, at all. 

Along with a few other girls in the area, we founded the Western New York Girls' School Coalition for Afghan Women in the early 2000s.  It was our mission to make a change and to help young women we'd never met, have what we had: an education, the power to believe in a future, the courage to make a difference. 

We raised thousands of dollars by hosting "dress down days" in all of the participating schools and we rented out a downtown club and did a ton of planning in order to raise even more money.  We were able to do just that, and before the end of year one, we had built an all-girls school in Afghanistan. 

Today, our coalition is still going strong, and still being run by young women and full-time students.  Clotilde ended up at Harvard and took our ideas to the next level.  It is now a full-fledged organization called "Circle of Women" and you can check out the website here: Circle of Women.

Recently, I came across another amazing example of young people creating educational experiences and opportunities for boys AND girls in Afghanistan:

Skateistan Video

 

You should check out their website, too,

which is really amazing and has some great feedback directly from the students:

 

 Skateistan

 

There are some really amazing people and organizations out there doing incredible things to make the world a brighter, better, more positive, caring, and connected place. 

 

 Remember, it all starts with a single idea.