On Tuesday, March 18, 2014, Razia Jan, member of the Duxbury Rotary Club, CNN Top 10 Hero of 2012, and founder of the Zabuli Education Center in Afghanistan, returned to her home Club for an update on her progress in changing the status of women in Afghanistan through education.
Razia Jan first opened the Zabuli School in 2008 with a very small number of girls who were given permission by their families to attend. The school now educates 470 girls, some of whom have recently started live video sessions with middle school girls in America. The girls of the Zabuli school produced their own video to share with their counterparts in Sharon, Ma. Razia beamed as she described the excitement of the girls and seeing them “grow in confidence”.
The school will have its first graduating class next year and Ms. Jan is now planning to open an institute to train these graduates for careers in Education, Nursing, and Computer Science.
Her passion to make a difference in the world continues. Most recently she was the keynote speaker at the USAF Academy’s National Character and Leadership Symposium which brought together 5000 distinguished scholars, global military leaders, corporate executives, world-class athletes and others to explore the theme: Character Overcoming Conflict: Individual Stories, Global Impact.
Fund raising efforts are scheduled under the banner “Empowering Afghan Girls Through Education, Transform a Nation and the World”. Events planned include conversation and dinner with Razia Jan, Khaled Hosseini (Author of The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, as well as And the Mountains Echoed) and Lisa Hughes (WBZ news anchor) on April 12 at One Post Office Square in Boston. For more information see www.raziasrayofhope.org .