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PANJIM: “People of Afghanistan are still refugees. There is still war. People are suffering. People lost their lives. But above all these things, people lost their way of life,” Dr Sakena Yacoobi said while delivering a lecture on the fourth day of the DD Kosambi Festival of Ideas at DM hall Kala Academy, Tuesday.
Explaining her endeavour to bring back an education system that would empower women and children in Afghanistan, Executive Director of the Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL), an Afghan women NGO, Yacoobi said, “We decided to design a curriculum that would teach people interaction, critical thinking, how to reconnect, ideate, share, values, respect, appreciate culture. That was the system of education that we implemented. In Pakistan, in one year I went from zero to 15,000 students in a school, especially girls.”
Speaking of a bright future for Afghanistan, the activist said the country would be very successful because the young men and women there are doing all that they can to change. “They are not satisfied with the old system. I am old, but I am changing with time. And the youth group I work with will not accept the rigid way either. They have vision, creativity, innovation; they work very hard; they are not lazy and time is precious for them. They appreciate time and that is gives me energy to work side-by-side with them,” says Yacoobi.
Lauding the event, Yacoobi said she is considering adopting it in Afghanistan too. “This conference is very unique. Everyday you have different ideas. You talk for two hours and then go and think about it. The next day you come back fresh. In other conferences, you sit all day, get tired and exhausted and come next day too. So, I am going to copy Goa’s conference,” she said.
Fielding a volley of questions from the audience, Yacoobi seemed especially impressed with some of the questions asked by students. Concluding her lecture, she said, “My message to the young women and men in this room is don’t give up in life and try to learn as much as you can, because you are the nation, you are the investment, because of you a country can develop, a country can go forward, or a country can demolish. All because of you.”
When asked about the US plan for the withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, Yacoobi said that personally she is not afraid because she believes in the people of Afghanistan and that they will be able to manage. “The Taliban will not be able to take over, because the people of Afghanistan are not the same people. People have changed. Today Taliban cannot come and say ‘stay in the house’ or ‘don’t go to school’. Because they (Afghanistan) have tasted freedom, education, democracy and they are not going to go back. And they are going to fight. That’s the way I see it,” Yacoobi stated.
Many students, parents and academicians had gathered to hear Yacoobi given her achievements in the field of education.
