Dr. Sakena Yacoobi and the Afghan Institute of Learning
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The founder of the Afghan Institute of Learning, Dr. Sakena Yacoobi has championed literacy, quality education, and health care by training 11 million people. Her institute has become one of the largest employers of women in Afghanistan. The Afghan Institute of Learning began offering education and health care services to individuals in refugee camps in the 1900s and quickly expanded to open a network of secret schools for 3,000 girls in Afghanistan. During this time, the organization trained 80 teachers to educate these young girls. When the secret schools closed in 2001, the institute began expanding by opening Learning Centers and clinics in communities around the country. Now, the organization provides health services to hundreds of thousands of Afghan people and education to tens of thousands.
Outside of her work with the institute, Dr. Yacoobi travels internationally to speak on women’s education and children’s health at a variety of conferences. She has presented before the Harvard University Central Eurasian Studies Society, the Warwick University One World Forum, the Clinton Global Initiative, the California Governor’s Conference on Women and Families, and many others. In addition, she spoke at the Brookings US-Islamic World Forum and the TEDWomen Conference in Monterey, California. In all of these talks, she draws listeners’ attentions to the urgent need to support women’s rights in Afghanistan, especially in terms of education and health care.
Dr. Yacoobi was born in Herat, Afghanistan, and traveled to the United States to study biology. After earning her master of public health, she returned to Afghanistan to teach as a professor at D’Etre University and to serve as a health consultant. These experiences fueled her to start the work that developed into the Afghan Institute of Learning.
In addition to her institute, Dr. Yacoobi created the Professor Sakena Yacoobi Private Hospital in Herat and two private high schools in Kabul and Herat. She is also the co-founder and vice president of Creating Hope International, a nonprofit based in Michigan.