Rex Foundation

Recipient of the Rex Foundation's 2001
BILL GRAHAM AWARD

This award, established in memory of pioneerng pro-ducer and founding Rex board member Bill Graham, himself a refugee, is designated for organizations and individuals working to assist children who are victims of political oppression and human rights violations.

The Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL) was founded in 1995 to help address the problem of a lack of educational access for women and girls, their subsequent inability to support their lives, and the impact of this lack of education on society and culture. The goal of the three founders - Sakena Yacoobi, a health educator and teacher, Nazifa Aabedi, an engineer and teacher, and Rarwin Rahim, a health educator and nurse, was to create an organization, run by women, that could play a major part in reconstructing an educational system capable of reach rig the women and children of Afghanistan, whether in refugee camps or still in their homes.

The work being done by the Afghan Institute of Learning is making a difference every day in the lives of Afghan women and children, and is the only Afghan NGO supporting girls' schools in Afghanistan. AIL strives to assist women who are supporting their families. Most of the teachers and other adult, female beneficiaries are the sole or primary support of their families. All of AlLs leadership is female, and 90% of its beneficiaries are female. Since September 12, 2001, the Afghan Institute of Learning has been providing emergency clothing, medical care and schools for the desperate refugees arriving in the camps in the Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistari.