The promise of Sustainable Development Goal 4: ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
In this episode with SSL, Nasir, Laura, and Ginger will reflect on a journey of transformation that started over a year ago as a quest to provide an accredited, asynchronous, and self-paced high school education to young women and girls in Afghanistan. The program is funded by the Alekain Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit incorporated in the State of Arizona, offered by Smart Schools International, an accredited private high school that provides high-quality academic programs and curriculum paired with the flexibility and support students outside the U.S. need to be successful, and complemented by group therapy education sessions to help students process stress, strengthen emotional well-being, and build the resilience to keep growing.
Alekain’s Claim Your Diploma Initiative was launched in November 2024 and received an overwhelming 831 applications within two weeks. These applicants came from across 22 provinces and six ethnic groups, which demonstrates hope, resilience, and a thirst for education. We currently have 29 bright, resilient girls in our inaugural cohort. This cohort represents five ethnic groups and nine provinces.
Alekain is committed to supporting 30 students annually between 2026 - 2029.
Through this initiative, Alekain provides no-cost secondary school classes between grades 9 and 12 to Afghan girls in partnership with Smart Schools International, culminating in an internationally accredited high school diploma, opening the way for higher education.
This program follows a fully asynchronous model, allowing our students to complete courses and milestones at their own pace, based on their availability. Furthermore, under this initiative, we pair each student with a female American college student who provides academic, personal, and psychological support. Our strong peer mentorship program sets these students up for success and helps them achieve program milestones.
Moreover, since access to a computer and internet connectivity is a hurdle for most of our students, we provide each girl with a laptop and a monthly internet plan. We also offer English as a Second Language courses to ensure inclusion of the non-qualifiers and facilitate their potential entry to Smart Schools International in future admissions cycles.
One learner, one laptop, one mentor. Educating girls in Afghanistan
More importantly, we engage parents of our students at the outset of the program. They attend the interviews, not only to express their consent for their daughters to attend our program, but also to elaborate on their hopes and dreams for their daughters. We reaffirm their commitment through a parental agreement that is signed between Alekain and the parents during the onboarding process.
Additionally, in June 2025, we launched our mental health support through two professionals, who provide group therapy education to our students, mentorship, and training for peer mentors. Our strong focus on mental and emotional well-being is a necessary innovation that ensures students achieve academic success and meet program milestones.
Finally, we intend to offer advising and assistance with college admissions after high school graduation, which will help our students pursue their higher education abroad.
Our theory of change is simple and yet critical.
Girls can access secondary education, then they can build better, more stable, and resilient futures for themselves, their families, and societies (UNICEF, 2025).
- They are less likely to marry young
- They are more likely to lead healthy, productive lives.
- They earn higher incomes.
- They can make better decisions for themselves, their families, and their societies.
They are less likely to get married at a young age. They earn higher incomes. They can make better decisions for themselves, their families, and their societies.
About Silver Lining for Learning
Born from crisis, building hope—weekly conversations transforming education for a more humanistic and sustainable future
Silver Lining for Learning (SLL) is an award-winning webinar/podcast series on the future of learning with educators, education leaders, innovators, and learners from across the globe. Each week, SLL brings together diverse voices—from classroom teachers to researchers to students themselves—to challenge assumptions, bridge theory and practice, and inspire actionable solutions for creating more equitable, humanistic, and sustainable learning ecosystems.
Hosted by Chris Dede, Curt Bonk, Lydia Cao, Punya Mishra & Yong Zhao, SLL has won a range of awards, including The AECT Distinguished Development Award (2022), The Outstanding Digital Learning Artifact (2022) and the Annual Achievement Award (2023), and is ranked among the top 100 education-related podcasts.
