Ayni partners with schools across the U.S.

An example of one of our partnerships is with Coe Elementary School in Seattle, the first school to participate in our project. It has become a national role model of what it looks like for kids to help kids. In the spring of 2002, the Coe students were temporarily housed in another school, because their school had burned completely to the ground. Despite their own challenges, Coe parents, teachers, students and staff approached our founder, Julia Bolz—asking, What can we do to help the children in Afghanistan?

Afghan girls holding exhange present from kids at Coe

After learning about our work, the Coe community decided to journey with one of the first girls’ schools that opened in northern Afghanistan after the Taliban was removed from power. In addition to helping us raise money to build the Afghan school for girls, they committed to raising $3,600 each year in the future to help sustain the school. To date, they have raised almost $40,000!

Through our cross-culture curriculum, the children and their parents learned about poverty in the developing world; what it means to live on less than $1/day; the history, culture, and religion of Afghanistan; life for Afghan boys and girls; schooling and the education system; how we can help and empower others and build bridges of understanding. With the teachers’ help, we tried to make this as interactive as possible. In addition to trying on turbans and burkhas and dressing up in Afghan clothing, students carried water, sampled Afghan foods, and went without electricity. Consequently, the students have a greater understanding of the contrasts between America and the developing world.