“We want to change our university,” was the comment of one of the professors from a partnering university in Afghanistan, who came to Portland, Oregon along with four colleagues for a three-week educational internship hosted by Co-Serve International.

This team of professors came to Portland to learn from professors and students in a variety of colleges in the Northwest. Initially twelve professors planned to come to the US for this internship, however only five were able to secure visas to the USA. These twelve professors plan to implement a new Servant Leadership Center in the heart of their Afghan university, impacting 16,000 students annually. This university was the university that helped to launch Morning Star’s first Institute for Leadership Development in 2004.

[Read more…]

Transforming The Lives of Afghan Women One Individual At A Time

With each new problem she faced, she cried, “I can’t do it! I’m illiterate!” Shirin, a 35-year old Afghan woman, was desperate to move out of poverty. Like most Afghan women, she was never allowed to go to school as a girl. Her father would say, “Why waste your time in school when you will soon be a wife and mother?” Yet she was determined to break the cycle of illiteracy, poverty, dependency and helplessness which was already being passed on to her 6 children.

During Shirin’s time as a child, literacy rates were below 20% nationally (almost zero for women). Today, literacy for Afghanistan is 43% of the total population. Although there has been great improvement, there are still five boy’s schools for every one girl’s school.

[Read more…]

Generations of wars in Afghanistan have left many families without a father and many children in orphanages. Although government orphanages do their best to care and educate their children, much of the education focuses on reading the Koran and limiting exposure to other important aspects of education.

[Read more…]

Over the past 15 years Afghan refugee numbers have increased. Morning Star opened a GED-based educational institute in 2016, to meet the educational needs of the Afghan children in Southeast Asia. The institute is now in its’ 4th academic year and has over 80 students in 7th through 12th grade. We currently have 14 teaching staff and 1 administrative staff to support our academic and extra-curricular activities. We are preparing to graduate our first senior class this month, in March 2020.

The institute strives to improve the various aspects of student’s lives, as we aspire to develop leaders within the Afghan communities. One of our current 8th grade students, Akram, was having great difficulty concentrating in class and finishing his homework. When he failed in all subjects during the last term, his class teacher took significant interest to find out more about him and his life.

When Akram was 13 years old his whole family was sent to prison in Southeast Asia due to some allegations. He was separated from his parents and struggled through various traumatic experiences inside the prison. Although this was a few years ago, memories of this time continue to haunt Akram at his young age. While he is an intelligent student he struggles with depression and finds it very difficult to control his mind. This reflects in his behavior in school, and has affected his academic standing.

[Read more…]