The School of Leadership Afghanistan (SOLA), the only boarding school for Afghan girls, is now operating from a permanent campus in Rwanda after years in temporary facilities following its evacuation from Kabul.
SOLA founder and president Shabana Basij-Rasikh spoke about the move in an interview with The World host Marco Werman..
“Five years after we arrived in Rwanda, we finally moved to our permanent campus. I’m happy to share that,” she said.
The school began using the campus in September. It is located outside Kigali, but its exact location has not been disclosed for security reasons.
Associated Press reported that SOLA had 122 students enrolled when the campus began operating. The larger premises will allow the school to increase its intake, although applications continue to far exceed the number of available places.
SOLA opened its boarding school in Kabul in 2016 and enrolled girls from different provinces and ethnic communities across Afghanistan.
Basij-Rasikh told The World that preparations to move the school temporarily outside Afghanistan began after the United States announced that it would withdraw its troops. The school wanted to prevent the students’ education from being interrupted if the security situation deteriorated.
Rwanda later agreed to receive the school community as the Taliban advanced across Afghanistan.
When the Taliban entered Kabul, Basij-Rasikh instructed the school principal to evacuate the students. She said all the girls were removed from the campus within 30 minutes and temporarily sheltered in the homes of staff members.
Basij-Rasikh said the US State Department later informed her that she was on a Taliban hit list and advised her to leave Afghanistan alone. She remained until arrangements had been made for the students and other members of the school community to leave safely.
Nearly 250 students, graduates, employees and relatives eventually arrived in Rwanda. According to SOLA, classes resumed four days later at a hotel converted into a temporary school.
Before leaving Kabul, Basij-Rasikh and her colleagues burned student records to prevent the Taliban from identifying the girls and their families.
She said the decision was influenced by a father who had asked the school to destroy any evidence that his daughter studied there if the Taliban returned. He feared that the discovery could place his family’s lives at risk.
Basij-Rasikh said trauma counselors and health officials received the group upon its arrival in Rwanda. Immigration officers later visited the temporary campus to process their documents, while counsellors and medical personnel supported the community during its first months in the country.
Demand for admission has remained far above the school’s capacity. More than 5,000 applications were submitted during the past two admission cycles, while only about 30 places were available in each intake.
SOLA launched SOLAx, a free WhatsApp-based learning platform, to reach Afghan girls unable to attend the Rwanda campus. It offers English lessons and courses based on Afghanistan’s national curriculum.
Basij-Rasikh said SOLAx now had more than 40,000 learners. About 86 per cent were living in Afghanistan, while the others were spread across more than 70 countries.
The platform was designed for learners with limited internet access and those who share mobile phones with relatives. Students facing security concerns can delete the application and continue their lessons after reinstalling it.
UNICEF says more than 2.6 million Afghan girls have been denied secondary education since the Taliban returned to power. Afghanistan remains the only country where secondary and higher education are effectively closed to girls and women.
SOLA plans to reopen in Afghanistan when conditions are safe, while retaining its Rwanda campus for Afghan girls living outside the country.
Elie GATETE
RADIOTV10