Solace Projects

Afghanistan

GIRLS SCHOOL PROJECT • WOMEN'S COTTAGE INDUSTRY • SCHOOL-TO-SCHOOL

Nate York, Solace International's founder and executive director, first visited Afghanistan in 2002 as part of a UNICEF effort to distribute school supplies to 55,000 students in 170 schools in Jawzjan province.

The schools he saw had no heaters, rotten wooden beams, and broken glass windows. The desks and chairs had all been burned by the Taliban. Despite these conditions, wherever York went, the kids he saw were always excited and enthusiastic about being in school.

But as he traveled through remote villages, he was repeatedly told by locals that "aid groups come and take pictures, and never come back.” In a country where fewer than one in seven women can read and many never even set foot in a school while under the Taliban, experts agree the key to recovering from decades of war will be successfully education the population, especially women.

And so, upon his return to Anchorage, Solace International was born to address the educational needs of women and children in developing countries like Afghanistan.

Since 2002, Solace has constructed or renovated seven schools in Afghanistan, as well as an internet-equipped learning center, in the northern Afghan province of Jawzjan. The schools each have three to five classrooms and provide education for more than 1,200 Afghan students, two-thirds of which are girls.

The majority of funding for the schools comes from organized auctions of traditional carpets and embroideries from local villagers. To date, auctions have been held in more than 21 cities across the U.S. and successfully raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for construction materials.

In response to the success of the auctions, and because of the few employment opportunities for Afghan women, Solace also has created the Central Asian Women's Cooperative, a textile design center that produces high-quality traditional fiber arts (such as carpets, embroideries and hand-loomed clothing) for sale in the United States. Solace purchases creations from the cooperative for a fair-market price, thereby economically empowering these women and elevating their community status.