Sakena Yacoobi

Sakena Yacoobi (born Herat, Afghanistan) is the founder and Executive Director of the Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL), an Afghan women-led NGO she founded in 1995. She is well known for her work for the rights of children, women and education. She has earned international recognition for her work and received numerous awards. This includes the 2013 Opus Prize, 2015 WISE Prize in Education and 2016 Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education as well as 6 honorary degrees including from Princeton University.

The Afghan Institute of Learning was established to provide teacher training to Afghan women, to support education for boys and girls, and to provide health education to women and children.Under Sakena’s leadership AIL has established itself as a groundbreaking, visionary organization which works at the grassroots level and empowers women and communities to find ways to bring education and health services to rural and poor urban girls, women and other poor and disenfranchised Afghans.

AIL was the first organization to offer human rights and leadership training to Afghan women. During the 1990s when the Taliban closed girls' schools AIL supported 80 underground home schools for 3,000 girls. After the defeat of the Taliban AIL was the first organization that opened Learning Centers for Afghan women—a concept now copied by many organizations throughout Afghanistan. In 2015, AIL opened a legal clinic to provide free legal services to poor Afghan women. AIL has been hosting large scale peace conferences around Afghanistan, which use the poetry of the Afghan poet Rumi to teach lessons of justice, human rights, good citizenship and living harmoniously.

Using their grassroots strategies and holistic approach, AIL now serves hundreds of thousands of women and children each year through training programs, Learning Centers, schools and clinics in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Since 1996, millions of Afghans have benefited from AIL’s education, training and health programs.

Born in Herat, Afghanistan, Sakena came to the United States in the 1970s, earning a bachelor's degree in biological sciences from the University of the Pacific in 1977 and a master's degree in public health from Loma Linda University. Before returning in 1990 to work with her people, Sakena was a professor at D’Etre University and a health consultant. While working with refugees in Pakistan, she published eight Dari-language teacher training guides. During that time, she also served as the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR) delegate working on the education portion of the United Nation’s Rehabilitation Plan for Afghanistan.

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