Central Asia Institute's Scholarship Program awards
advanced academic scholarships for disadvantaged students meeting their residential, educational and living costs. Rural students who graduate from provincial schools in Pakistan face a dearth of supplementary education options. Students can apply through the local CAI project manager for a scholarship to a secondary school, high school, college, or university. Scholarships include room, board, tuition, school supplies, textbooks, uniforms, and travel to and from school.

Read on here for more information about CAI's Scholarship program

CAI students-the trailblazers of tomorrow-are selected for scholarships by the communities, schools, families, teachers and CAI regional staff. Here are just some of the stories of these brave students who are the architects of the future, crafting new role-model-molds for the next generation of girls in Pakistan.

Nasreen's Story:  A Lamp Inside Her

Despite life's arduous circumstances, Nasreen (shown here with her two daughters) prevailed and got the education she desired.
 
"It was like a lamp inside me that refused to be snuffed out," she says.

Gul Nasreen is an ideal exemplar of CAI's successful Scholarship Program. Originally from the Charpusan Valley, she has relocated to Rawalpindi, where she studies at the Institute of Health Management, working toward her Medical Assistant Degree and specializing in Emergency First Aid Procedure. Nasreen has come a long way from her village of Zuudkhaan, which she says is a 14-hour drive from Gilgit and 30 hours from Rawalpindi, along the Karakoram Highway's circuitous mountain routes. 

Read more about Nasreen's story here

Fozia Naseer:  US Scholarship Student

When Fozia Naseer, a teacher in Azad Jammu Kashmir,  finished her studies as a law student, she pursued her long-cherished dream of studying in America-far away from her remote village of Pattika. Fozia's father passed away when she was a toddler and she was raised by her uncle who had been supporting the extended family on his retirement pension.

Since the 2005 earthquake, Fozia and her mother have been living in a United Nations tent amid the rubble of their house. In 2006, CAI granted Fozia a scholarship to help with her law school tuition, books, and daily transport from her village to Muzaffarabad. She is a gifted and intensely determined student with a BA in Education for teaching, a BS in Economics and Geography, and an MA in Education in Political Science from Azad Kashmir University.

Continue reading story here

Ghosia Mughal: Inspiratonal Survivor

Ghosia is a bright and very high-need scholarship student finishing eighth grade in a CAI school. Her village of Pattika was devastated by the cataclysmic earthquake of October 2005. Though traumatized the death of her schoolmates, Ghosia was one of the first students to return to school after the earthquake. She inspired other students to attend classes in a tent for 15 months and now is grateful to be studying at the earthquake-safe CAI Pattika Girls' School.

Continue reading story here

Saima Azghar:  Never Give Up


Saima Asghar was the first woman in Pattika village to receive an MA in English, from Azad Kashmir University in Muzaffarabad. Tragically, she was paralyzed from the waist down in the earthquake, before which, she used to teach English in the village of Kahori, a perilous one-hour drive from her hometown of Pattika. These villages are dotted along the picturesque but treacherous mountainous range of the Neelum Valley.

On October 8th, 2005, the roof collapsed at the school where Saima taught, trapping her in the rubble with the bodies of those who perished. Her friend and colleague Fozia Naseer says, "In the earthquake's chaotic aftermath, Saima's parents back in Pattika village heard the incorrect report that she was safe." No one came to rescue her as she lay imprisoned by the debris. She says it rained that night, and the October chill of the mountains aggravated her condition.

 Continue reading story here

Azad Kashmir Local Teachers:  Dedicated to Serve

These university-level students are all local teachers from Azad Kashmir who are anxious to study further.  They have applied for CAI scholarships to various universities in Islamabad. All of these young women are diligent, bright-eyed and highly motivated applicants for CAI scholarships. They teach in private schools in Azad Kashmir and at the same time are studying remotely toward undergraduate-equivalent degrees in Economics, Civics, Islamic Studies, Political Science, English, and Arabic as private candidates through an extension of Azad Kashmir University administered by CAI's brilliant teacher and ex-Taliban member, Shaukat Ali.

Continue reading story here

"Our children's Pennies for Peace program has turned on the afterburners," says Greg Mortenson. "In 2007, P4P was in 278 schools. This year, P4P had over 2,900 registrations and continues to go bananas in schools, libraries and children's groups."

Christiane Leitinger, Pennies For Peace Program Director, explains that students of all ages, inspired to make difference with their own projects, both in their own backyard and overseas. She is thrilled that students of all ages brought in the equivalent of 90 million pennies to help poor children halfway around the world. P4P has a service-learning program, which guides hundreds of thousands of children around the world to participate in P4P in their schools, scout troops, faith groups, clubs and homes.

Leitinger presented a new Pennies for Peace Toolkit now available on a web-platform at the Pennies For Peace website. Hardcopies will also be available, but we urge schools to use the web-platform to help us save our pennies!

For more Pennies for Peace and Toolkit details click here

         

Star Award for Greg Mortenson

The Pakistan government announced that Greg Mortenson, director of Central Asia Institute, will receive Pakistan's civilian award, Sitara-e-Eesaar (The Star of Sacrifice), in an Islamabad civil ceremony on March 23rd, 2009. Only three foreigners have ever received this award. This honor is awarded to those individuals in recognition of their extraordinary philanthropy and service of humanity.

"It is humbling," said Mortenson. "This really represents and belongs to the millions of determined children and communities who aspire to hope through education."