SF One World

SFOneWorld Supporters,

Thanks again for all your help funding the school that will be built in Pakistan with your generous donations. I just received this email from Jennifer Sipes from the Central Asia Institute

Dear Herb,

Greetings from Central Asia Institute (CAI)! It is with great pleasure to inform you that Central Asia Institute has located a site to begin the construction of a new school that you will help establish with your generous donations. It is the Tatrial School, in Neelam Valley, Azad Kashmir, Pakistan. We are still waiting for the logistics of the school, but we are expecting about 80 students and 2-3 teachers. Genevieve Chabot, our international program manager, will be traveling to Pakistan in August and September. She will be able to give us an update after that.

The process undertaken to build new schools or improve on existing structures is one that requires an invitation from the local community and 1-4 years of pre-planning with the village elders, tribal chiefs, military commanders, Islamic clerics and government officials influential in the area. CAI is often the only organization (government, international, or local) supporting local initiatives in several of the underserved areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Each project involves local people in all phases: initiation, implementation, and evaluation.

A committee of elders and experts guide these phases to completion. This includes the community matching Central Asia Institute project funds (for skilled labor and materials) with equal amounts of local resources (wood, land, sand, etc.) and sweat equity (free or subsidized labor). Such commitment ensures the project’s viability and long-term success.

Once the school has been completed, furnished and stocked with supplies, CAI remains connected to the people providing support until such time that the village can sustain the school’s costs on its own.

Central Asia Institute's focus is on community-based education programs especially for girls. CAI has established or supports 78 (mostly rural) schools educating over 28,000 students, including 14,000 girls.

Thank you again for your generosity and support to give the gift of education to students a half a world away. Please contact me with any questions.

Best wishes,



Jennifer Sipes

Operations Director

Central Asia Institute