The Institute of International Education has announced a new scholarship for Afghan students of the now-closed American University of Afghanistan, while members of an all-female Afghan robotics team have been welcomed in Qatar on a separate initiative.
The initial round of 10 IIE scholarships are the latest in the organisation’s Afghanistan Crisis Response, and offer students the opportunity to reconnect to their studies in safety at a college campus abroad.
They also provide the “hope and possibility” that grantees with return to Afghanistan to contribute to rebuilding the country, the organisation added. IIE has also said it will work to help every student who wishes to leave the country, find a place to go.
The Qatar Foundation and Qatar Fund for Development scholarships for the all-female robotics team provide study opportunities at QF’s Education City, which comprises eight universities.
The robotics team, known as the ‘Afghan Dreamers’, are talented, creative students that “have been living through a time of uncertainty and upheaval”, said Qatar Foundation vice chairperson and CEO Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al Thani.
“At Qatar Foundation we want to do whatever we can to ease their concerns in the present while also helping them to look to the future,” she said.
“We want to do whatever we can to ease their concerns in the present while also helping them to look to the future”
“By providing them with scholarships to study at Education City, their education can now continue uninterrupted.
“Our priority is to ensure that these students feel safe, cared for, and confident in the knowledge that their education will not be affected by this immensely difficult period in their lives.”
The IIE’s programs such as the Scholar Rescue Fund, our Emergency Student Fund, and our Artist Protection Fund – not connected with the initiative in Qatar – assist scholars, students, and artists for the long term, said Allan Goodman, IIE president.
“It’s in our DNA to respond to academic emergencies whenever and wherever they arise, and no matter how long they last,” he said.
IIE’s Afghanistan Crisis Response is being co-chaired by IIE Trustee and former US senator Ted Kaufman and IIE Board Chair Mark Angelson.
In 2016, the American University of Afghanistan was attacked resulting in the death of 15 people and at least 50 more injured.
“There is no question that the very lives of Afghan students and academics are now targeted by terrorists,” said senator Kaufman.
“Among many programs in place to support students and scholars in times of crisis, IIE’s Scholar Rescue Fund is the only global program that arranges and funds fellowships for threatened and displaced scholars at partner higher education institutions worldwide,” Angelson added.
