Afghanistan’s only boarding school for girls has temporarily shifted to the East African country of Rwanda; as announced by the school’s co-founder Shabana Basij-Rasikh Monday.
According to VOA, In a tweet, Basij-Rasikh, president of SOLA (School of Leadership Afghanistan), said that the departure of nearly 250 students; faculty, staff and family members to Rwanda was completed last week and they intend to begin a semester abroad for the entire student body.
However, she clarified that the resettlement is not permanent.
On August 20th, I shared that our SOLA community is safe. Today, I want to share a few details as to the form that safety is taking.
Last week, we completed the departure from Kabul of nearly 250 students, faculty, staff, and family members. 1/7
— Shabana Basij-Rasikh (@sbasijrasikh) August 24, 2021
“When circumstances on the ground permit, we hope to return home to Afghanistan. For now, I request privacy for our community,” she said.
SOLA, which means peace in Pashto, began in 2008 with four students and a rented house. Currently, the school, which is recognised by Afghanistan’s education ministry; has close to 100 students and nearly three dozen staff.
Classes in the boarding school were held from Saturday till Thursday every week. The girls boarded on campus in Kabul for the March-December academic year.
The Rwandan Ministry of Education responded to Basij-Rasikh’s tweet; saying that it looked forward to welcoming the SOLA community to Rwanda.
The central African nation is one of several countries that the U.S. State Department said had agreed to temporarily host evacuated Afghans. It is not yet known how many Afghans Rwanda will accept.
On Friday, Basij-Rasikh posted a video showing her burning boarding school students’ records to protect their identities from the Taliban.
