Seven weeks ago, we quietly launched something we had never done before.
We connected 12 Afghan women living abroad — in Toronto, Berlin, London, Nairobi, California, Switzerland — with 12 girls still inside Afghanistan. One mentor. One mentee. One hour a week. In secret.
No classroom. No school building. No permission from anyone.
Just two screens, an unstable WiFi connection, and a locked door so the brothers wouldn’t hear.
We are now in Week 7. And here is what we know.
100% of the girls showed up. Every single week.
In a program operating under active repression — where girls are banned from school, from university, from public life — every single one of them came back. That number, on its own, is the story.
The word that appeared most when we asked them to describe themselves in three words?
Hopeful.
Not from girls living freely. From girls who told us things like this:
“Before 2021, we were living. Now it feels like imprisonment. I feel like I am simply waiting for this period to end.”
And then, in the same breath — hopeful.
One girl described a good day as the moment the power stays on long enough to finish an assignment. Another said her mother locks the bedroom door during sessions so her brothers won’t hear them speaking English. Another sat near the window in total darkness to get better signal.
They are learning coding. Medicine. English. Business. Psychology. Writing. Whatever they can reach.
And our mentors — Afghan women who left, who built lives abroad, who carry Afghanistan with them every single day — they showed up too. Week after week, across time zones, fitting one hour of secret education into their lunch breaks and early mornings and late nights.
What the data shows at the midpoint:
Confidence in their futures moved up by 0.7 points. Direction — knowing what they want to learn and do next — moved up by 0.8. Connection to opportunities outside Afghanistan moved up by 0.5.
These are not large numbers. But they are real. And they happened in seven weeks. In secret. Under one of the most repressive governments on earth.
On October 11 — International Day of the Girl — we are releasing Still Here: The Parallel Journal.
A split-page ebook. Left page: the mentor’s voice, from wherever she is in the world. Right page: the girl’s voice, from inside Afghanistan. The same session. Two completely different realities on one page.
We are also submitting an Open Letter to Global Leaders, co-signed by the girls themselves, to Malala Fund and Education Cannot Wait. Because these girls do not want sympathy. They want secure internet, mentors who believe in them, and tools that let them learn without fear.
Cohort 2 begins October 19th.
If you want to be part of what happens next — as a mentor, as a supporter, as someone who simply needs to know this is happening — find us at hearherstories.com.
They are still here. So are we.
Want to be part of Cohort 2?
Become a Mentor: Mentor Application Form
Apply as a Mentee: Mentee Application Form
