Project Overview
When Ubuntu Roots met Ms. Pashtana Durrani, the founder of LEARN Afghan, during her visit to Japan, something extraordinary happened.
In a quiet restaurant in Tokyo, stories were exchanged: stories of resilience, of classrooms without walls, of Afghan girls who continued to learn despite every barrier placed before them.
From that meeting was born a shared commitment: to keep the doors of learning open, no matter how the world changes.
Ubuntu Roots is proud to announce the launch of its first initiative in the Middle East region, partnering with LEARN Afghan, an award-winning organization that has redefined access to education for girls in Afghanistan through technology, creativity, and courage.
Impact at a Glance:
- 1 million+ Afghan girls reached
- SIM-based learning access program (offline education)
- AI-powered adaptive learning platform collaboration
- 3 global subjects taught by Ubuntu Roots: Sustainability, Economics, Social Justice
1️⃣ A Meeting That Sparked a Movement
During her visit to Japan, Ms. Durrani shared stories that redefined what education can look like under constraint. She spoke of classrooms powered not by electricity, but by SIM cards: where a single piece of plastic carried hundreds of lessons.
In that conversation, Ubuntu Roots saw more than just innovation; we saw a blueprint for resilience.
LEARN Afghan’s work had proven that when schools are silenced, learning finds a whisper — and then a voice.
Her visit to Yokohama became the bridge between two worlds: Ubuntu Roots’ global education network and LEARN Afghan’s local ingenuity. Together, we envisioned what could happen when technology, empathy, and community unite under one shared belief: that education is a right, not a privilege.
2️⃣ Designing Education Without Boundaries
Following that first meeting, both organizations began designing ways to merge technology with purpose.
Ubuntu Roots worked alongside LEARN Afghan’s educators to create content that could travel through a SIM card and reach students across Afghanistan — even in areas without internet access.
Together, we outlined four main focus areas for collaboration:
- 📚 Creating New Educational Content: Lessons in environmental sustainability, financial literacy, and social justice designed for Afghan learners.
- 🤖 AI-Powered Personalization: Adapting Ubuntu Roots’ materials into LEARN’s AI-based learning platform to tailor lessons to each student’s pace.
- 🌍 Hosting Global Virtual Classes: Ubuntu Roots educators began teaching live sessions that connected Afghan students to a wider international community of learners.
- 📱 Supporting SIM-Based Access: Strengthening LEARN’s groundbreaking SIM card education program, ensuring every student could access learning materials even without the internet.
3️⃣ Bringing Learning to Life
The partnership had moved from planning to impact.
Through LEARN Afghan’s SIM distribution and digital library, over one million Afghan girls gained access to new lessons on sustainability, equity, and economics.
For many, this was their first exposure to global education — lessons that connected the world’s challenges with their own realities.
Students explored topics like climate change through stories of Afghan agriculture, or learned about economic resilience through local market simulations.
For girls who once studied in secret, learning became not just survival — but self-determination.
Ubuntu Roots also joined LEARN Afghan’s mentoring efforts, supporting educators and local volunteers in content facilitation, storytelling, and youth empowerment, building a growing network of change agents across Afghanistan.
4️⃣ Education That Adapts and Endures
As the partnership continues to grow, Ubuntu Roots and LEARN Afghan are working on the next phase of expansion — integrating new subjects, translating materials into local languages, and developing training modules for community-based educators.
The vision is simple but transformative: to make education borderless, fearless, and future-ready.
Together, we are proving that learning doesn’t fade in the dark, it finds new light, even in the most unexpected forms: in a SIM card, a voice note, or a message shared between girls who refuse to stop learning.