To our indispensable AKHRI community,

We apologize for the long wait in between newsletters, but rest assured that publishing will be more frequent and regular from now on, such as the upcoming recap of AKHRI’s experience climbing Mount Kenya.

We also want to thank everyone for being part of our gala on October 11th. It happened to fall on the International Day of the Girl Child this year, which felt fitting. We're truly grateful for everyone who came out, donated, and helped make the evening as special as it was. Here's a look at what the night included.

President Anab opened the evening by sharing updates from the field. Last year, she and the team visited classrooms in the Dilla region of Awdal, Haleeya region of Maroodi-Jeex, and the International Displacement Camp(IDP) of Qalax. They celebrated alongside 120 graduates, many of them mothers and grandmothers who had once thought it was too late to learn. Instead, AKHRI is providing many women a second chance at grasping their own opportunities through education.

Alongside Anab were many other speakers who spoke of their own love of AKHRI, such as Honourable Marie-P. Charette-Poulin, a Former Senator and President of the Liberal party of Canada.

Madame Charette-Poulin spoke personally about a moment in 1972 when she found herself alone with a newborn, with no home, no income, and no support. In this precarious situation she highlighted education as the one thing that carried her through it. Her masters in social sciences gave her the confidence to ask for help, the ability to find work, and to keep pursuing opportunities even at her toughest moments. Charette-Poulin went on to pursue further education later in life like many AKHRI students, and is now pursuing her doctorate at 80.

If you would like to see the rest of Madame Charette-Poulin’s speech and more, watch the attached video below:

Next, Samia Ouled-Ali spoke about literacy as a pathway to voice and equity. She shared that when she arrived in Canada, the first thing she did was enrol at university and that education made the distance from home feel manageable. She also shared some sobering numbers: 754 million adults worldwide still lack basic literacy skills, and two-thirds of them are women. Fifty million girls around the world don't go to school every day. A girl who receives an education is twice as likely to send her own children to school.

Filsan Ahmed, a University of Ottawa student and CEPEO graduate, spoke about six years of volunteering with AKHRI and what it's meant for her own development. She symbolizes the power of youth development, and how opportunities can create branching success stories for yourself and others. She also highlighted the Nimo Ahmed Scholarship, created in memory of a youth engagement advocate; embodied by herself as all four recent recipients were past CEPEO students as well.

Thank you again to everyone who attended, donated, performed, or helped organize the evening. The work continues in classrooms, and in conversations we carry back into our own communities. If you would like to see the Gala in it’s entirety, you can watch it at the video below.

Were you not able to attend the gala or hoped to contribute to fundraisers in the future? We encourage you to donate at the link below or get involved through https://akhri.org/.