On Saturday, October 16th, over 30 of my 6th grade students and many of their parents and friends and I walked with Barakat to help raise awareness about and funding for literacy programs for girls and women in Afghanistan.  This is the Pierce 6th grade's third year collaborating with Barakat.  At school last Friday afternoon afternoon we broke bread (traditional Afghan na'an) and drank tea with one of Barakat's founders to celebrate all of the students' efforts aimed at collecting enough funds to send 100 Afghan girls to school for one year.  My kids were pretty amazed to learn that the cost to send a girl to school in Afghanistan for one year is between $40-65, while in Brookline it costs more than $8000 per student per year!  It certainly puts things in perspective.

Can you help us reach our goal?  Please consider a donation to this great cause.  Thank you, thank you!

-- Melissa

 PS: The answer to the question on this poster that one of my students created to raise community awareness, "What percentage of Afghan girls know how to read and write?": a shocking 13%...Thanks for helping Pierce 6th graders change this statistic!