Honorary Doctorate To Be Conferred Upon Dr. Sakeena Yacoobi

HJ International Graduate School for Peace and Public Leadership is proud to announce the conferral of an honorary doctorate upon Dr. Sakeena Yacoobi as part of its 49th Commencement Ceremony. The event will take place on Saturday, May 31th at 2:00 pm ET at 4 West 43rd Street, New York, NY.

Dr. Sakena Yacoobi, known as the mother of Afghan education, has been a pioneering and devoted educator of refugees for 24 years working under the conviction that education is key to social reconstruction.

Dr. Yacoobi began educating teachers and establishing schools for boys and girls in Afghan refugee camps where people were struggling to survive after decades of war and a complete collapse of the education and the health system. In 1995, she established the Afghan Institute for Learning (AIL) to provide systematic refugee education and provided education and vocational training to 13 million women and children. Despite the Taliban regime’s ban on women’s schools, AIL successfully operated and educated more than 3,000 girls.

Creating Hope International (CHI), an organization co-founded by Dr. Yacoobi, provides technical assistance to four private schools, hospitals, and radio stations, including the Afghan Institute of Learning. Through its projects since 1996, CHI has provided health education to more than 2 million women and children significantly reducing infant mortality and maternal mortality rates during pregnancy and childbirth. It also provides Love and Forgiveness workshops to help transform refugees who have been surrounded by social deprivation and anger into positive leaders who can revive their local communities. Its radio broadcasting reaches more than a million people a day and covers a diverse range of topics including social trends, health, family success models, human rights, literature, and music to support the desire of refugees for a peaceful and fruitful life.

We are honored to recognize Dr. Yacoobi for her exceptional contributions to presenting a fundamental solution to refugee resettlement through education and contributing to the improvement of human rights. Her remarkable career exemplifies the values of our institution, and we are privileged to have her as our keynote speaker for this momentous occasion.

To register to attend online (via Zoom), please click here.