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YLI Team Travels to Afghanistan
Educators know Meg Heubeck and Daman Irby as the administrators of the Univeristy of Virginia Center For Politics' Youth Leadership Initiative (YLI), but they may not know that the two also coordinate the Center's Global Perspectives on Democracy (GPD) program. GPD was formed in 2008 as a way to take the quality resources of YLI and use them to instruct international groups on the importance of democracy and the need for civic engagement. Global Perspectives on Democracy - Afghanistan is part of an exchange funded by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and in partnership with Relief International.
Last summer GPD hosted two groups of women from high levels of Afghan government and non-profit organizations for three-week study programs on civic engagement, public administration and the importance of the Rule of Law. Participants represented the Supreme Court of Afghanistan, Ministry of Women's Affairs, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Justice, the Bureau of Reconstruction and Development, and non-profit organizations promoting the rights of women. Participants spent their time in Virginia meeting with judges, elected officials, local activists and non-profits and brainstorming strategies for transforming their new knowledge into action upon their return home.
Daman and Meg travelled to Kabul on December 8, 2011, and spent the next week visiting the participants to see the effects of the GPD programming, meeting with government officials and leaders of NGOs, and visiting cultural sites in Kabul. The visit also provided them with insight that will help in their preparations for the two additional Afghan groups scheduled for summer 2012 and other future programs. Highlights from their time in Kabul included meeting with judges from Afghanistan's court system and sitting in on some cases, visiting the Ministry of Women's Affairs and the Women's Garden of Kabul, visiting Kabul University, and simply experiencing the daily life of Afghans.
Heubeck and Irby return with an optimistic outlook for Afghanistan. While there is much to be done, the Afghan people are committed to creating a new nation that will meet the needs of its diverse population. Click here to read an article originally printed in the Charlottesville Daily Progress about their experiences in Afghanistan.
