难民营里的老师We start the programme today with a remarkable Afghan woman who's changed the
lives of a generation of refugees living in a camp in Pakistan. Aqeela Asifi is
a refugee herself, a teacher, with a passion for education. And she's been
speaking to the BBC's correspondent in Islamabad, Shaimaa Khalil, about her life
and work in Kot Chandana refugee village in Punjab province.
I always wanted to be a teacher and my inspiration was my own teachers.
Whenever I looked at them, I always wanted to be like them, and I always wanted
for the time to come soon when I'll be standing there where they were to teach
me. So I got my love for teaching from my teachers because I always felt that
teachers are the one who lay the foundation of a society. Even now when I am
teaching - I have a small school in the camp, in the refugee camp - so whenever
I teach them, it always comes out from my heart and soul. So I always feel this
inner satisfaction whenever I come back from my school.
Before you fled to Pakistan, you talked about growing up in a prosperous
Afghanistan, about a different time when people were equal and you were
encouraged to get an education. Tell me what life was like, at that point? How
did it change?
In 1992, that was the year when we had to leave Kabul because life was no
more secure. When the government was no more in the power, mujahideen took over,
and there was chaos everywhere. The country was into civil war. So there was no
single family which was not impacted back then, and everyone tried to get out of
the country and find refuge.