Poha is a humanitarian project working to empower Afghani women through online education.

Poha's primary goal is to support women's education in Afghanistan by developing accessible and relevant online resources. Education is an essential human right and vital to enabling participation in social, academic, economic and political life. Our digital courses and resources aim to empower women by enhancing their digital and vocational skills, enabling them to bypass barriers to participation, particularly in the educational and economic spheres. Furthermore, it aims to develop their self-confidence and security in managing their own lives. POHA’s mission to provide accessible education can be broken down in the following ways:

 

1) Making education public

Following the ban to formal education, women in Afghanistan have increasingly utilised alternative forms of education to continue the progression of their studies. Nevertheless, the current alternative educational solutions undertaken by Afghan women are largely fee-paying private programmes. This imposes even greater restrictions on thousands of women, further limiting their access to education in an environment that is already severely constrained. POHA’s courses will be open access and free, ensuring that all women, with access to the internet, are able to further their education from their homes. Moreover, whilst there are some online education platforms for school age girls, there are no websites delivering accredited degree programs for older students. POHA will fill this gap, allowing women to continue the progression of their studies to equip them with transferable formal qualifications.

 

2) Delivering educational resources in local languages

POHA’s digital learning platform aims to overcome existing obstacles for women in accessing online education by establishing a resource centre offering materials in Dari and Pashto as well as English. This approach aligns closely with the methods of education and communication women used before the Taliban's ban, enhancing both familiarity and accessibility.

 

3) Creating culturally relevant resources through Micro-learning programmes

As there are not many dedicated platforms for women’s education in Afghanistan, current online resources tailored to their circumstances are few and far between. Though platforms, such as YouTube, offer a wide range of educational content they often fall short due to the absence of pedagogical alignment and reliable fact-checking mechanisms. POHA seeks to address this challenge by developing a core curriculum that is thoughtfully and meaningfully tailored to specific cultural contexts, and which does not conflict with Islamic customs. 

4) Increasing the availability of customisable one-to-one learning opportunities
POHA’s fourth mission is to create online resources that are interactive and personal, allowing women to do active as well as passive learning. This would address the issue of creating educational resources that align with Afghanistan’s traditional education system which emphasises personalised academic instruction and guidance through mentoring schemes.