Aqeela Asifi is an Afghan woman teacher who has educated thousands of refugee children in Mianwali, Pakistan.
Education
Asifi trained in Afghanistan as a teacher of history and geography.
Career
Asifi was forced to leave Afghanistan after the fall of Kabul to warlords and dissolution of the Republic of Afghanistan in 1992. When she arrived as a refugee at the
Kot Chandna
Kot Chandna, Mianwali, Punjab, Pakistan ( ur, ) is a small town and union council of Mianwali District in the Punjab province of Pakistan.
In 2015, Asifi was awarded the Nansen Refugee Award for her efforts in providing Afghan refugee children with an education. She has used most of her US$100,000 Nansen prize money to build a new school. The Award honours extraordinary service to refugees.UNHCR names Afghan refugee teacher Aqeela Asifi its 2015 Nansen Refugee Award winner '' UNHCR'' Retrieved 24 March 2017
In 2017, the Community Girls Model School No 2 in Kot Chandna, started by Asifi, was recognised by the Department of Education as a higher-secondary school. It is now the first refugee school in the Punjab to be affiliated with a Board of Education.
Over a period of 23 years, Asifi has taught more than 1,000 girls. In 2020 another 1,500 refugee boys and girls were enrolled in six schools.