HTAC was the first organization to introduce computer education into Afghan public schools and today, provides a comprehensive program for approximately 7,000-8,000 high school girls and boys each year.

Canadian Medical Association Journal: July 7, 2009 – Highlights the work of HTAC’s peace education program and partnership with McMaster University’s Center of Peace Studies (Hamilton, Ontario) in helping Afghan youth who have been traumatized by war and violence. 

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HTAC Receives 2008 Best of Fairfax Award

12/05/2008, Washington D.C. Help the Afghan Children was selected for the 2008 Best of Fairfax Award in the Non-Profit Organizations category by the U.S. Local Business Association (USLBA). Each year, the USLBA identifies outstanding local businesses and organizations throughout the country and how they have enhanced the positive image of service to their customers and community. HTAC is honored to have received this recognition.

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Suraya Sadeed Delivers Keynote Address at USC Leadership Retreat

11/22/2008, Los Angeles. HTAC’s Executive Director, Suraya Sadeed, was the featured speaker at the University of Southern California’s Institute for Genetic Medicine Art Gallery, which hosted a leadership retreat on peaceful, sustainable solutions in countering terrorism.

Speaking passionately about the need to actively promote peace in the world with education and open dialogue, Ms. Sadeed told the audience that the war in Afghanistan is a ghost war and a conflict of ideologies that can only be countered with comprehensive, sustained efforts to reintroduce peace to a generation of children born and raised during wartime.

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HTAC in the News

HTAC’s founder and Executive Director, Suraya Sadeed, appeared on Payam-e-Afghan Television in Los Angeles, February 12th. 2008 to report on the successful distribution of $85,100 in humanitarian aid to families of the victims of the Baghlan Province violence.   Ms. Sadeed thanked both the Afghan American and Canadian communities for responding to the Baghlan crisis so quickly and generously and that aid was received with deep appreciation by these families.

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 USA Today: October 25, 2007; best-selling author Khaled Hosseini recognizes HTAC (one of a few on his website), as an organization working to help Afghanistan.  

 HTAC's Cultural Exchange Program Featured in "Chattanooga Parent"

Help the Afghan Children's Cultural Exchange Program was featured in the October – November 2007 edition of the Chattanooga Parent newspaper. The article, written by Janis Hashe, mentioned HTAC's efforts to link and form partnerships between schools in the United States with ‘sister’ schools in Afghanistan via meaningful cultural exchange projects and encouraged Chattanooga area schools to get involved.

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HTAC in the News

A sidebar story about Help the Afghan Children appeared in the July/August edition of Best Life Magazine as part of their feature article on Greg Mortenson "My Fight Against Terror" and his efforts (through his Central Asia Institute), to educate children in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

HTAC was listed as one of Greg’s favorite charities in making a difference for children in the region.

The story mentioned our work in establishing model schools, computer education programs, and the opportunity for donors to earmark funds for a variety of programs and services that benefit tens of thousands of Afghan girls and boys.

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HTAC Storybooks Reach Afghan Refugees in Australia

June 13, 2007

HTAC’s popular illustrated storybooks, enjoyed by thousands of Afghan girls and boys, have found a new home.

The Sunraysia Institute of Technical and Further Education in Mildura, Victoria (Australia), has begun using these unique bi-lingual books to assist a number of Afghan refugees who are not literate in their own language and are now trying to cope with learning English as well.

Carol Inglis, Acquisitions Officer for the Institute’s Learning Resource Center says “Even though they are books aimed at children, we hope that the adults will learn some basic English skills from reading them in a non-threatening format.”

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Suraya Sadeed Urges Investment in Education to Spread Peace in Afghanistan

On March 17, 2007, HTAC's Executive Director, Suraya Sadeed, was the featured speaker at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School in Plymouth Meeting, PA (a suburb of Philadelphia), as part of the school's diversity awareness program. The program topic was "No Place for Hate".

The event was attended by over 800 students, faculty, school administrators, and sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League of Southeastern Pennsylvania as well as Independence Blue Cross.

Ms. Sadeed provided the audience with a geographic, historical, and political background of Afghanistan, leading to and after the events of September 11, 2001. Her major focus was on Afghanistan's other war(little reported on or understood) between the brave Afghan teachers, children, and their families who fight for knowledge and the right for Afghan girls and boys to attend school and the forces of ignorance and fear who are burning schools, killing teachers, and threatening children and their families.

Ms. Sadeed concluded her presentation by calling for the global community (as well as students, teachers, parents, and communities throughout the U.S.) to help Afghanistan make the long-term investment toward the education of Afghan children. It is through this investment, she explained, that will facilitate the best road toward peace and prosperity in Afghanistan and put those who spread terror and fear “out of business”.

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HTAC in People Magazine  

Help the Afghan Children was in the January 15, 2007 edition of People Magazine.  In their feature story about Oprah Winfrey and her new Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa, HTAC was also featured (along with three other organizations) that have benefited from Oprah's generous support in the past.  The story mentioned that HTAC had received two grants totaling $1.25 million dollars, allowing us to open seven schools serving more than 15,000 students and as a result, dramatically increasing literacy and other skill levels.

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Defeat Taliban by educating Afghans
September 16, 2006
BY SURAYA SADEED

There is a furious war being waged in Afghanistan. No, it's not only the military war between U.S. and NATO forces against al-Qaida and the Taliban; it's also the war between the forces of knowledge and the forces of ignorance and fear, and right now ignorance and fear are winning. Perhaps you've read in the papers or heard on the news of schools being burned to the ground; of teachers and school principals being murdered, and of children, especially Afghanistan girls, and their families being threatened to stay home, or else. It's all true.

How did this happen? Afghanistan was the country we supposedly liberated in late 2001. You remember the scenes: women returning to work; the 2004 Parliamentary elections; hundreds of new schools built; thousands of new teachers hired; record numbers of children attending school. It happened because we wanted very much to show the world that we are winning the war on terrorism, and what could be a better example of that success than women and children given the opportunity of education? But, the fact is, we didn't finish the job in rebuilding Afghanistan's educational infrastructure in a way that would lead to security and sustainability. For too long, our narrowly defined military strategy has been to hunt down and kill or capture al-Qaida and Taliban forces while overlooking the establishment of the fundamental human security needs of children and their families. This strategic oversight has cost us dearly.

We can point to several critical mistakes along the way that have led to this crisis: re-arming the warlords who never cared for education and security in the first place and paying them astronomical sums of money to hunt down Osama bin Laden -- a plan that has succeeded only in lining their pockets with cash and fueling the out-of-control narcotics industry; relying too much on U.S. military Provincial Reconstruction Teams, which have actually increased hostilities and insecure conditions in many parts of the country; failing to consistently involve local community leaders, elders and parents in the building and running of schools, which has led to mistrust of those who finance the schools and programs; and perhaps most of all, failing to deliver on so many educational and other development promises, which has fueled anger and resentment.

How does one really win the war against terrorism? The question itself is part of the problem, for terrorism is only the symptom of ignorance and fear. Knowledge is the weapon we should be focusing our strategy around.

There is a reason why the Taliban, warlords and others are burning schools, beating and killing teachers (often in front of students), and threatening children and their families. In their hearts, they are far more terrified of the thought of millions of educated Afghan girls and boys growing up, becoming proud, productive citizens and future leaders of their country than they are of any American special forces, NATO or the ill-equipped Afghan army. They realize that if knowledge wins, it will mean their days will come to an end.

That is why it's more important than ever that we support a sound educational strategy in Afghanistan. If an Afghan girl is willing to risk her life to learn, what are we willing to do to help her? She doesn't want much, just a safe place, a few notebooks and pencils. Let's make that commitment now so we can give knowledge the upper hand against ignorance and fear.

Suraya Sadeed is founder and executive director of Help the Afghan Children, a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization providing educational and humanitarian services to children in Afghanistan since 1993.

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Suraya Sadeed Recognized and Featured on NBC's Weekend Today Show

Suraya Sadeed, HTAC's Executive Director, was featured on NBC's Weekend Today Show (June 4th. 2006) as a "Courageous Hearts" recipient for her extraordinary and pioneering work in helping Afghan children over the past 13 years under challenging and often life-threatening conditions, including instances where she faced up to the Taliban and warlords.