Hassan’s Story
Meet Hassan, Hassan grew up in Afghanistan, where as a child, he was not allowed to attend school. His family needed him to work to help support them. He learned English by watching other children complete their homework. Eventually, he started doing their homework assignments with them in the evenings!
He never let go of his dream of learning. As an adult, he started working as a driver for scientists from Purdue University who were in Afghanistan for an agricultural project. As he drove them, he learned more about their project, and taught them more about his community. He quickly impressed the team with his knowledge of the area, questions about their work, and eagerness to learn.
Eventually, this led to Hassan taking on a new role in the project. He was asked to help coordinate logistics, managing things like getting supplies to and from the project and helping the team better understand Afghan culture and the community they were working in.
The promotion came with an increase in pay, and Hassan realized he had more than enough to provide for himself. He wanted to do something more for his community, and so he started thinking: how could he have the biggest impact?
As he looked around his community, he saw that there were so many children who were working to support their families instead of going to school. They reminded him of himself. And so, he organized a small group of community members who cared about education. Together, they began to pay for the school fees for local children whose families couldn’t afford to send them to school. They even provided financial support for the children’s families to make up for the income they lost when their children stopped working
Hassan still remembers the name of every child they helped.
Years later, when Hassan was no longer working for the agricultural project, he decided to take things one step farther: he opened a school in a small town. He hired teachers who would be willing to educate children despite their gender or their family’s economic status.
But not everyone was happy about this. One day, while he was talking to work, he was kidnapped and dragged to the home of a local elder. His captors promised to let him go if he agreed to stop educating girls. But Hassan could not agree. “All children deserve a chance to learn.”
Hassan was missing for three days. Then, the children in his school banded together. They gathered their parents and went door to door, searching for Hassan. When they found him, they quickly freed him and brought him back to their school. Despite resistance, Hassan bravely returned to running to school, even as he received additional threats.
He ran that school as long as he could–but eventually, as the Taliban advanced, he was forced to flee.
Now, Hassan is here in Indiana, working once again at a school–this time as a custodian. He works during the day and attends school in the evenings, finally getting the opportunity to get the education he was always denied.
He is so grateful that he can continue to work to support education in the United States. And his employment specialist recently learned he may be getting promoted!
