In 2016, the University of Central Asia (UCA) opened its first undergraduate campus in Naryn, Kyrgyz Republic and welcomed the future class of 2021.

As the COVID-19 pandemic developed, medical centers around the world faced a shortage of medical equipment and supplies needed to care for patients. These...

Driving along the Kericho-Sotik highway by the Great Rift Valley in Kenya, the breath-taking landscape is full of hilly terrain, farmlands, and seemingly endless...

In the center of Murghab district in Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO), children under five years old did not have many learning options. The local...

As trucks carrying food packages reached Tajikistan’s Bartang Valley in late 2020, the residents of Basid village made their way to the food distribution...

On Saturday, March 20, Youth Ambassadors hosted the 2021 Youth Festival, a virtual showcase of globally inspired art, outreach, and solutions. The digital event...

This spring, Farzana Kabani ran the Woodlands Marathon in Texas to raise money for AKF USA. Farzana set a goal of raising $10,000, and...

In 2017, newly married and looking forward to graduating from her bachelor’s degree in management, Anisa began noticing problems with her eyesight. As she...

After Aida’s* children grew up and left home, she was determined to make a difference for other children in her community. She decided to...

In March 2020, as the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, misinformation about the virus spread in many communities around the world.

Every day after she wakes up, Saidrahmonova Makhfirat prays, drinks her tea, and goes to her farm.

Nestled in the Pamir Mountains, Murghab district is on the eastern side of Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) in Tajikistan. Murghab is one of the...

As Hangoma went about her sophomore year at the University of Central Asia’s (UCA) campus in Khorog, Tajikistan, life changed quickly. Like many universities...

Due to COVID-19, many of the world’s children have been out of school and, in some developing countries, for more than six months. In...

Bilal Sirazhidin Uulu is a 26-year-old resident of Arslanbob village in the Jalal-Abad region of the Kyrgyz Republic. He lives in the village with...

Patna, the capital city of the Indian state of Bihar, sprawls along the South Bank of the river Ganga, in the northeastern part of...

AKF and the World Bank have partnered to support youth through community engagement efforts in the Kyrgyz Republic. In 2020, three projects are underway:...

Roziyamo Kabirova lives in a remote village in the scenic Wakhan Valley, in Ishkoshim district of Tajikistan that borders Afghanistan and Pakistan. She enjoys...

Youth unemployment—particularly among rural youth—is a hot political issue in India, where more than 56 percent of secondary school students in India lack basic...

Anora, age 20, lives in a small village in the Khatlon region of Tajikistan. In early 2019, she gathered with other participants of the...

Batula Fayo Rasa, a young woman in northern Kenya, is the sixth child in a family of 11. Her parents are local farmers whose...

Mittal Vasava, age 20, was living in rural Gujarat when she learned from a friend about Yuva Junction. Mittal’s family belongs to India’s semi-nomadic...

For over 50 years, the Aga Khan Foundation has invested in communities across Africa and Asia to break the cycle of poverty and create...

Meeting the ever-changing demands and expectations of teaching during COVID-19 has been overwhelming for educators. While many teachers have remained positive and resilient, for...

When the COVID-19 pandemic reached Kenya, social and mainstream media were flooded with prevention messages. Though all these initiatives are important, many Kenyans, particularly...

In December 2019, 20-year-old Karishma completed a course at Yuva Junction, where she learned sewing skills to make women’s clothes. Now, she’s sewing face...

Meeting the demands and expectations of supporting children to learn at home can be overwhelming. Whether it is receiving new instructions from teachers or...

In just a few months, the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe affecting every aspect of our lives. In these unprecedented times, the Aga...

When Armaan Ismail decided to go to college, he knew he wanted to build on skills he gained as a Youth Ambassador of the Aga...

Noor Khoja, a software manager in Dallas, saw a chance to make a difference. For several years he had been a volunteer with the...

The scale and complexity of challenges facing the world require massive investments and more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable societies. Meeting those needs requires greater...

Khushi Kumari first learned about composting through a book that belonged to her daughter. But she never thought it would be a practice that...

Our dedicated supporters always find ways to make a bigger difference. In 2018, Aly Manji and Kiran Lakhani, with their loved ones, made a...

Sangeeta Devi is telling Yasmin Sultana, her village’s goat nurse, how she negotiated the price for her two male goats. “I told the goat...

When Zainab Samad was 13 or 14, she accompanied her mother to see a physician at Aga Khan University Hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. The...

As the head of a nonprofit organization, Maryana already considered herself a leader, but did not yet see herself as a leader in the...

When she was a young Tajik woman leaving home for university, Furough didn’t plan on going into tourism. “Then at university I fell in...

For over 50 years, the Aga Khan Foundation has invested in communities across Africa and Asia to break the cycle of poverty and create...

For three days, through a program focused on learning and innovation (called Juntos!), AKF ran a workshop with the aim of equipping civil society...

“For me, school is like a safe haven. It helps me to keep busy and keep away from bad influences,” says Monica Muthoni, a...

Growing up in Jalal-Abad, the Kyrgyz Republic, Baisal spent his childhood with school friends and helping his mother care for his two younger siblings....

In Tajikistan, a landlocked country in Central Asia, over 55% of the population is under 25. While progress has been made to reduce poverty,...

Nestled in the remote mountains of northern Pakistan, Chipurson Valley has a total population of 4,000 people. Through the School Improvement Program (SIP), the...

For people living in poor, remote areas, access to formal financial institutions to borrow or save money is considered a luxury. Yet families in...

In Chitral, the farthest most district of the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in northern Pakistan, a sea change of transformational teaching and learning is...

Meet Rukhshod, the leader of a national micro-lending organization (MLO) in Tajikistan, with five branches across three regions. In a country where the majority...

Aariz Ali, age 9, lives in Austin, Texas and attends a Montessori School. He likes mathematics and sports, especially basketball, and the San Antonio...

Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) launched a five-year program of agricultural development and nutrition support in the remote mountains of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Tajikistan entitled...

Sarah Habib and Alisha Somani are co-presidents of the Aga Khan Foundation Youth Ambassadors in the Dallas area, and seniors in high school. Recently...

There is nothing that parents love more in this world than their children. Parents everywhere want our children to grow up safe, healthy, and...

A 2016 graduate of Aga Khan Academy (AKA) in Mombasa, Kenya, Barbara Nasila found her way to a leadership role as an architecture student...

As the holidays approach and the fall semester comes to a close at universities around the world, we’d like to feature a post from...

Jedidah always arrived early at the office. Some of her colleagues called her ambitious, but for her, the job was fulfilling as she saw...

“More important than speed, economic growth that is inclusive is crucial for a healthy and stable society.” In Central Asia, Aga Khan Foundation USA...

Aman Vadhwaniya grew up in a family that valued enterprise and education. When he graduated high school, he and his father embarked on a...

Kadiatou Diarra, age 8, is a smart girl who lives in Ballabougou with her mother, two sisters, and a brother. Where she lives is...

Tajikistan, a landlocked country in Central Asia, is often characterized by its peaks, rugged terrain, and untouched landscapes. The country is rich in fresh...

Portio is a village in northern Côte d’Ivoire. Located roughly 30 miles from the border of Mali, Portio is nested in a remote region...

When Aisha Sethi was young, she had one goal: to apply to university. Now Director of the Dermatology Global Health Program at Yale University’s...

When most Americans think of what it’s like to be a doctor, they picture long, exhausting days in medical school, endless nights in residency,...

In Mathare, a notoriously poor neighborhood in Nairobi, few families have books. Even schools lack suitable reading material. Across Kenya, only 2 percent of...

One fall afternoon, five women in the playroom of the new kindergarten in the Kyrgyz Republic talked about the changes they saw with the...

Alyna is one of the undergraduates who have brought life to the new Naryn campus of the University of Central Asia. (Eventually, the university...