A NY Times article entitled “Afghan Enclave Seen as Model for Development,” discussed a small Afghan community that took development efforts into their own hands, through government grants. The success from this method has demonstrated that “small projects often work best, that the consent and participation of local people are essential and that even baby steps take years,” all important principles of Circle of Women’s projects.

The villagers, who are given grants from the government, direct spending on projects that are most important for them, which has proven to be a more trustworthy and cost-efficient method than a direct infrastructural plan by the government, where small villages are often overlooked. As villagers pushed to build a girls’ school in their community, they relied on their basic principle: “never start a project that is not backed by all members of the community, or it will fail.” Eventually, the push to build a girls’ school was successful and the literacy rate for girls in that community is up by 65% since 2004. This model reiterates important principles that Circle of Women builds from in order to ensure the sustainability of our school.