Educate Girls Now with Jane Torres | Girls Who Refused to Stop Learning
Alright. Welcome to another episode of Key Biscayne Stories where neighbors meet neighbors. Today, we have Jane Torres. She's a Key Biscayne resident for forty years. Amazing.
Speaker 1:For the past five years, she's been working with Educate Girls Now. It's an organization that educates girls in Afghanistan. Before we dive into Educate Girls Now, we wanna know a little bit about your background story of how you got here. How are doing, Jane?
Speaker 2:I'm well. Thank you for having me. I've... I appreciate this opportunity to tell everybody about the work we're doing in Afghanistan, which I kind of fell into without meaning to. But I'll back up, a little bit more since you asked my story before before all that.
Speaker 2:I came here from Nicaragua, I had been living there during the war between Somoza and the Sandinistas. And when the Sandinistas took over, it just, it wasn't safe to live there. As a matter of fact, my husband was the head of a bank there and the Sandinistas published or said they were gonna publish a list of bankers that were on their hit list. And we decided it would be much smarter to see that list once we were out of the country. So we actually got the last plane out of Nicaragua and ended up here because we had friends who had also, been in Nicaragua and found Key Biscayne to be an island paradise, as we say, and so we came to visit them and bought our house in two days, and we've been here ever since.
Speaker 2:And it it really is just the perfect, perfect place to live, so, it was a good decision. We loved actually living in Nicaragua, but it became too dangerous. So I've been here, since 1980, and I guess that's more than forty years, and been involved with a lot of community activities as well as other things here in Miami and in Florida.
Speaker 1:Awesome. So... And how did you come across Educate Girls Now?
Speaker 2:In 2021, the Taliban, as we all know, took over Afghanistan. The US had to leave after having been there for twenty years. And the Taliban announced as they, you know, took over the city that they were going to ban all women and all girls from school and from employment. And they began rounding people up who had been teachers or who had been doing anything that they deemed was pro American or pro education. And an alum from my university, from Tufts University, his father had a school in Kabul, in Afghanistan, which had 2,000 girls in it, and he needed desperately to get them out before the Taliban could get to them.
Speaker 2:So I, started helping to evacuate those girls. We got them overland into Pakistan, and from Pakistan, we had to get them into a third country. So we got more than 250 girls and their families into Canada because Canada was very, helpful in giving them visas and setting them up. But once the war in Ukraine began, there were no other countries that were willing to give these girls visas. And so, we couldn't get any more girls out, we couldn't get them to other countries, and we decided that the best thing we could do would be to set up some form of educational system for the girls in Afghanistan.
Speaker 2:I mean, it was it was ridiculous. It it... I think Afghanistan is the only country in the world that prohibits girls from going to school, from getting educated after sixth grade. And, I mean, imagine being a young girl who dreams of being a doctor or an engineer or anything and all of a sudden you're told no more education, you can't get books, you can't even leave your house. So it did...
Speaker 2:Girls were girls were heartbroken, their dreams were crushed, and and they began committing suicide, literally, and we wanted to do something to give them hope again, and so we've... We set up schools for for the girls in Afghanistan, and I can tell you more about how that works, but I'll stop there in case you have any questions.
Speaker 1:So, no, I think I think to the point where you you were gonna talk into how you guys do the education, but, yeah, that was gonna be my next question, so go ahead.
Speaker 2:Yeah. It's really... It's it's very innovative, and I'm constantly amazed that our girls and our teachers, can learn on a cell phone because we use WhatsApp. And the teachers are in Afghanistan and obviously they aren't free to let anybody know what they're doing, but they can use their cell phones from their homes, and the girls are in their homes using their cell phones, and it's all via WhatsApp. So the classes are via WhatsApp.
Speaker 2:The girls do their homework and their science experiments at home and then show their teachers and do, explain their homework via WhatsApp. And it's it's absolutely incredible when you think about, you know, what we need to to be in a classroom or to run a classroom. Some of the girls don't have phones. Some of the families don't have Internet. Most of the families don't have Internet.
Speaker 2:And so we we had one girl who stopped attending class, and we found out that the reason was she had to borrow her phone from a neighbor who is a farmer, and he said, you know, he couldn't lend it to her anymore because he found out she was using it for school. And he he would have been arrested and beaten by the Taliban if they knew he was he was helping a girl get educated. We actually are the only only organization providing direct teacher student interaction, for education. There are many, many wonderful organizations providing classes all online to girls, but they have no interaction with a teacher. And we have actual teachers knowing the girls and reviewing what they're learning, and and it makes a big difference.
Speaker 2:Besides, these girls are stuck in their homes and this is, you know, a social interaction that they have that normally they wouldn't... We found that they even, you know, found friends through the classes that they would then connect with, again, via WhatsApp because they couldn't leave their homes.
Speaker 1:Is this... Are these classes one on one or groups?
Speaker 2:We have three tiers. Tier one is basic literacy, and the girls, we have an... I don't know how many are in that. More than a 100 girls are in that tier one because they've really never had education past sixth grade, and so, they are going to mosques, really. And supposedly, the Taliban are happy about that because they're getting religious education, and then we stick in literacy and math and other forms of knowledge.
Speaker 2:Tier two is for girls who have completed sixth grade and are ready to do the national curriculum seven through 12 using the coursework that the national curriculum had established before the Taliban came in. And we also include for them English so that they can graduate then to tier three, which is, based on an American curriculum. Everything is in English, and they get certificates from a US school, which is which is exciting. We've had we've had a few girls graduate from that and, come... This is before, we stopped giving visas to to Afghans and other countries.
Speaker 2:They came to boarding schools here in The States. So, yeah, that's that's been exciting. But the majority of girls will not be able to leave Afghanistan, and so, we're including now, which is brand new, vocational training for girls who've graduated so that they can learn a skill and be able to support themselves and maybe their families as time goes on. Because... And you think about it, I mean, they stopped educating doctors.
Speaker 2:There are no female doctors being educated. There are no female, midwives, and you know that people are still having babies. And so we need somehow to train women because men can't do that with women. And, so we're providing some, vocational training. It's tough.
Speaker 2:It's really, really tough for women there.
Speaker 1:I guess, Nella, you mentioned midwives. That's a tough one. Mhmm. How do you... It's it's crazy to think that they wouldn't want that training so that they can, you know, have safely...
Speaker 1:Delivers babies safely.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. You would think so. Yeah. So A lot of it doesn't make sense.
Speaker 2:But
Speaker 1:Yeah. So so you said that the telegram stops education of of girls at six.
Speaker 2:Sixth grade. Sixth
Speaker 1:grade. Right. Sixth grade. Would you know why?
Speaker 2:They say it is against their view of Islam. Okay. I I mean, I think there's... If you want my personal opinion, there's more to it. I think it's a method of controlling women, not allowing them to have jobs, not allowing them to earn any money, not allowing them to go out on the street unless they're accompanied by a male, relative and dressed in head to foot, covering.
Speaker 2:I was, interested this last Tuesday for women in a city called Herat where we have a number of our students, based... Living. And, a number of women there went out without their headdress, without their hajib, without their their, full covering, and they were arrested. And on Thursday, there were protests there and men joined the protests. So, I mean, it...
Speaker 2:To me, it's sad that they have to do that for just rights that, you know, we all take for granted, but to see that that the men are supporting the women and maybe some change will come.
Speaker 1:I guess my my next question I'm thinking is is safety. Yeah. Because they're doing something they're... They can't do and still, you know, providing a benefit. How are you guys working the safety aspect of this?
Speaker 2:Well, we're very careful never to post any pictures of the girls where they can be recognized, not to use any names, and we try and keep a very low profile in Afghanistan. As a matter of fact, I called, our director of education, who is an Afghan woman who was evacuated on one of the first planes out in 2021. I called her this morning, and I asked if she thought it was safe for me to do this podcast. And and she said, yes. You know, obviously, I'm not gonna use anybody's name or, anything like that.
Speaker 2:But what we do have, I I have to tell you that that is a wonderful out... Outlet, I think, for the girls and wonderful for their... We call them sponsors. Many people here in The States, and and actually in Europe as well, have taken a girl as a sponsor and established a connection with them where they they communicate on a daily or weekly basis and share, you know, what I did today or where I'm going tomorrow or, oh, they just celebrated Eid, where girls, you know, get new dresses. And it's it's a religious thing like like, after Lent, like Mardi Gras, except it has a much more religious aspect to it.
Speaker 2:And some of the sponsors, you know, learned what they have for their celebratory dinner and what the girls get dressed up in. And the girls learn what's going on in this family. So it's it's just this wonderful connection, and obviously, those sponsors learn about their girls in a more more personal way. So that's... It's it's a way that we can get funds to continue the program that we have, and it's a way for the girls to have a connection outside Afghanistan and for those of us here to help and to learn more about life there.
Speaker 1:How can somebody become a sponsor?
Speaker 2:Very easily. We we have a website, and it is called educategirlsnow.org, and all you have to do is go there, or, yeah. People are welcome to contact me as well, and we can set you up with with a girl. And we we try and match sponsors to girls. We have some girls who are just exquisite artists.
Speaker 2:And someone who lives here on The Quay, Terry Gellis, has, taken her girls into museums for tours and, and introduced them to artists that Terry knows. And and so it depends what your interests are and, you know, if it's cooking, you can exchange recipes. If it's, reading, yeah, the same thing. So, yeah, we'd love to have more sponsors. We definitely need them.
Speaker 1:How about different grade levels? I... I'm seeing now that you mentioned the website. I I pulled it up. Oh.
Speaker 1:I'm seeing You're quick. I'm seeing k through six, seven through 12, and university. You wanna tell us a little bit about that?
Speaker 2:Sure. Obviously, women... Young women cannot go to university there anymore. They were closed just like all the all the schools are closed. And we were initially hoping to be able to get girls to come to The States, from Afghanistan.
Speaker 2:And, actually, you know, you and I talked about this because we had one girl who was offered a four year full, full, full scholarship to the University of New Haven starting last August, and it was just when Trump started banning all visitors from many, many countries, including Afghanistan. So this young woman was ready to literally, you know, board a plane, and she couldn't get a visa, and so she lost the scholarship, which is very sad for us. We currently have three girls who are attending, Asian University for Women in Bangladesh, and they are getting a university degree. And we're hoping that, once they finish their university degree, they... Things maybe have changed and they can get visas into The US and or go to France or The UK or other countries.
Speaker 2:So we have we have that. We also have a few countries, it's really hard, like France and Germany and The UK, who are still offering visas. Problem is they need scholarships, and those are those are hard to come by. Anyway, that's that's what we're working on. In the meantime, we're getting girls ready to go to university or to go to midwifery school or other kinds of postgraduate programs.
Speaker 2:We have approximately 200 girls altogether, and you know that there are thousands, thousands and thousands of girls in Afghanistan who would love to be educated. And, yeah, our goal is to reach more than than the 200.
Speaker 1:So I I'm seeing here you guys also do food and shelter. Yes. Can you expand on that?
Speaker 2:Sure. Sure. That goes back to 2013 when Educate Girls Now provided stipends, usually of about $100, to very, very needy mothers mostly, but families where they had daughters. And the idea was if we could provide a minimum living standard, they wouldn't marry their daughters off and they wouldn't put them out on the street. So the women, the mothers, had to sign a contract that they would keep their daughters in school and in exchange, we would give them a $100 a month.
Speaker 2:That was fine as long as there were schools for the girls to go to. But in 2021, as as we talked about before, the schools got closed, and so we had to open our own school, basically, we call it school on the phone, and that's the the WhatsApp program I was I was talking about. And we still have 30 families who are receiving the stipends just because they are so poor, they couldn't they couldn't survive without it. I wanted to tell you a wonderful story that's kind of emblematic of life in Afghanistan for women. A young woman in Afghanistan was married at age 16 because her family needed the money, And they got they got the money from the...
Speaker 2:I guess she was 16, he was in his mid to late thirties. One day, in those days, she was... Women were allowed to walk on the street. She noticed that there was a sign that said golf lessons. And so this is in Herat, in Afghanistan.
Speaker 2:And so she went in to ask about the golf lessons and started taking the lessons unbeknownst to her family, unbeknownst to her husband for sure because they would not have approved. And she was so good that her coach said, listen, there's a tournament in Bangladesh. This is going back many years. There's a tournament in Bangladesh. Why don't you come with me and you can be in the golf tournament?
Speaker 2:She went to Bangladesh. Again, she was walking down the street, and she saw a sign that said Asian University for Women. She went in, convinced them to let her enroll, and never went back, has never gone back to Afghanistan, never seen her family. Her parents had to give the money back to her husband. She graduated with, undergraduate degree from the Asian University for Women and came here to The States and got her, MBA from Brandeis and just graduated two years ago from from there.
Speaker 2:So, I mean, it... There's there's hope if we can just open up some of the opportunities.
Speaker 1:So in addition to becoming a sponsor, how can people get involved?
Speaker 2:Obviously, they can help, provide stipends for the families that we are still supporting. We always need... Our girls definitely need cell phones. I gotta tell you that, you know, if you have to borrow from a farmer down the street to take a class. So, you know, they need that.
Speaker 2:They need WiFi. A lot of them can't afford the $20 a month for for Internet. You know, there there are ways that you can help, even if you don't feel like you want to get that involved with a with a individual girl. We'd we'd love to talk to you. The other thing that's really cool is these young girls are incredible artists and poets.
Speaker 2:And, Angelina Jolie actually had an exhibit in New York about a year and a half ago, I think, with some of our girls' artwork displayed and some of their writings. It it... I mean, it was Cool. Very moving. I would love, actually, to do something like that here on the Key, you know, at an art gallery at the community center.
Speaker 2:And if anybody is interested, I'd love to talk to you. Because I think I think bringing bringing the person, the individual girls and their stories and their artwork, their poems are gorgeous, alive, would would would mean something to the girls that people outside the... Outside of Afghanistan care. They haven't been forgotten, and it would be, I think, eye opening for many of us here to see what these girls are saying and thinking and drawing.
Speaker 1:And I think your best bet is a community center. Yeah. There's many spaces. It's... You're you're new.
Speaker 1:You're a resident. You could request a space, and and that... Which is really one of the hardest spots, you know, finding a place that will let you... Give give you a couple of hours to to the the presentation or the showcase. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:We have to think about that.
Speaker 1:In this in this work, do you guys partner with other organizations?
Speaker 2:We couldn't do it without other organizations. I mean, to be perfectly honest, the people running this are our founder, Marilyn, our director of education, myself, and, a medical doctor. And, you know, there's just so much that four people can do. So Mhmm. We have to partner with with other organizations.
Speaker 2:For example, we have an organization called Aesop, like, yeah, Aesop's Fables, and they provide ESL classes so that girls can get up to speed and take the Duolingo test or the IELTS test, improve their proficiency in English. That's really important to us. There's another organization called Omid, o m I d, that provides, trauma workshops. And I think any... We all are aware that trauma and experiencing trauma isn't a one time event.
Speaker 2:It stays with you, and these girls have been traumatized. They've seen their fathers and their brothers, murdered, really, just for a minor infraction, like letting their girls be educated. So trauma and trauma education and and helping our teachers learn how to help the girls in the classroom with with trauma is important, and we have an organization that does that. The rotary clubs have been wonderful in in supporting our work. We have a rotary club in Fredericksburg, Virginia that has provided, scholarships for girls that have come here to boarding school, not to Florida, but to, the Virginia, Washington DC area.
Speaker 2:We have a rotary club in California that is helping by providing funds for sewing sewing machines so that some of, our girls and our mothers can, learn tailoring and then earn a living. So we have we have that. And we have other organizations. We had, a wonderful journalist from Der Spiegel who worked with some of our girls again via the Internet, via WhatsApp, and got them to write stories for their diaries that then were published in Der Spiegel. So there's there's lots of organizations and individuals who all see the value of this and and contribute in the way that they can.
Speaker 1:Jane, this is amazing work that you guys are doing with Educate Girls now. When you when you first came to me about this, we were introduced by council member Bracken. He said, have this great lady. Her name is Jane Torres doing great work. You need to get to know her, and that's how we got know each other.
Speaker 1:I think we met at the Golden Hawk. Yes. It's a great meeting place. And... But before we close, have a a...
Speaker 1:Just a question I'd like to ask everybody. What's your perfect weekend for you here in The Key?
Speaker 2:It's a perfect place to be here, whether it's a weekend or not weekend, as a matter of fact. I know that coming across The Key, on to Key Biscayne across the Causeway is just like coming on vacation, and, I always I always feel that. My perfect weekend is enjoying what Key Biscayne has to offer, so I will spend as much time as I can on the beach, whether it's walking, reading, talking to friends. I will ride my bike through Cape Florida as often as I can or through Grandin and into Virginia Key. We can go sailing whenever the weather cooperates, and I walk around the island and just...
Speaker 2:I enjoy the nature, I think, more than anything, and we have so many opportunities to get out and enjoy the nature, and that's what I do on a weekend. Sometimes when it gets hot, I wait till the evening, but I can still get out and enjoy it, and this is I don't wanna go anyplace else.
Speaker 1:Awesome, Jane. Thank you again for jumping in the show. I know that we've been talking about doing this show for a while, so thank you for your patience. It's been great to have you and learning about Educate Girls now. We'll share all the contact information in the bottom of the of the YouTube video so people that can contact you and and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:So thank you again for for for joining us.
Speaker 2:It's been a pleasure. Thank you so much.
