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The following girls are the adventurous members of the Sisterhood of 2020. In their own words, they share their experience being a part of this pilot season. We look forward adding more brave young women to this list of sisters.
(Faces have been blurred and names changed to protect the identity of our Sisters still living inside Afghanistan.)
Meet the girls from the Sisterhood of 2020!
It was really nice being part of this wonderful community and meeting new girls in Australia. It was fun knowing them and learning how teenage girls live in Australia and I wish one day I meet all of them in person. My favourite part in sisterhood was zoom calls and sister spotlight because Zoom calls really helped me to talk English better and now I feel confident talking in English. I wish to continue doing this program because I think it helped all of us so much. The Sisterhood is the loveliest program ever.
Meena & Emily
Being part of the sisterhood has taught me empathy and seeing someone else’s perspective from the other side of the world. My favourite part of this program was to learn about how different our daily lives are and to make a new friend from Afghanistan!! I learnt how to communicate differently. I’m so use to communicating to someone who is fluent in English but I managed to take the conversation slow and try to use alternative sentences if there are any difficulties. For 2021 I hope to still have Maryam as a penpal even if it is a monthly email. I feel proud to be the first group of the sisterhood.
Before meeting with my sister Amanda, I was excited and stressed if she would understand me or not. The first time when I saw her, she had a beautiful smile and spoke very clear and friendly. I love my sister because of her moral support and her sympathy. When I am sad or when bad situations happen in Afghanistan, she motivates me and makes me hopeful. She even says you are strong and you can do everything that you want and can pass difficulties. I want to recommend this program for girls. Amanda is my sister after this and I love her like my own sister.
Farkhunda & Amanda
My favourite part of the program was talking to Farkhunda over video chat because you get to know her more that way. I learnt that just because she is in a harder place to live doesn’t mean she doesn’t have as much ambition, she just has less opportunity. I think we both have similar things we want to have in our lives, but the opportunities to have those in our lives are different and how they come about is different. We both want peace in our countries. I want peace for Afghanistan and for the United States.
The favourite part for me was reading the emails of my Australian sister and asking question. Also when we were talking we were showing our home and any exciting stuff we had. I really like that. I learnt how to send love from another land. I feel lucky that I could communicate with people from another land and I am happy that I have an Australian sister and also I know her family.
(After the fall of Kabul in September 2021, Hanifa safely evacuated to Europe and is still in contact Beatrice. The Sisterhood supported her resettling transition in her new country.)
Hanifa & Beatrice
I loved being able to see the world through someone else, a girl who is at the same stage of life as myself but who is surrounded by a completely different cultural environment. It was also important for me to understand life as a young woman in Afghanistan, as while some have amazing opportunities, others do not have any. I know for sure that one day I would like to visit Hanifa in Afghanistan. This experience highlighted for me the importance of going out and seeing the world and meeting people to gain a more global conscience. I feel proud to have been part of the pilot group! And I will seek to maintain my newfound friendships.
Every part of the program was amazing. The best part was my partner. She is amazing, This program helped me to decide to meet her one day. I learnt that I can easily connect with the world without being so shy. I would love to help people know me more. This program helped me a lot and the most important one was about my English language.
(After the fall of Kabul in September 2021, Zahra safely evacuated to the USA. She is still in touch with her Jolene her family who are supporting her during her resettlement.)
Zahra & Jolene
I joined the program because I had never really heard of Afghanistan so I wanted to learn about a new country. This program helped me a lot with learning to speak with people I don't really know. I gained confidence in that. My favourite part was talking through video and seeing my partner face to face. I learnt a lot about myself as well. I learnt that I am interested in lots of different cultures. Now that I've learnt a bit about Afghanistan, I think I want to learn about more cultures in the future and languages. I definitely recommend this program to other girls.
The favourite part was our video calls and meeting our sisters. I learnt that I am so good in communicating with others. I will also have my running sport and also English class. I want to learn guitar. I feel so good because I learnt a lot about other people and their life and culture. It was perfect.
Nasima & Queeny
My favourite part was learning about how different the lives are between our cultures but also the many similarities that we share. In the program I learnt how to be more patient especially with the internet barrier that we were faced with. Also with being more patient with communication as sometimes we couldn’t quite understand each other. I really enjoyed being a part of the first group as I feel that I took out so much from the experience and have made some connections that hopefully with last!!
