In November 2024, Khadija Nazari, founder of SAGE, and Anne Sliney, SAGE board member, were featured on the Rhode Island Report (Boston Globe) podcast, sharing their journey from Afghan rescuer to education advocates. Khadija recounted her harrowing escape from Kabul in August 2021—“We were just hopeless,” she said—and how she arrived in the U.S. driven to “create our own future.”

Now a student at Brown University, Khadija described how the Taliban’s return strengthened her resolve to carry on educating Afghan girls. Anne, a former chief nursing officer at the Clinton Health Access Initiative, explained how Rhode Island supporters joined Khadija to launch a secret school in Kabul. The school is already teaching 100 girls over 12 years old, providing high-school equivalency, Duolingo English tests, and online college courses—all under safe, clandestine conditions. 

“They shouldn’t be hopeless because we are trying our best to change the situation,” Khadija says.
Their interview offers a heartfelt and powerful insight into the beginnings of SAGE, illustrating how remote advocacy, personal resilience, and U.S. partnerships can break barriers to education for Afghan girls.

Listen to the full interview here (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-brown-student-who-escaped-afghanistan-and-the/id1568348528?i=1000676932550)