In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

In the lead-up to International Literacy Day on September 8, The Asia Foundation’s Books for Asia program launched Storytime in Asia, a month-long campaign that celebrates the transformative power of children’s books by providing critically needed reading material to some of the world’s poorest students.

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More than 10 years of grim news from Afghanistan has made it easy to overlook the positive stories from the country – especially when the negative news is overwhelmingly preferred by campaigning politicians and media outlets to garner attention-grabbing headlines. But beyond the sound bites, real progress has been achieved by and for Afghanistan’s women, including broader freedoms, increased access to education, greater economic clout, and improved civic participation. You just have to look beyond front page headlines to see them.

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In a recent Asia Foundation staff meeting in Kabul announcing staff performance awards and commendations, an unexpected name was called out. Unlike other staff, Muhammad Aman was not being acknowledged for accomplishments in his direct line of duty.

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Afghan women and girls have fought hard to achieve advances in education, political participation, and economic independence. Now, a decade after Taliban rule kept girls home, nearly 3 million girls attend school, compared to just 5,000 in 2001…

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On June 7, The Asia Foundation and the Lotus Circle honored a decade-long partnership with National Geographic working to improve the lives of girls in Afghanistan through education. The partnership began in 2002 after photographer Steve McCurry rediscovered the iconic “girl with the green eyes” he had once photographed for a National Geographic cover. She [...]

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Nearly two decades of market-based development has dramatically changed the way Vietnamese live and work, transforming patterns of personal and commercial saving, borrowing, and lending. By 2011 there were 93 banks…

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Last week, The Asia Foundation’s Books for Asia launched an online campaign with Pearson Foundation’s We Give Books initiative to help bring 5,000 new children’s books to schools in rural Indonesia. For each book read online, We Give Books will donate one new book to support…

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The wonderful thing about Earth Day is that this annual global celebration of our planet is largely self-organized. There is no overarching organization or government that has been implementing all the projects held on this day for the past 42 years, nor are individuals required by law to plant trees, participate in clean-ups, or host events that promote environmental causes.

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In Afghanistan, physicians at training hospitals across the country struggle to update their skills and provide adequate care to patients because of a lack of equipment, materials, and up-to-date medical texts and reference materials. In 2011, The Asia Foundation’s Books for Asia provided over 4,000 medical texts…

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“Just because they are poor and isolated doesn’t mean they don’t have the potential to be the next Bill Gates,” said Shahed Keyes, the founder of Subornogram Foundation in Bangladesh, while introducing me to lively students at a school he started on the remote island of Mayadip.

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