Building a (Virtual) Bridge to Afganistan

Mill Valley Middle School Teacher-Librarian Jonna Palmer will present Building a (Virtual) Bridge to Afghanistan. Jonna will discuss how her students learned about life in Afghanistan before and after the Taliban takeover, how they are helping their Afghan friends, and what the current situation is for the young women refugees. Her students have been lucky enough to Zoom with a group of young Afghan women mountain climbers for the past two years. They slept on the floor of their office (due to the time difference as it was always very late for them) to give our students a window into another culture. They even agreed to talk with her students via video call just days after they finally escaped to a transfer point for refugees. Students at Mill Valley Middle School live very different lives from young women and girls in Afghanistan. Yet, after connecting with a group of young women mountain climbers in Kabul via video calls, they found they had much in common. Those young Afghans are now refugees after having escaped the Taliban. But their friends in Mill Valley are working to stay in contact and help them adjust to a new country and culture, speaking a different language.