On October 10, 2026, I'll be standing at the edge of the Hudson River in New York City, about to start my first Olympic-distance triathlon: a 1.5K swim, a 40K bike up the West Side Highway, and a 10K run finishing in Central Park. I want this race to carry a purpose far beyond my own finish line.
When girls in Afghanistan were banned from school, a charity called AFCECO refused to walk away from them. They have been caring for vulnerable Afghan children for over twenty years, and when the classrooms closed they moved the classrooms into homes. Today they run safe houses inside Afghanistan where girls continue to learn quietly, through home-based classes and online lessons taught by teachers as far away as New York. They were also able to relocate a group of girls to Islamabad, Pakistan, where they now live together and attend school.
I am dedicating this race to those girls. Most are orphans, and the rest come from families living in severe poverty who could not keep them safe. Many were separated from their parents at a young age and have spent years living far from the communities they once called home.
This fundraiser is about giving them the tools and opportunities to build skills they can carry wherever they go. Funds will support sewing machines, fabric and embroidery supplies for livelihood training; computers and accessories for digital skills; materials for art, music, and drama; soccer, roller-skating, and table-tennis equipment; and resources for leadership, financial awareness, and basic entrepreneurship. For the older girls especially, skills such as sewing, embroidery, crochet, product development, costing, and pricing can become a pathway toward earning an income and greater independence.
These opportunities matter deeply because many of the girls may enter adulthood without a strong family or financial safety net. They do not know whether they will stay where they are, resettle elsewhere, or one day return home. Practical skills, digital abilities, financial awareness, communication, decision-making, and leadership can therefore become a form of future security, skills they can carry across borders and use wherever life takes them.
The program also gives them something every child deserves: the chance to discover their talents, build friendships, express themselves, play, and enjoy being young. Art, music, drama, soccer, roller skating, and table tennis help build confidence, resilience, teamwork, creativity, and belonging after childhoods shaped by poverty, displacement, separation, and uncertainty.
We cannot promise these girls where they will live five or ten years from now, whether policies will change, or what opportunities will be available to them. But together, we can help give them something much harder to take away: practical skills, digital abilities, confidence, creativity, resilience, leadership, and the ability to one day earn an income and stand on their own feet.
Afghanistan may no longer be in the headlines every day, but these girls did not disappear when the world's attention moved elsewhere. They are still learning, still building, and still refusing to let anyone decide their futures for them. I hope you will join me in standing with my fellow Afghan sisters and investing in the future they are working to build.
