Former Northampton Academy student tells of her amazing journey to Afghanistan to visit a school and inspire the young girls there, following a work experience placement at DPD, part of the Travis Perkins group.
Maryam writes:
"I began the start of a long journey with DPD, part of the Travis Perkins Group, where I completed a work experience placement, and was assigned to work on an artistic/creative project which was very personal to me. I feel passionate about education for women, especially in developing countries, such as Afghanistan. So strong were my feelings that I planned to travel to Afghanistan with the aim of meeting and teaching young girls in a school. I was determined to take with me the piece of work I had created, to inspire them to continue their educations and show them how a good education can improve the quality of their lives.
I decided to use my artistic skills and together with the technology and the assistance of the staff at DPD, to create a poster consisting of the face of Malala Yousafzai (a Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest Nobel Prize laureate), incorporating her quotes on the importance of education.
I created 3 posters in total and all three included symbolism highlighting the oppression of women and how an education can help. Staff at DPD were so inspired by what I had done and what I was planning on doing, they generously printed enough posters for every class in the school. They showed a lot of respect towards my plan and encouraged me greatly.
Once my work experience had finished, I left to travel to Afghanistan and from there I began working in a very run down school, which lacked proper facilities, with ambitious girls ranging from the ages of 8-16. They all explained mournfully how difficult and how wrong going to school was, sharing with me that, at times they thought they were doing the wrong thing themselves, believing that the passion they had for education was wrong.
I delivered my posters and Malala’s message and was delighted when during my last week in Afghanistan, a girl there thanked me for those posters, because she had been on the verge of giving up, but she found hope in them. I was only able to give that girl and others, like her hope because of the help I have received from both Northampton Academy and the wonderful staff members at DPD."