Who We Are
Executive Director Toc Dunlap Biography
Vice President Dr. Sakena Yacoobi Biography CHI Board members Betsy Amin-Arsala Dr. Parvin Boroumand Toc Dunlap - Executive Director Annette Vitale-Salajanu Dr. Sakena Yacoobi - Vice President Dr. Janet Yamamoto Executive Director of CHI Toc Dunlap BA JD co founded Creating Hope International in 1982. She is an experienced educator and teacher trainer and expert in providing quality technical assistance to grassroots health and education efforts in developing countries ( including with refugees) helping them to develop into viable organizations that can attract national and international support. Over the past three decades, Toc has worked in partnership with Afghan women to provide culturally sensitive education, health care and skills training in Afghanistan and to refugees in Pakistan. In 1967, Toc went to Afghanistan as a Peace Corps Volunteer. She worked in Herat and Charikar teaching English, training teachers, and developing curriculum. In 1988, she returned to Pakistan to help Afghan refugees. She worked as Coordinator of International Rescue Committee’s Hangu Education Program and eventually advanced to Deputy Director of International Rescue Committee. During her 8 years with International Rescue Committee, she initiated 6 new educational programs. Through a consensus-based model of grassroots program development, Toc has helped to successfully introduce potentially controversial programs like schools for Afghan girls. She developed teacher training manuals in Farsi and Pushto, trained teachers, and trained teacher trainers. Since 1996, Toc Dunlap has worked closely with the Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL), an Afghan women’s non-governmental organization. Through CHI, she provides AIL with direct services and with training and assistance in administration, finance, program strategy, fundraising, budgeting, and proposal writing. AIL is now one of the largest Afghan women-led NGOs, one of the largest employers of Afghan women, and the pre-eminent teacher training organization in Afghanistan. AIL is recognized internationally for its outstanding work, and provides health and education services to 350,000 women and children annually. In 2002, Toc initiated a new program for CHI, extending her technical support and training skills to help a group of Tibetan Bon refugees in India. Through CHI, Toc has helped this community develop a new essential oils program. The goal of this program is to produce essential oils the community clinic use and for sale. Toc also started a scholarship program that helps Bon students advance their education to the secondary and post-secondary levels. She helped the Bon community raise funds for important building projects, a new drinking water well, and a milk cow. She has also helped the Bon organize their administrative structure to more effectively oversee, manage, and fundraise support for their various programs including their orphanage and medical clinic.
Vice President of CHI
Professor Sakena Yacoobi, co founded CHI and is President and Executive Director of the Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL). Yacoobi founded AIL in 1995 to provide teacher training to Afghan women, to support education for boys and girls, and to provide health education to women and children. Under Sakena’s leadership AIL has established itself as a groundbreaking, visionary organization which works at the grassroots level and empowers women and communities to find ways to bring education and health services to rural and poor urban girls, women and other poor and disenfranchised Afghans. AIL was the first organization to offer human rights and leadership training to Afghan women. AIL supported 80 underground home schools for 3,000 girls in Afghanistan after the Taliban closed girls’ schools in the 1990s. AIL was the first organization that opened Learning Centers for Afghan women—a concept now copied by many organizations throughout the country. AIL now serves hundreds of thousands of women and children each year providing healthcare and education through its Learning Centers, schools and clinics in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. In addition to her work with AIL, Sakena has been a panelist and speaker on education for women and children at a number of international conferences, including the California Governors Conference on Women and Families, the Central Eurasian Studies Society conference at Harvard University, the One World Forum at Warwick University in England, Association for Women in Development in Bangkok, and the International Institute for Peace Education in South Korea, Turkey, Greece and Costa Rica. She has been instrumental in focusing attention on the urgent need for women’s rights and education and healthcare in Afghanistan. Sakena has been the recipient of many awards for her work including: • The Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. • 2002 Peacemakers in Action Award Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding. • Recognition of Service Awards from local governmental bodies in Afghanistan, • Bill Graham Award from The Rex Foundation. • Sakena was among 1,000 women nominated to jointly receive the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize. • 2006 Senior Ashoka Fellow and the first Ashoka Fellow from Afghanistan. • 2006 Citizen Leader Award from the University of the Pacific • 2007 Honorary Doctorate by the University of the Pacific recognizing her as an exemplary social entrepreneur and humanitarian. • 2007 Role Model Eighth National Role Models Conference • 2007 Gleitsman International Activist Award Center for Public Leadership at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. • 2008 Honorary Doctorate of Humanitarian Service Loma Linda University • 2009 The Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership • 2009 The Americans for UNFPA Advocates Award for women's health and dignity. • June 2010 Honorary Doctorate Santa Clara University • June 2010 Jonathan Mann Award • Sept 2010 Social Entrepreneur Asia Schwab Foundation • Nov 2010 Global Hero Award University of the Pacific • March 2011 Enterprising Women Hall of Fame 2012 German Media Award 2012 World Children's Prize Honorary Award 2012 The Lotus Leadership Award - The Asia Foundation 2012 Econonmic Opportunity Achievement Award - Opportunity Collaborative 2012 TIAW World of Difference Award Sakena has been featured in book, articles and other media including “Half the Sky” by N. Kristoff and S. DuWunn and Land of the Unconquerable - The lives of contemporary Afghan women by Jennifer Heath. June 2011 -ABC news article about Yacoobi - "Pragmatic Woman Educates Thousands" and the YouTube video of AIL produced by Skoll . Born in Herat, Afghanistan, Sakena came to the United States in the 1970s, earning a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from the University of the Pacific and a master’s degree in public health from Loma Linda University. Before returning in 1990 to work with the Afghan people, Sakena was a professor at D’Etre University and a health consultant. While working with refugees in Pakistan, she published 8 Dari-language teacher training guides. During that time, she also served as the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR) delegate working on the education portion of the United Nation’s Rehabilitation Plan for Afghanistan. She is a member of the Board of Directors of Global Fund for Women and a member and past steering committee member of the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief.
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Photography Credits
The following photographers have images shown on this site:
Donald Cardwell - photo Toc Dunlap biography page
Ginna Fleming www.ginnafleming.com
William Marshall of WKM Photography - Eighth National Role Model Award
William Vazquez - Photographer "Maternal Health Initiative" supported by a grant from the Abbott Fund
The following photographers have images shown on this site:
Donald Cardwell - photo Toc Dunlap biography page
Ginna Fleming www.ginnafleming.com
William Marshall of WKM Photography - Eighth National Role Model Award
William Vazquez - Photographer "Maternal Health Initiative" supported by a grant from the Abbott Fund
