Become a Mentor
The situation for women in Afghanistan is worsening. The lives for Afghan women have been restricted to their homes and they have been excluded from access to education, employment and social life. Together with Voice of America (VoA), the University of Cambridge has been leading a English for Academic Purposes programme for Afghan women who were either about to enter university or were forced to leave higher education when the Taliban returned to power in 2021. The aim is to help the students develop academic English skills to be able to access online higher education courses and complete their tertiary education.
Each student in this programme is assigned a one-to-one mentor to help them improve their spoken English skills and practice discussing topics in their academic discipline. Mentors provide a vital window to the world beyond Afghanistan and help the students to feel connected to a broader global academic community. No experience in teaching English language is required and full training and support is provided. To register your interest in becoming a mentor or to express interest in supporting the programme as a voluntary English teacher for small groups of students, please complete this form: https://forms.gle/pCkSYXKKKp5pUTwCA
Sign up to the mailing list: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa-jisc.exe?SUBED1=CAMVOAMENTORS&A=1
Dr. Jonathan Birtwell: Jonathan completed his PhD at the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge in 2022. His thesis explored access to higher education for forcibly displaced students in Malaysia. He began leading English for Academic Purposes programmes with the Centre for the Research of Global Human Movement in 2022 with a first cohort of Ukrainian students. He now works as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Sanctuary Hub at King's College London, where his work focuses on higher education-led pathways for forcibly displaced students to study in the UK.