Freshta fled from civil war, becoming a refugee at the age of four. After the fall of the Taliban, she returned to Afghanistan. At age 12 she started her work on TV programs as a child reporter.

Due to decades-long conflict and restrictions on education, Afghan schools generally do not encourage children to think critically or ask questions. With 93% of children lacking basic numeracy and literacy skills by the end of the 6th grade(*), the country’s education system faces a crisis. In 2018, based on her experience of reading to her triplet nieces, Freshta established a mobile library program to help children exposed to violence overcome trauma and acquire basic academic skills.

Currently, her organization operates 17 mobile libraries, employing women as teachers and librarians, and provides education to 1,500 children a day. Since its launch in 2018, it has had over a million visits by children in Kabul, which is unprecedented in the history of Afghanistan. Freshta aims to operate 500 mobile libraries by 2030, reaching more than 40,000 children a day with educational opportunities.