Our founder Najma Sael was just one of the nearly thirteen-thousand Afghan refugees who arrived at Fort McCoy in Wisconsin following the fall of the US-backed Afghan government. The evacuation left behind a tangled web of emotions for her: anxiety about her future in the US, worry for her family and friends who had not been able to get out, and anger at the mass tragedy. As she spent her nights walking up and down the roads of Ft. McCoy, she couldn't stop thinking about students who unlike her, did not get out. She realized the only way to create a better future for her country was to give the next generation all the tools they needed, to find compassion through education, and to have a brighter future they could build from their hope. That is why she decided to start LAARA, so she could help create that hope for the future.