Develops a Moodle-based platform that is free and easily accessible.
Poha Academy
Bridging Knowledge, Building Futures:
Free Online Education For Afghan Women
Our Free Learning Platform
Poha Academy is hosted on Moodle — a free, open-source learning platform trusted by universities and educators worldwide. All of our courses are completely free to access, with no fees or barriers.
Browse our growing library of courses, designed to equip Afghan women with practical skills and formal knowledge, from the comfort and safety of home.
Visit Our Course Platform
Poha Academy
Poha is a humanitarian project working to empower Afghan women through free online education. Poha's primary goal is to support women's education in Afghanistan by developing accessible and relevant online resources. Education is an essential human right and vital to enabling participation in social, academic, economic and political life.
Our digital courses and resources aim to empower women by enhancing their digital and vocational skills, enabling them to bypass barriers to participation, particularly in the educational and economic spheres. Furthermore, it aims to develop their self-confidence and security in managing their own lives.
1. Making Education Public and Free
Following the ban on formal education, women in Afghanistan have increasingly utilised alternative forms of education to continue the progression of their studies. Nevertheless, current alternative educational solutions are largely fee-paying private programmes, imposing even greater restrictions on thousands of women. POHA's courses are open access and free, ensuring that all women with internet access are able to further their education from their homes. POHA also fills a critical gap by delivering accredited degree-level programmes for older students — programmes that simply do not exist elsewhere.
2. Courses in Dari, Pashto and English
POHA's digital learning platform aims to overcome existing obstacles for women in accessing online education by establishing a resource centre offering materials in Dari and Pashto as well as English. This approach aligns closely with the methods of education and communication women used before the Taliban's ban, enhancing both familiarity and accessibility.
3. Culturally Relevant, Islamic-Aligned Curriculum
As there are not many dedicated platforms for women's education in Afghanistan, current online resources tailored to their circumstances are few and far between. POHA addresses this by developing a core curriculum that is thoughtfully tailored to specific cultural contexts and does not conflict with Islamic customs, offering a trusted alternative to generic global platforms.
4. Personalised, One-to-One Learning Opportunities
POHA's fourth mission is to create online resources that are interactive and personal, allowing women to engage in active as well as passive learning. This addresses the importance of personalised academic instruction and guidance through mentoring schemes — central to Afghanistan's traditional education system.
About Us
Education is a fundamental right that should never be denied. Yet today, Afghan women face a heartbreaking reality — banned from schools and universities, their access to learning has been stripped away.
Poha, meaning knowledge in Pashto (پوهه), is a volunteer group at the University of Edinburgh dedicated to providing Afghan women with access to knowledge, ensuring no one is left behind in the pursuit of education.
Our Work
Our goal is to provide free and accessible knowledge through a user-friendly website.
Here's how we're making it happen:
A Moodle-based platform designed to be free and easily accessible. Courses are created directly on our website, ensuring a seamless and user-friendly experience for learners.
A dedicated network of educators creates course materials on Moodle and provides guidance and support to students throughout their learning journey.
We offer a wide range of courses designed to provide users with valuable skills and knowledge.
Our curriculum spans multiple fields, ensuring learners can pursue their interests and career aspirations.
Our Team
Creates courses on Moodle and coordinates with volunteer instructors.
Handles marketing, promotion, and manages social media and outreach.
Get Involved — Volunteer With Us
We are looking for volunteers to create 2–5 hour courses designed for university-level learners. These courses should be accessible to students with a high school background but no prior specialised knowledge in the subject. The focus is on topics that help learners develop practical, marketable skills to support job acquisition and economic independence.
You can choose to create either a basic course or an advanced course. A basic course introduces a new subject from the ground up, while an advanced course builds upon material from an existing course created by another volunteer, allowing students to deepen their knowledge further.
You will upload your course content directly to our platform. While we encourage including self-graded assignments like multiple-choice questions or fill-in-the-blank exercises, we're open to any creative ideas you may have.
Courses should ideally be completed by early September to be part of our first launch, but the work is fully remote, flexible, and can be done at your own pace.
To support you, we provide a Moodle demo video to help you navigate the platform, and you're welcome to work individually or collaborate with others.
Upon successful completion of your course, you will receive a certificate of contribution and gain valuable volunteering experience to enhance your CV, showcasing your commitment to education and social impact. Most importantly, you will have the opportunity to make a real difference by supporting Afghan women in their pursuit of knowledge, skills, and economic independence.
Our Journey
Oct 2024
Poha was founded
Founded by Shafiullah Roghmal with a mission to provide Afghan women with access to education.
Jan–Feb 2025
Poha takes shape
Three teams came together, and we welcomed our very first volunteer.
Mar 2025
First steps forward
Attended the 'Coding for Good' workshop on International Women's Day and held our first volunteer meeting.
Today
Growing and building
Over 60 volunteers have now joined Poha. We've opened participation to students beyond the University of Edinburgh, and our first batch of courses is set to launch in September.
Contact Us
