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My name is Marnie Summerfield Smith, I'm a journalist.

In 2007, I set up Trust Sulha, to fund education for Afghan refugee children and young people in Pakistan.

This came about because, in 2002, I went to Quetta, Pakistan where I met a woman called Jamilla Abassy, an Afghan refugee.

With no formal training, Jamilla, disillusioned by the sight of Afghan children scavenging on rubbish dumps for things to sell, opened her first primary school.

At Jamilla’s school, I met a teacher called Rahima Sherzhad. Rahima has now opened her own school, which she named the Marnie Smith Middle School.

Together, Rahima and Jamilla are educating more than 2,000 children and young people who would otherwise have nothing.

Pakistan is not in a situation to support them. Many of them are orphans and have no parental support. Jamilla pays some of her teachers by selling poetry she has written.

Although millions of Afghans have returned to Afghanistan, many remain in Pakistan. They are desperate to go home, but feel the only place safe place is Kabul, because of the peacekeeping presence. However, because of the relative peace in Kabul, it is prohibitively expensive for most people to live there. There are few jobs and opportunities too. Such is the strain on the infrastructure, that when I visited Kabul, I saw schools being demolished to make way for houses.

I named the organisation Trust Sulha, because Sulha is the Dari word for peace. All the Afghans I have met, in Pakistan, in Kabul and here in the UK, believe that educating the future generations of Afghans will secure a peaceful future for the country.

Afghans in Pakistan queued up to tell me how vital education was. If you could see the refugee camps with their shortage of basic necessities, you might wonder, as I did, how in the midst of the chaos that comes about when you flee war, people can have such astounding foresight.

Jamilla once told me: ‘I wish there will be a new battle in my country – the battle of the pen.’

She trusts in peace and if she does, then I will too.

Thank you for visiting, I hope you will email me if you have any questions, suggestions or would like to support us.

Warmest wishes, Marnie