Every night Najila Ahrari saw ten to thirty badly injured children pass through her pediatric ward in Kabul, Afghanistan. Najila was dealing with the consequences of America’s war on terror against the Taliban, struggling to help save children injured by rockets.
Najila saw bodies of children so ravaged by war that they would die because it was too late to save them; she saw children carrying their own arms wrapped inside a cloth. Najila could have fled Afghanistan, but she stayed in the hopes of rebuilding her country.
In 2002, Najila Ahrari participated in the Central Eurasia Leadership Alliance (CELA), an EastWest Institute initiative founded to bring together young leaders from Central Asia and the Caucasus. At Koc University in Istanbul, Turkey, she joined forty-five men and women from former Soviet Republics and other Central Asian countries, including historic rivals like Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Aimed to build a future for both young leaders and young countries, CELA included workshops about business practices in the West. With CELA, the EWI aimed to create a network of individuals bound to contribute to their societies, a generation of leaders dedicated to regional cooperation.
At CELA, Najila met participants like Rahat Toktonaliev who entered Kyrgyz State University Law at just 16 and went on to study at Moscow State University. After the end of Soviet regime, Rahat returned home to a newly independent Kyrgyzstan, which he helped become the first CIS nation to join the World Trade Organization in 1998. Other participants included Maia Tavadze from Guria, Georgia who, despite a dire lack of local opportunities for education, managed to attend the American Institute of Public Administration. Maia became the Chief Advisor on international relations to the Georgian Governor, and won a scholarship to earn her master's degree at Duke University.
CELA also included leaders like Halim Fidai, who came from a small village called Sultani in Afghanistan’s Paktika province. Because of Paktika’s violent reputation, the government did not set up elections in the region. In response, Halim became a local advocate, creating an elected executive council to deal with contentious issues like water rights. Thanks to Halim’s efforts, Karzai’s’s government granted Paktika voting rights and gave it the funds to build three new wells and a school—a big improvement for the province.
With CELA, the EastWest Institute sought to celebrate and support these young leaders—people who, with their bravery and drive, made their own worlds safer and better places. The program ran for five years, but its effects are still being felt today in the ideas that were shared, in the friendships made across cultures and borders.