Barakat’s story began in 1994, when a US-based carpet manufacturer, Chris Walter, and his business partner, Habibullah Karimi,
a refugee from Afghanistan, began their mission to improve the condition of the Afghan refugee population in Pakistan. They worked to empower the refugees through education, by building and running schools in Attock, Punjab, Pakistan.
Since then, Barakat has grown from one school in Pakistan into an organization spread across three countries, serving more than 3,000 women and children each year. Barakat exists to strengthen the fundamental human rights to education in South and Central Asia by providing exemplary basic education, increasing access to higher education and advancing literacy, particularly for women and children.
Barakat envisions a world in which all people in South and Central Asia fully realize their human rights to education.