Bright Path Futures offer first language online support for Afghan women experiencing social isolation and /or beginners language and literacy support.
We specialise in engagement and building confidence in learning and cultural integration. Our Afghan facilitators spend time 1:1, helping women access zoom and preparing to join a group.
If you’re interested in buying a place on one of our courses for someone you support, please get in touch.
What the women say…
“I didn’t know how to read or write or have any self-confidence before I started – now I know my ability, that I can that I can learn, I can start to write, read and speak English. This is one of the goals of my life. Now I’m very excited before I come to a class, and I’m very happy to learn English.
Back in Afghanistan I couldn’t go to school, so it’s a new experience for me to take a pen in my hand and write something. All of us are so excited and happy that we joined the class. Any time that I have at day or night, if I have a chance, I want to keep studying and learn English.
If there are other women who are afraid to come to a class, my advice is that they should come here, they should learn. I recommend they come just one time, and then they will see the changes in themselves. I had the same problem the first time – I said to myself, I can’t do this, I can’t ever be part of this. But then I came to the class and I saw what it was like and I told myself, I can do this.
I only have one hope in future, that I can speak some English and I can write English. Then I will feel I am a member of society. I want to get a job in the future, any job, any work. Before I came to the class I didn’t think I could ever get a job. Now I can write my name and my surname, and lots more other things too, I feel I have more power, I feel anything might be possible if I work hard – to get a job, and join society.”
What our facilitor says:
Our online English classes started as a simple idea to offer Afghan women a chance to learn English from home, especially those with young children, mobility issues, or anxiety about going out. What we created together became something much more powerful: a lifeline of connection, confidence, and community.
The safe, women-only environment allowed participants to build friendships and confidence while learning useful, everyday language – from how to speak to a GP to how to ask for help in a shop or navigate school communication. The sense of shared experience created deep bonds and reduced the sense of isolation so many felt.
The online classes were particularly impactful for mothers with young children or those with limited mobility. Through WhatsApp and Zoom, we built a small but dedicated community of learners. Even from different cities or camps, women joined the classes consistently, some with babies in their arms, eager to learn and practice. For many, it was the only structured learning they had access to, and the only chance they had to interact with someone outside their family.
One participant shared that before the classes, she felt “like a shadow” in her new life in the UK. After a few months, she felt confident enough to attend her child’s school meeting alone – something she never imagined she could do. Another woman told me that learning even a few words of English gave her back a sense of dignity and hope.
These stories are just a glimpse of the impact our workshops and online sessions had – not just in teaching English, but in restoring confidence, fostering independence, and helping women find their voice in a new world.our
We have been generously funded by the National Lottery to share on our Pashto and Dari PDFs across the UK. Free downloads here – please don’t print or physically reproduce – you can buy printed copies from our shop. Thanks!
Supporting Afghan arrivals: the background
In August 2021, at least 15,000 people were evacuated from Afghanistan by the UK Government. These families and individuals arrived with little understanding of culture or everyday life in the UK. Many of the women had little or no education and were functionally illiterate in their own language.
The stress of trying to set up new lives in the UK has led to endemic mental health issues in this community, with an estimated 50% of adults receiving prescribed medication for anxiety and depression.
The approach Bright Path Futures have taken is unique in that it was developed and piloted by professionals who also arrived in the UK as resettled Afghan Bridging Hotel community members. This means that culturally we are well placed to offer support which feels safe and comfortable to all members of the community – and most specifically to women and their families.
Our approach was enthusiastically taken up by the Home Office team responsible for supporting relocated Afghan families. We have also worked in partnership with the British Red Cross, supporting each other’s outreach project work.
Bright Path Futures has created extensive video and printed training materials to make language and literacy learning fully accessible for the hard-to-reach group of illiterate Afghan women. Our free Pashto and Dari on-line classes have prepared women to access ESOL classes, as they gained the confidence to leave their homes and integrate into UK society.
We have translated Amiko cards – a practical self help wellbeing resource – into both Dari and Pasho, and use these as a foundation for promoting self care and cultural integration, alongside printed and audio versions of our cultural orientation book, Welcome to the UK.
The National Lottery Community fund has enabled us to continue to provide free online classes, workbooks and Amiko cards to relocated Afghan women, and we continue to offer outreach services to families still arriving in the UK.