i'd like to invite out sadik sadika basiria saline, the director of the learning center in afghanistan. she wins the prize for having to work the hardest to get here, and to do what she does. when she was 5, sadika fled to pakistan during the soviet occupation, and returned to afghanistan hampered by her own lack of education. i mean, to afghanistan, which was hampered by a lack of education. there are about 30 million people in afghanistan, and when she came back, fewer than 900,000 children, mostly boys, had any access to education. along with three other women, she cobbled together enough money to begin the education of 36 girls in an abandoned mosque in 2003. through the learning center, she now educates more than 3,400 girls in six schools, 200 women at four literacy centers. [ applause ] and 120 women in a community college. she's established the family welfare center for the elimination of violence against women, a domestic violence prevention initiative that serves 14,000. she received her own bachelor's degree in international relations from mt. holyoke college in 2009. and sh