The half percent.

Today I want to share an update on our 2025 admissions season. I want to share some numbers with you, and I want to share what those numbers mean to me.

The numbers first. This year, we received 5,416 applications from Afghan girls who want to attend SOLA in Rwanda.

5,416 applications, from girls in 13 countries.

For context: in 2022, the year of our first admissions season in Rwanda, we received just under 200 applications.

We received just under 2,000 applications in 2023.

We received just under 3,300 applications in 2024.

And this year, I’ll say it again: we received 5,416 applications.

We can enroll approximately 30 girls out of the 5,416 who applied.

That’s roughly one half of 1%.

My team and I had a sense of what we’d see this year. We were ready. But even so, the memory of the things we’d read in previous admissions seasons and the anticipation of what was coming – it doesn’t fully prepare you. It just doesn’t. The emotions right now aren’t something I can easily describe.

5,416 applications and we can accept approximately 30 students. One half of one percent.

These are the numbers. The numbers are girls. And I want to be very clear about this: each girl is a human being who deserves the opportunity to go to school.

I will never look away from Afghanistan. Never. And I will never look away from the Afghan girls who have never given up.

This is what comes next: we will contact shortlisted students for interviews by the end of September. We’ll be making final admissions decisions by the end of December, and we’ll be working with our partners at the UN’s International Organization for Migration to bring admitted students to Rwanda.

Here’s what else comes next: we will continue to grow our SOLAx online academy. We’re at 20,000+ users as you read this, and every girl who applied to join SOLA can sign up on SOLAx right now, and so can any Afghan, anywhere. It’s completely free, and it’s waiting for you.

We’re also continuing construction on our new Rwanda campus. We’re on target to open our doors for the start of the 2026 school year next fall.

This is only the beginning. We can do more, and we will. For Afghanistan. For the girls who have never given up, and who never will.