(dramatic music) - I'm Paris Jackson in the "Crosscut" KCTS 9 newsroom.

A Washington woman's childhood roots in Afghanistan led her to dedicate nearly two decades to empower women and girls there.

Marnie Gustavson's family's homestead is in Port Orchard.

In 1964 when she was nine years old, her family moved to Afghanistan and her father taught math and biology at an international school.

She didn't return there until two years after 9/11.

(dramatic music continues) For 16 years now, she has led a small Kabul-based aid group, PARSA, assisting women and those on the margins of Afghan society.

(dramatic music continues) In 2021, the Taliban, after reclaiming power in Afghanistan, made it more difficult for women and girls to get an education, shutting them out of secondary schools and universities.

Now PARSA has launched a new direction, organizing more than 170 homeschools that serve more than 2,000 students.

(dramatic music continues) I'm Paris Jackson.

Find nonprofit Northwest news every day on crosscut.com.

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