Marin County Science Teacher Returns Home After Two Months in Afghanistan
Camilla Barry: Guest Speaker at Outdoor Art Club, Mill Valley

“I think God sent you to me,” Susan Wardak, Afghanistan’s Minister of Teacher Training, said to Marin County science teacher Camilla Barry as she greeted her this summer in Kabul. The ironic twist to this story is that, although Susan had encouraged Camilla to come back to Afghanistan after being introduced to her and her highly successful hands-on approach to using local materials to teach science last summer, Camilla had been unable to reach her after that introduction. So, in typical ‘Camilla fashion’, she bought a plane ticket to Afghanistan and, with lots of pluck and prayer, finally found the office of the Ministry of Education. Susan had 350 teachers coming in for teacher training in two weeks and didn’t have a science teacher.

She subsequently spent July and August in Afghanistan, including the period during their national election,  training hundreds of teachers in Kabul (many of whom had traveled from other parts of the country) and in Jalalabad.

Camilla Barry first became aware of conditions in Afghanistan in the late 1990s when her husband Dave clipped a headline about the Taliban government’s treatment of girls and women. Finding it very difficult to believe that this was going on in the 1990s, she read as much as she could find about the Taliban and the plight of women in Afghanistan.

When the Taliban fell, she knew it was time for her to go to Afghanistan and do everything within her power to help the women and girls there. Her goal was to help bring schools back to life, especially for women and girls. “I had listened to our pastors’ sermons about our calling at Westminster Presbyterian Church and I just knew that my calling was teaching science in a way that makes students think creatively and encourages creative new ideas about making the world around them better. I thought ‘I can do this. This is a gift I have and I can do something for these people.’”

In 2003 Camilla made her first trip to Afghanistan. There has only been one year since then that she hasn’t made the trip. In addition to teaching, she has initiated the “Salve Project” for many entrepreneurs in the country, teaching them how to make a soothing salve from “weeds” growing alongside the road, olive oil and beeswax. 

Facing many obstacles, she has persevered and has truly made a difference! She will share many of her stories about her experiences in Afghanistan at Mill Valley’s Outdoor Art Club on Thursday, November 5, at 1:00 p.m. in the first of a series focused on Civics and Conservation for the Club this season. The presentation is open to the public and is free of charge.

Photos are available and Camilla is available for interviews.