Yale College student Zakira Bakhshi has received a grant from Projects for Peace, a global program that supports college students who are developing innovative, community-centered responses to pressing challenges.
Bakhshi, who just completed her junior year at Yale, is majoring in Political and Environmental Science with a certificate in French. Raised in Afghanistan, she witnessed how war, displacement, and environmental insecurity intersect — shaping her commitment to justice and peacebuilding.
The funding will support her project “A Thousand Voices,” which seeks to collect narratives from Afghan youth around the world. Specifically, Bakhshi is looking to assemble and publish 100 fiction and nonfiction stories from young Afghan people in order to call attention to their stories and dispel stereotypes.
“Partnering with local immigrant and educational organizations, I will lead creative writing and storytelling workshops in Pakistan, Germany, Canada, the UK, and the U.S. to empower the Afghan diaspora to share their lived experiences and reclaim their narratives,” she said.
The project will culminate with a published anthology and conference in August, 2026.
At Yale, Bakhshi leads the Yale Afghan Students Association, organizing speaker series and cultural events that spotlight Afghanistan’s sociopolitical landscape and diaspora voices. She is also involved at the Center for Green Chemistry & Green Engineering at Yale and supports refugee resettlement through IRIS (Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services), a New Haven-based nonprofit.
Based at Middlebury College, the Projects for Peace program partners with educational institutions to identify and support young peacebuilders. Each year the program grants $1.25 million to 125 or more student leaders across the United States. Most grantees are undergraduates.
