ISLAMABAD, Pakistan– With textbooks hidden under their shawls and dressed in their everyday clothes instead of uniforms, girls in Pakistan’s Swat Valley walk to school in fear of being targeted by the Taliban.

When a student from Stanford University heard about girls being banned from school in the Swat Valley she wanted to do something for them and she did.

Shiza Shahid, 20, is from Islamabad. She first heard of the girls’ schools being targeted in March. It was then that she contacted Ziauddin Yusufzai, who lives in the Swat Valley and was helping the girls go to school despite the conflict between government soldiers and Taliban militants. Shahid told Yusufzai that she wanted to do something for them and the idea of a summer retreat emerged.

“It is close to me because it is close to my home and has to do with education,” said Shahid. “I am getting an education and these girls aren’t.”

Shahid then started an organization called Shajar-e-llm, or “Tree of Knowledge.” The group consisted of college students who were back in Pakistan from studying abroad.

Meeha Irfan, 22, is the project coordinator of Shajar-e-llm. Irfan said that she was at Loughborough University in the United Kingdom when she first heard about the “schools closing in the Swat Valley.”

“[I] felt so helpless because I couldn’t do anything to help them from [Loughborough]. So, when I was home for the summer and got the text to volunteer with Shajar-e-llm. I couldn’t believe I finally had the chance to help these girls. Without hesitation, I went to sign up,” said Irfan.

Her job as the project coordinator was to make sure that the project ran smoothly. For the retreat she, along with help from others, made sure that the girls were divided into the groups that they wanted to be in. She also was in charge of arranging the groups’ rooms and ordering the food and having it delivered on time.

“It doesn’t matter where you’re from. If you’re just one girl living in a remote village in some remote corner of the country you should have access to education,” said Irfan.

The small group of 10 full time members held a one-week summer retreat in August for 26 girls from the Swat Valley who had an interest in education. The group was chosen by Yusufzai. One girl had participated in a New York Times documentary called “Class Dismissed in Swat Valley.” After Yusufzai got permission from the girls’ parents, he took them about 100 miles to Islamabad where the retreat was being held, as it was too dangerous for it to be held in the Swat Valley.

The retreat consisted of workshops from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, which included trauma therapy and gender empowerment. The workshops also allowed them to meet people who could help them in their future with college. The nights were filled with therapeutic activities such as going to a play, to a park, and to listen to music and dance.

It was little things such as music that the girls were deprived of, said Shahid. The main idea of the retreat was that the girls had been through a lot, and the group from Shajar-e-llm wanted to give them a break from the violence.

“These little things became magical for us and for them,” Shahid said.

Irfan ran a workshop that was about physical health and training. She has a black belt in Taekwondo and taught the girls a few quick and easy self defense moves so that they would feel more confident and not be afraid to protect themselves if they had to.

“We aim to educate them in different dimensions and help them look out of the box and motivate them to achieve their aims and goals in life,” said Mariam Raza, 25, the joint director of Shajar-e-llm. “We want to be a source of networking for them and provide them guidance as to what are the following steps they should take to improve their education.”

A “little sister” and “big sister” program was set up during the retreat. Each member of Shajar-e-llm was given four to five girls and had to make sure they were comfortable, happy and knew that they could share anything with their big sisters.

“We wanted to make sure they were not affected by the Taliban’s lectures on how women should not go to school,” Irfan said.

Shahid said that she learned as much from the retreat as the girls from the Swat Valley did. They were from middle class backgrounds and were all affected by the acts of violence. Shahid described the girls as being mature for their age and that they wanted her and the rest of the group to know that they were not terrorists.

The girls spoke of how the Swat Valley had been a beautiful place; but it has become a place where beheadings, public whippings and suicide bombers prevailed. They said they couldn’t leave home because it was too dangerous. On July 15, the Taliban said that no girls were allowed to go to school. The girls were angry because they were denied the right to get an education. When they had to leave the Swat Valley for a couple of months because of the military operation, they missed their home and schools. Now the schools have reopened and they hope that it becomes peaceful again and will work hard to help the Swat Valley.

Some of them felt abandoned said Shahid.

“They are wondering where everyone else is. Why no one is helping them,” she said.

Shahid and the other members of Shajar-e-llm were nervous about the girls going back to the Swat Valley when the retreat was over. “When we first came up with the idea it was very dangerous. The Taliban had complete control of Swat, and then there was the military operation against the Taliban,” said Shahid. “We were very scared.”

In order to protect the girls the group allowed very limited media coverage of the retreat and did not release any of their names.

“If any of them became a public figure or said anything against the Taliban they could become a target. We had to be careful that way,” Shahid said.

The retreat was also a pilot program for Shajar-e-llm, which helped the group to find out what was happening in the Swat Valley and to raise awareness about education there.

“We ended up getting so involved that we set out to turn Shajar-e-llm into a permanent thing and not just that one project,” Irfan said.

The group wants to form a network of cooperation between those in the Swat Valley and youths, like Shahid and Irfan, in other cities who have access to Internet and other resources. This way they can all work together for education and get the girls stories out.

“We have these local heroes that no one knows about,” Shahid said.

Shajar-e-llm is planning to make their first trip to the Swat Valley in December. The girls have been in contact with the members of Shajar-e-llm and have told them that they have started to decorate their schools and can’t wait to show their big sisters their schools and homes. The group is hoping to have a bigger retreat next summer for girls and for boys. Educating boys is an important way to help them allow women to educate themselves, said Shahid.

“This proves that you are never too young, inexperienced to claim responsibility for what is going on around you,” Shahid said.