It’s too easy, too simplistic, and plain wrong to dismiss the past 20 years in Afghanistan as a total waste.

Here’s a story about what’s possible, about what might have been, and about a possible future that one day that will hopefully come to pass.

In 2017, a team of Afghan schoolgirl scientists were denied entry to the US to compete in a robotics competition. After public pressure, former president Donald Trump intervened and the girls were allowed into the US.

The schoolgirl scientists became known as The Dreamers and after their participation at the robotics competition, they become celebrities at home and abroad, winning awards and accolades from across the global.

The Dreamers were but one of several hopeful signs that beyond the headlines, and away from the fighting, an authentic civil society was slowly re-emerging in Afghanistan, often led by brilliant and courageous women.

In this video from Indian news site Crux, we learn the names of a few of these wonderful women, sadly now driven into exile by the success of the Taliban. Women such as rights activist and elected official Zarifa Ghafari and Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai.

Fortunately for several of the Dreamers, they too were able to escape the chaos of Kabul, but at the huge cost of leaving behind their families and other robotics team members.

The Dreamers represent a new generation of Afghans, determined to use education as their weapon against ignorance and savagery.

As we in the Switched ON Living community fight our battle against traditional retirement, we now have a new set of heroes from whom we can draw inspiration and offer overflowing admiration.

In the meantime, here’s a 2017 report from the PBS News Hour about the participation by the Afghan schoolgirls in the robotics competition. Watch the first 6 minutes.

At first denied U.S. entry, Afghan girls' robotics team shows the world what they can do