Ali Al-Waraqi let tears stream down quietly his cheeks, while he was watching tens of girls go to school for the first time in the history of his village “Warqa”. This defining moment in the lives of hundreds of girls came true only after years of effort and constant struggles.
Until 2008, the number of girls enrolled in the Warqa village school, which is allocated only for children in the first grades (from grade one to grade six), was few. Some of them completed the primary stage (grade one to six), but some others dropped out of school in the first or second grade. However, a year later, after the establishment of a school for girls, and due to long years of awareness-raising and determination, the number of girls in the intermediate stage (grade seven to nine) exceeds three hundred girls in 2009. This is really considered an achievement and Ali Al-Waraqi sees it as "a source of pride.”
He said, ecstatically, "we achieved the dream and made a fundamental change not only in our village but also in the neighboring villages". He added with his spontaneity, "It is not easy to change in a conservative society, where people consider the change, itself, is a problem."
Waraqa village is the second largest population center in Mayfa'at Ans district, which is away by about 15 km east of Dhamar city. It is inhabited by more than 5000 persons. There are three schools, one of them for girls, and a number of health centers, three of which are privately owned.
Ali Al-Waraqi is one of youth’s and Influential social figures who have brought societal change. “The fate of girls, who are forced to leave school due to societal customs, were to marry early, and to engage in household duties; the phenomenon of early marriage was common before the community trend towards female education,” Al-Waraqi said. He also clarified that “previously a very large number of the village’s girls got married at an early age, and you might not believe that some girls got married when they were 12 or 13 years old.”
Indeed, the girl’s education completely has ended “early marriage” and even pushed dozens of girls to university seats. The education revival has contributed to improving the community life standards in general and health services that were completely absent in the village.
Al-Waraqi confirmed "encouragement of girl’s education after establishing a school for girls in 2009 (Al Wahda School), has largely eliminated the phenomenon of early marriage, reduced household problems and mitigated the level of poverty in the village."
Al-Waraqi recalls the difficult conditions experienced by villagers, especially the girls, as hundreds of them yearned to continue their education, saying that “once a girl reaches the sixth grade, her education journey is ended, due to the prevailing social conditions at that time, in which community members consider continuation of girl’s education as a “shame”; nevertheless, a number of the villagers rejected that situation and enrolled their girls in schools located in nearby villages or in schools within Dhamar city.”
It was not easy to make school education possible for the village girls. Al-Waraqi highlighted hardships of some people in educating their girls outside the village. “Some of the village girls traveled a distance of up to five kilometers to study in a school called Al Jarsha School. Some of them were transported by vehicles and others traveled by foot. The efforts succeeded in establishing a school with six classrooms, in which the village girls were taught from the first to sixth grades, and later new classes were built to extent the school capacity to include grades until the third secondary grade,” Al-Waraqi said.
When Al Wahda School was established through the Public Works Project (PWP), a governmental entity, it had only six classrooms, and then nine more classrooms were built in 2016, through the Social Fund for Development (SFD), also a governmental entity. The community actually mobilized its abilities to find female teachers, to begin the first step towards appointing female graduates from the village as “volunteer teachers”. Most of them are girls from other villages who married young men from the village. The next step was to recruit female teachers from Dhamar city, in cooperation with the District Education Office of  Mayfa'at Ans, as well as to provide a vehicle to transport those teachers daily, on the expense of the community contribution. All female teachers and workers in the school have graduated from this school.
Ali Al-Waraqi, who graduated from the Faculty of Education, Dhamar University, referred to the impact that has become a fact, and said, "About 600 girls study at AlWahda School, the number of enrolled students in the secondary stage exceeds forty girls, most of them pursue their university education."
He looked at the open space near his home in Dhamar city, Ali Al-Waraqi said “Imagine a change occurring in this way, it is now usual for a girl to find her way towards the future, after she was restricted by the customs and traditions that consider girls’ education as a ‘shame’.”
Enrollment of girls in education, like their male peers, created a good village environment, and strengthened cohesion among the community members. Many of the community members threw their disputes, which were common, behind them. Al-Waraqi asserts: "Female education has produced tremendous societal awareness, in the family in particular and among the whole community members."
He continues by saying “To find a nurse or a female physician in the village was a dream for women and men alike, but now, because of education, there are three small health centers in the village, more than four nurses and seven midwives who receive academic education.”
Today, Waraqa village is full with educated girls, about 40 girls have obtained bachelor's degrees in various disciplines, including medicine, laboratories, pharmacy, mathematics, English, sciences, and others.
This education revival has corrected many community concepts. Mr. Al-Waraqi refers to attitudes of some parents who used to refuse to let their girls complete education after the sixth grade saying, “parents today encourage their girls to enroll in master programs after obtaining bachelor’s degree with an excellent grade”.
Persuading individuals, continuous conversations in social events and casual sessions, and evoking religious evidence from the Islamic holy book “the Qur’an”, and from the Prophet’s Sunnah”  is the strategy used by Ali Al-Waraqi and his friends to convince the community members. The religious environment that accepts girls’ education contributed to making the idea of opening a school in the village more applicable. He stated “there was a mosque imam  in the village, married to an educated woman, who had obtained a bachelor's degree; so, we used this model in our talks about girl’s education as the mosque imam is a wise person respected and appreciated by all the villagers. With the passage of time, the community members began to be aware more and more of the importance for opening a basic school for girls. Normally, very few opposition voices were raised, but they were ineffective and did not make an impact.”
Mr. Mohammed Ali Al Sufi, the former deputy director of the Education Office in  Mayfa'at Ans District, who in addition was managing the Girls’ Education Department, explained, “The Parents Council and some social figures in Waraqa village had a positive role in establishing a school for girls, despite the opposition from some villagers to educating girls.” He pointed out that the cooperation between the community and educational authorities in the area, led to preparing and bringing female teachers and volunteers for the school, which became completely feminine. Female teachers were contracted and brought from Dhamar city to the school and the community members provided a vehicle to transport the teachers and monthly salaries were paid to them from community contributions."
"The situation has completely changed, and the percentage of female students varies between 40 and 60 percent of the total students in schools of  Mayfa'at Ans district; in some areas, the number of female students exceeds the number of boys," Al Sufi confirmed.