More than 12 years have passed since NATO countries first deployed soldiers in Afghanistan towards the end of 2001, and Mellissa Fung says she still doesn’t totally understand what Canada was doing there.

“The official explanation for us going in was to provide security so that these institutions like schools and courts could take shape,” the former CBC journalist told the Straight. “But politically, what the motives for going in were, I still don’t know.”

Fung has had plenty of time to think about that question—she spent 28 days in a hole in the ground outside of Kandahar in 2008 after she was kidnapped while on assignment in the country. And Canada’s involvement in the war was a topic she repeatedly debated with the men holding her hostage, Fung recounts in a book she wrote a book about that ordeal, Under An Afghan Sky: A Memoir of Captivity.

Since then, the East Vancouver journalist has volunteered with a non-profit called Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan, with whom she returned to Afghanistan in 2013. Fung is scheduled to speak at the HR MacMillan Space Centre about that work on April 29.

In a telephone interview, Fung explained why she’s dedicating so much of her time to a country in which she was held captive.

“I felt like something good had to come out of what happened to me,” she explained. “I felt like I was lucky to have been able to come back, and I felt like I had to do something with it. And I think when I talk about Afghanistan, people listen now, unfortunately because of what happed to me. And so I feel like I have to put that to good use.”

A number of articles featuring interviews with Fung note that the journalist’s own story is not one of her favourite topics; she prefers to talk about things like education for women and girls.

“From my trip talking to them last year and talking to them on email, they’re afraid of what’s going to happen [after NATO’s withdrawal is complete],” she said. “They feel like they are being abandoned again. And I think they asked me to sort of make that case for them.”

Fung conceded that in light of a worrying security situation, it can be easy to forget that Canada has contributed to tangible improvements in many Afghan’s lives.

“We have 10 million children in school, and 40 percent of those children are girls,” she said. “I think about the women I’ve met in literacy classes—during the Taliban’s time, they were not allowed to go to school, and as a result, they can’t read, they can’t even write their own names. And now they’re learning how to do that. And once you teach somebody to read, they can’t unlearn that.”

Fung also noted that 30 percent of parliamentarians in Afghanistan are women. “They’ve made great strides,” she added.

Today, Fung continued, she’s worried that Canadians are forgetting not just about Canada’s accomplishments in Afghanistan, but about the country altogether. “We’ve been trying to figure out what we can do to keep Afghanistan sort of alive,” she said.

Fung is scheduled to speak at the HR MacMillan Space Centre at 7 p.m. on April 29. She’ll also screen a short documentary produced for CBC’s The National, and answer questions from the audience. Copies of her book will be available for purchase alongside products made by Afghan women. Tickets are $20 with proceeds going to education programs in Afghanistan.