Nineteen female Afghan medical students who had been barred by the Taliban from attending university have arrived in Scotland to continue their medical studies, thanks to the Linda Norgrove Foundation.

Three years ago, the foundation began a campaign to bring the students to Scotland to study, and reached agreement with Scotland’s medical schools to offer them places. The students were among more than 100 that the foundation was sponsoring to study medicine in Afghanistan.

Linda Norgrove was kidnapped in Kunar on 26 September 2010 and died in an attempted rescue by US forces on 8 October, aged 36. She had devoted her working life to helping to improve the life of others, especially in Afghanistan, and had taught herself to speak Dari, an Afghan version of Persian, to help her establish proper relationships with her Afghan staff and the local communities she visited and worked in.