Afghan Women Need Your Help

As director of a women’s program funded by USAID and implemented by the University of Maryland, I was sent to Afghanistan to give women the confidence and skills to dream, strive and achieve. The women we worked with did that and more. They learned and promoted learning. They challenged the status quo. They achieved. They engaged in the socio-economic life of rural Afghanistan. They learned and practiced conservation farming. They established and managed a women’s cooperative -farm. They founded the Women’s Veterinary Association and other self-sustaining organizations which continue the work we started. They also became community leaders and even elected representatives. Now, these women and their families face risk of assassinations, homelessness, and, of course, hunger.

 

I worked with the women staff of the Afghan Agricultural Extension Project for six years. They inspired me with their resilience. They protected me and my staff as we went to the villages. They worked, without hesitation, to help the rural women of Afghanistan improve the food security of their families.  They negotiated with Mullahs, Council of Elders,  and other local authorities to obtain the permission we needed to work with the women farmers in the villages and ensure my safety.   Now, no doubt many of these same authorities will inform the Taliban of this assistance.

 

We, together with the University of Maryland, and USDA are working to get the appropriate visas and transportation for settlement in the US. However, this will take time. In the interim, the Afghan staff cannot venture out of their house due to the real risk of assassination or kidnaping. This fundraiser is designed to aid our former staff and dependents as we grind through the process of obtaining resettlement visas.

 

Time is running out.

 

Humanitarian parole issued by the US State Department may speed the escape but requires a non-refundable application fee of $575 per person.

$200/ month will keep a family housed, fed and, possibly, safe in Afghanistan. 
$3,000 per person will be needed  to transport them out of Afghanistan. 

$400 /per person is needed for vias to Pakistan
$500/month per family will be needed to support them in Pakistan as they wait for the US government process.

Thank you for your support of these spectacular women.

For more information visit these links

Project Overview:  https://reeis.usda.gov/web/crisprojectpages/0227531-investing-in-the-afghan-ministry-of-agriculture-irrigation-and-livestock-maildail.html
University of Maryland Women in Agriculture Extension: https://www.arec.umd.edu/extension/international-extension

Interview in Modern Farmer: https://modernfarmer.com/2014/06/meet-modern-farmers-sophia-wilcox/

Publication: From the Field https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/renewable-agriculture-and-food-systems/article/abs/from-the-field-empowering-women-to-improve-family-food-security-in-afghanistan/603497C6C655B4BFC6089A63DBEC729B