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Afghan Women's Resource Center
The Afghan Women's Resource Center (AWRC) is a non-governmental, non-political, indigenous humanitarian aid female-headed organization, which has been working for Afghan women since October 1989. Its main aim is to serve as a focal point for Afghan women from all walks of life from those living in refugee camps and in the urban parts of Peshawar city and also those returning to Afghanistan. For the past thirteen years AWRC has sought to promote the interests of the female Afghan community in Peshawar and more recently in Kabul.
فعاليتها:
AWRC currently operates in five key sectors Capacity Building, Education, Health, and Skills Training programs for Afghan women that will improve their lives and the lives of their families.
AWRC has seen directly the benefits of peace-building classes on the women who attend and they frequently report immediate benefits in their day-to-day lives. Literacy programs have allowed women, who had either never got the opportunity to attend schools because of the strict communal system which was male dominant and severe, or their schooling was forcibly stopped during the Taliban regime, to re-commence and gain more access to information and a little more control within their own lives. The sponsorship program and skills training have generated incomes for Afghan women and enabled them to put food on the table for their families, clothe their children and provide them with the basics for their education.
164 women participated in these workshops. They found such workshops very useful for the capacity building of Afghan women and demanded for more workshops in future.
AWRC strongly believes that by providing such awareness raising workshops and other related opportunities, Afghan women will very soon realize for the existing of a real democratic government in Afghanistan and their roles in bring peace and democracy in the country.
Participants Opinions in Regard to the Workshops
1. A House Wife: (three weeks after attending the workshop)In my family life I usually had problems with my husband, and most of the time conflicts used to happen between us even on small issues. After attending workshop on Conflict Resolution in Family and Society, I got to know various ways to avoid increasing or happening of conflicts. I started applying them at home it was amazing that by doing so my husband also started doing the same. Now my husband is very pleased with me and always encourages me to attend such workshops in future. I hope I could be able to keep my family life like this for ever.
2. A School Teacher:It was a great chance for us to attend the workshop on Democracy. It is a concept for most of us that if we say DEMOCRACY it means we are just going against the government or it seems that we are interfering in political issues. But after attending this workshop, I got to know that what is DEMOCRACY in reach. It has no relation with politics or interfering government issues. It states just about our rights, our role in choosing our country government and what is a democratic government. I am thankful to AWRC for providing us with this opportunity to clarify our concepts about democracy.
3. Laila-Teacher in Bini Sarwari High School: Conduction of such workshops are very effective in our society because most of the women don't have access to such forums and are therefore away from any kind of awareness programs. There is a need for conducting certain workshops in all parts of Afghanistan first for all women in Khair Khana Meena. Khair Khana region is very big area and most of women from other parts of this area can't participate in such workshops so establishment of such WCRC in other parts is highly required. As I found this workshop very useful, so I promise to share my learning and knowledge with my students, colleagues and other women and I will actively participate in spreading such messages in the community.
Peace, Democracy and conflict resolution Workshops
As per plan, 8 workshop/seminars were held in the Women's Community based Resource Centers WCRC in order to further aware women about the issues that lead them how to avail their rights and to work towards social and cultural development of the community for the promotion of peace and democracy in the country. The main themes for these workshops were:
- Role of the women in family and society,
- Conflict resolution in family and society,
- Women's rights in the community,
- Democracy.
پروژه ها:
Future Plans
- With some donor support, AWRC hopes to strengthen its present activities and expand its area of operation in the future.
- It plans to focus its efforts in the areas of health for women and children, and literacy, awareness raising and skills training for women.
- AWRC will try to develop its production and sales activities in order to become financially more self-reliant as an organization.
It plans to setup 10 Women's Community based Resource Centers in Kabul rural and urban parts, and at least 10 other centers in other provinces of Afghanistan for the next three years.
دست آورد ها، نتايج و حاصلات اين اتحاديه:
In 2002 AWRC brought positive changes to the lives of Afghan women in the following ways:
- 5,277
moderately malnourished children, 4,928 pregnant women and 6,374 lactating
women benefited from the Supplementary Feeding Program,
- 11 orphans benefited from the orphan assistance pilot project,
- 533 students participated in literacy classes,
- 361 students were trained in computer packages,
- 503 sales were made through the sewing section resulting in continuing income and employment for 9 women in AWRC main office alone, while a large number of women are earning their incomes through the assistance of AWRC in their homes,
- 318 female-headed families were benefited through sponsorship program,
- 1,138 women participated in a number of awareness raising and capacity building workshops.
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Recent publications by AWRC
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