On December 12, 2015, an American humanitarian aid worker named Lisa Akbari was killed in Kabul, Afghanistan outside the gym she frequented. Heartbroken by their loss, Akbari’s family in the United States set up a crowd funding initiative to raise funds in her memory. Afghan Women’s Mission is touched and honored to be the recipient of the funds raised. We thank Akbari’s family and express our deepest condolences to them. The funds will appropriately be used to further Afghan women’s rights, a cause dear to Lisa Akbari’s heart.

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This holiday season, a 19 year old from Arizona, named Aaron Peterson, contacted us saying he wanted to do his part to raise much needed funds for RAWA’s work. Afghan Women’s Mission is proud to feature Aaron’s Indiegogo campaign to raise $25,000 for RAWA by the end of this year.

All donations to this campaign will go directly to AWM in order to fund RAWA’s important work to empower women and girls in Afghanistan: prejects like Danish school in Farah Province.

Aaron’s message to you is: “I want you to help me change this sense of hopelessness by ensuring women in Afghanistan receive the modern healthcare, education and other resources that they require.”

Please click here to visit the online campaign Aaron Peterson has launched and please give what you can this holiday season!

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Acclaimed Afghan human rights activist and author, Malalai Joya, returns to the US this fall for a national tour coinciding with the 12th anniversary of the start of the US war in Afghanistan. Joya’s tour is sponsored by the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) and Afghan Women’s Mission (AWM).

During her tour Joya will address the following questions:
• Why are Afghan women more vulnerable than ever?
• What is the impact of US drones, bombs, and raids?
• What does the end of the US’s longest war mean?
• Why is violence increasing after 11 years of war?

Click here for a list of cities that Malalai Joya will be speaking at during her Fall 2013 tour.

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Dear supporters of RAWA and Afghan Women’s Mission,

This year was our most financially challenging year since our organization began nearly 13 years ago. As you may recall, about a year ago our fiscal sponsor IHC collapsed losing all our funds, and the funds of about 200 other organizations. Click here to read about it.

While we have found a wonderful new sponsor, SEE, we have raised only a tiny fraction of the funding we normally receive from donors like you this year. Tragically, the main sponsor of RAWA’s flagship project, Danish School, has also been unable to provide the funding we need. In fact, the money we have raised this year are barely enough to fund two months of Danish School operations.

The loss of our funds, and the global economic recession have created a perfect storm that now threatens closure of all of RAWA’s life-saving work.

Click here to make a donation.

In RAWA’s own words, here is an assessment of how dire the situation is:

The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) has always relied on its supporters all over the world for financial assistance, and especially its supporters in the US, and never turned to any other source. We understand the many difficulties you face, which makes us even more proud when you work hard to help us as well. Please don’t forget RAWA, the only anti-fundamentalist and independence-seeking female organization of Afghanistan, in these hard days, and enable us to implement all our projects in the coming year so that your donation is spent in ways that truly help Afghanistan and its suffering people.

Crisis of IHC has caused a lot of problems for us, we had to limit our programs in Afghanistan due to acute shortage of fund. If we could not raise enough fund, RAWA may have to close down a school that we run inside Afghanistan for Afghan girls.

Click here to make a donation.

As you know, the situation in Afghanistan remains grim, particularly for women. This week Najia Sediqi, the head of the women’s affairs department for eastern Laghman province was shot and killed. And, a new United Nations Report released on December 11, 2012, finds that three years after a law protecting women was enacted, “Afghan women are frequent victims of abuse,” and “the overall use of the law remained low, indicating there is still a long way to go before women and girls in Afghanistan are fully protected from violence through the law.” Click here to read a news article about the UN report.

RAWA continues their hard work of creating a better Afghanistan through education, literacy projects, and more. But they cannot do it without your financial solidarity. We know that there are many worthy causes vying for your hard earned dollars this holiday season. Please consider making a donation to preserve RAWA’s projects before the end of this year. Your donation is tax-deductible in the United States to the extent of the law, and may be tax-deductible in other countries as well.

Click here to make a donation.

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WHEN: Saturday December 1st, from 10 am to 3 pm
WHERE: Immanuel Presbyterian Church, 3300 Wilshire Blvd, LA CA 90005 (Geneva Room – wheelchair accessible)

Browse through a large selection of affordable, sweat-shop free arts and crafts made by artisans internationally and locally, including embroidered pillow-covers, wallets and purses from Afghanistan, locally made jewelry, blankets, scarves and tote-bags, candles, soaps, oils, fair trade coffee & honey, conscious books, CDs, and including the famous soup beans by the Women’s Bean Project…plus much more!

Afghan Women’s Mission will be a proud vendor at the 7th Annual Holiday Bazaar! We will have purses, jewelry, trinket boxes, and more, handmade from Afghanistan. All sales will benefit AWM’s important projects!

Click here to download a flyer for the event.

FREE ENTRANCE & complementary refreshments while you shop

All proceeds will directly benefit the artists and workers who made the items.

More information at www.9to5california.org. This event is organized by 9to5 Los Angeles and co-sponsored by Afghan Women’s Mission. KPFK is the media sponsor.

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On October 15, 2012, Afghan Women’s Mission Co-Director Sonali Kolhatkar was a featured guest on Huffpost Live hosted by Ahmed Shihab-Eldin. The program focused on the on-going attacks against women in Afghanistan. Other panelists included Manizha Naderi, Executive Director of Women for Afghan Women, Jean MacKenzie, correspondent with the Global Post, and Jennifer Hunt, an Army Reservist who served in Afghanistan.

The panelists were asked the following question:

Violence against women spiked to its highest level since the Taliban’s fall. Will a U.S. troop withdrawal contribute to an increase in the region’s assault on women?

Watch the video below:

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Statement on the Attack Against 14-Year-Old Malala Yousafzai
by Malalai Joya

Once again we see a crime against women by dark-minded and brutal fundamentalists. Malala Yousafzai was shot by Pakistani Taliban because she did not remain silent about the ongoing crimes and brutalities against women; because, despite her young age, she had the consciousness to stand for her rights and say ‘no’ to the terrorism and misogyny of the creatures of the Stone Age.

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Dear friends and supporters,

As may know, in December 2011, IHC, our former fiscal sponsor, lost more than $400,000 worth of donations ear-marked for RAWA’s amazing projects (for the full story, click here). Although we have found a new and wonderful fiscal sponsor, SEE, we are still reeling from this devastating blow. We are trying to rebuild, move forward, and continue our support for RAWA’s work.

Help us rebuild this Women’s History Month!

For every online donation of $100 made in March 2012, we will mail a copy of the remarkable book by Malalai Joya, A Woman Among Warlords, as our “thank you gift” to you.

This book, by one of Afghanistan’s most famous women, chronicles the history of Afghanistan, and its current precarious position, through the eyes of one courageous woman. Every $100 donation will be used toward RAWA’s life saving projects that benefit Afghan women.

Click here to donate.

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ABC Channel 7 in Los Angeles interviewed AWM Co-Director Sonali Kolhatkar about the devastating loss of funds.

Click here to watch the news story.

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Holiday bazaarWHEN: Saturday December 10th, from 11 am to 4 pm
WHERE: Immanuel Presbyterian Church, 3300 Wilshire Blvd, LA CA 90005 (Geneva Room – wheelchair accessible)

Don’t spend your hard earned dollars at the mall, buying overpriced gifts made in countries with no labor or environmental protections!

Shop with a clear conscience at our 6th Annual Fair Trade and Conscious Gifts Holiday Bazaar.

Browse through a wide selection of hand-made goods made either internationally with fair-trade standards, or locally by LA-based artists.

There will be jewelry, purses, pillow covers, and more from Afghanistan, as well as books, T-shirts, candles, soaps, oils, handicrafts, and much much more!

Click here to view our new inventory of hand-made gifts from Afghanistan, made in RAWA’s income generation projects

Download the flyer here.

Entrance is Free. There will be complementary hot coffee and tea plus delectable cookies and pastries!

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