Women for Afghan Women had a successful fundraising event for School of Hope at the Huntington Town House in Long Island on Friday, May 31st, 2002.  The event started with a prayer by an Afghan mother, Najeba Ahmady, and was followed by Homaira Mamoor, WAW Board Member and the event's organizer, welcoming everyone. Masuda Sultan, WAW's Program Coordinator, introduced WAW's mission and accomplishments.

The evening included a presentation by Lida Ahmady, Executive Board Member of School of Hope.  Zolaykha Sherzad, President of School of Hope, presented developments of her project from her recent trip to Afghanistan and showed video clips of School of Hope.

Our keynote speaker, Sima Wali, President/CEO of Refugee Women in Development (REFWID) and WAW Advisory Committee Member, gave a dynamic speech about recent conditions and ongoing reconstruction in Afghanistan.

The night came alive with a musical performance by Ustad Mahwas, legendary, Afghan singer, song writer, Chatran Sahni, tabla player, and Afghan singer, Kaliq Aziz. The guests enjoyed delicious Afghan food prepared by Rashid Kairzada, Afghan caterer.

We thank all the volunteers from WAW and SOH for their dedication and hard work to making this night a success.  And a big thank you to all of our generous supporters who attended this event or made a donation and helped us raise $10,500, surpassing our original fundraising goal!

School of Hope (www.sohope.org) was founded in June 2000, and its first project is to support 2 exhisting schools for the girls and boys of Ghazni with a total of 1,200 students.  The $10,500 raised at WAW's benefit are going towards getting School of Hope's first project off the ground by providing funding for decent teacher salaries, student supplies and improvement of the physical building.