Women for Afghan Women
PRESS RELEASE
March 5th, 2007
For immediate release:
Women for Afghan Women is proud to announce the opening—on March 7th, 2007-- of our new program in Kabul: The Family Guidance Center—a program to assist victims of domestic violence and abuse.
The Family Guidance Center is the first stage in a broad plan by Women for Afghan Women (WAW) to provide relief for the untold numbers of women in Afghanistan who have been abused.
We will work with women who have survived domestic violence, forced and underage marriages, rape, and other violations of their human rights. But we will also work with their families
.
WAW’s holistic approach to treating family crises is rooted in our belief that these crises are often caused by external factors that overwhelm and devastate family members. These factors include grinding poverty, unemployment, subhuman living conditions, trauma inflicted by decades of war and violence, and frustrated hope.
Violence against women is also the consequence of the pervasive illiteracy and lack of education across Afghanistan. This puts both men and women at risk of false renderings of Islamic law.
In response to these conditions the FGC will, offer group and individual counseling for husbands, wives, and children. We will also offer employment and vocational training and referrals and classes on child rearing, depression, sanitation, and nutrition. .
Our goal is to help families break the cycle of violence and develop nurturing relationships as defined by Islam.
Women for Afghan Women is a non-profit, grassroots organization based in New York and Kabul, committed to ensuring the human rights of Afghan Women. In Afghanistan we have opened literacy and vocational training classes, constructed an elementary and a middle school for 1500 girls in Herat Province, and held the critical conference in Kandahar in 2003, Women and the Constitution, that produced the Afghan Women’s Bill of Rights.
Contact:
In Afghanistan: Manizha Naderi, Director
0700 974986 or 0798 413763
Manizha26@earthlink.net
In New York: Esther Hyneman, Board Member
917-509-9490: efhyneman@aol.com
Inauguration Ceremony:
Date: March 7th, 2007
Place: Qasr Stor Hall, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kabul, Afghanistan
Speakers: Minister of Women’s Affairs, Minister of Foreign Affairs
