Women For Afghan Women

Afghan Women Rising

Afghanistan

Afghan Women Strong

Working with strategic partners and local stakeholders, Women for Afghan Women (WAW) works tirelessly to provide humanitarian aid and support services to vulnerable Afghan women, children, families, and refugee returnees and internally displaced persons.

With our partners and local stakeholders in Afghanistan WAW is supporting vulnerable populations, with a focus on women, girls, and families. We strive  to include awareness-raising, counseling, and training about Gender-Based Violence and ultimately aim to help transform prevalent norms of violence and oppression into norms that value peace, equality and dignity of life.

Working with strategic partners and local stakeholders, WAW’s ultimate goal in Afghanistan is to support vulnerable populations, particularly women and girls, and transform norms of violence and oppression into that of peace and equality.

WAW’s Work in Afghanistan

WAW’s success in Afghanistan has been rooted in its grassroots approach in the development and implementation of its programs. The organization hires locally and uses its deep knowledge and understanding of local culture, traditions, customs, and challenges to inform its programming and services.

Before the fall of Afghanistan, in August 2021, WAW operated close to 34 centers, including family guidance centers, women protection centers, and children’s support centers across 32 provinces. After the fall of the country’s former government in August 2021, WAW and all other organizations operating shelters for women in Afghanistan had to immediately shut down the majority of these centers and operations. However, WAW quickly adapted other services and programs to operate under the current, extremely challenging conditions in the country.

Due to the current security situation, and to protect staff working on the ground, we are obliged to be careful with what we share about our operations in Afghanistan. If you have any further inquiries or questions about the programs delineated below, we ask you to please contact WAW directly at office@womenforafghanwomen.org.

Afghanistan Programs 2021-2022

COMMUNITY-BASED PROTECTION MONITORING (CBPM) (18 Provinces)
For the past six years and with our long-term partner The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR ), the Community-Based Protection Monitoring (CBPM) pursues common community-based protection goals for the benefit of internally displaced persons (IDPs), IDP returnees, refugee returnees (documented and undocumented), and 10% of their host communities and serves  250,000 beneficiaries every year. The activities covered by this program include:

  • Addressing the protection risks and concerns and needs of IDPs and refugee returnees,
  • Conducting CBPM baseline and follow-up activities across 18 Afghan provinces through Focus Group Discussions (FGD), Household (HHs) and Key informants (KIs) interviews while applying an Age Gender Diversity (AGD) approach, and
  • Assessing and referring persons with special needs for assistance to UNHCR and other agencies.

PREVENTION AND RESPONSE TO GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE & INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS AND RETURNEE COMMUNITIES (PARGIRC)
(Balkh, Faryab, and Kunduz)
PARGIRC is a partnership funded by the United Nations Trust Fund that works to ensure survivors of GBV and other high-risk women and girls, refugees, and internally displaced persons in Balkh, Faryab and Kunduz have better access to basic humanitarian services. These provinces have the highest number of refugee returnees and IDPs, as well as survivors of GBV in Afghanistan. PARGIRC services include but are not limited to:

  • Medical services,
  • Mediation,
  • Psychosocial counseling, and
  • Economic empowerment.

PSYCHO-SOCIAL SUPPORT (PSS)
(Kandahar, Uruzgan, Helmand, Zabul, and Nimroz)
Also in partnership with UNHCR, WAW staff provide vulnerable community members in Kandahar and Uruzgan with intensive individual psycho-social counseling and educational sessions on critical issues, including depression, domestic violence, child protection, infectious diseases, and COVID-19.

CHILDREN’S SUPPORT CENTERS (CSCs)
(Badakhshan, Kandahar, and Balkh)
WAW’s first Children’s Support Center was established in Kabul in 2009. From 2009 until August 2021, three more CSCs were established. By 2021, 2,049 children from the ages of 5 to 18 years (961 girls and 1088 boys) of incarcerated parents had been transferred, with their parents’ consent, to WAW’s Children Support Centers from prisons across the country and lived under our care.

At WAW’s CSCs, girls and boys received round-the-clock care, counseling, tutoring, and- the eligible children were enrolled in school. They also participated in recreational activities, had clean and comfortable bedding, nutritious meals and snacks.

WAW’s CSCs are  operating in Badakhshan, Kandahar and Balkh provinces and are currently housing close to 200 childrenThe CSCs still offer the most vulnerable children an opportunity to live in a nurturing environment and escape growing up in prison. To address the impact of the current humanitarian crisis on Afghan children, WAW’s CSCs have expanded its care to orphaned and abandoned children in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan Programs 2021-2022

LOGISTICAL TECHNICAL SUPPORT (LTS)
(Kabul, Mazar, Kandahar, and Herat)
The Logistical Technical Support program is conducted in partnership with UNHCR and aims to pursue common community-based protection goals that include:

  • Creating an environment for the sustainable reintegration of IDPs and refugee returnees by strengthening essential services and facilities in Priority Areas of Return and Reintegration (PARRs), while helping foster social cohesion.
  • Reducing vulnerabilities, enhance protection, and reinforce the resilience of vulnerable populations and their host communities to cope with the current crisis, by providing logistical support to humanitarian distribution and transportation activities that include:
    • Management of warehouses in four major Afghan cities,
    • Humanitarian aid transportation fleet management and maintenance (in Kabul),
    • Coordination and liaison activities for aid transportation fleets, and
    • Information Communications Technology (ICT) management for incoming aid shipments and other logistical management in close coordination with UNHCR offices operating in every Afghan region.

TECHNICAL MONITORING
(Schools, Shelters and Clinics Construction)
WAW currently conducts technical monitoring throughout Afghanistan to assess the needs of schools. In 2022, 650 field missions led to nine new construction projects. WAW’s engineering team is also responsible for the technical monitoring for all UNHCR shelter construction in nine provinces throughout Afghanistan.

EMERGENCY AID FOOD DISTRIBUTION
(Kabul, Badakhshan, Herat, and Kandahar )
In partnership with Aseel, WAW helps provide humanitarian aid packages to families impacted by conflict in four Afghan provinces. The beneficiaries are identified by WAW staff and the packages funded by WAW. Once identified, beneficiaries are assigned a humanitarian aid distribution ID card that allows them to reach out to WAW for further assistance.

EMERGENCY AID FOR EARTHQUAKE IMPACTED FAMILIES
(Khost/Patika)
In response to the earthquakes in Afghanistan’s provinces of Khost and Paktika in June 2022, WAW teamed up, once again, with Aseel, to provide timely emergency humanitarian packages to families impacted by the natural disaster.

These care packages are tailored to meet urgent needs, including tents, blankets, food items, and personal hygiene packages, among other essential items.

The humanitarian emergency aid packages are procured and distributed by Aseel, which has developed an efficient system that is able to operate under the challenging banking, logistical, and security situation in Afghanistan, today.

CASH DISTRIBUTION ASSISTANCE
WAW conducts assessments to identify beneficiaries for the UNHCR Cash-Based Intervention Program according to criteria set by UNHCR’s Afghanistan operation. WAW plays the role of monitoring and verifying beneficiaries during the distribution process.

Impact of Afghan programs

AS OF AUGUST 2022, 123,274 INDIVIDUALS WERE SUPPORTED THROUGH WAW’S PROGRAMS IN AFGHANISTAN:

  • 94,863 individuals / 11,454 families, 1,422 returnees, and 27,427 host community members benefited from the Community-Based Protection Monitoring (CBPM) program.  They also received UNHCR’s non-food item aid (1 blanket, 2 tarps, 3 jerry cans, 4 metal buckets, cooking pots, 6 cooking gas cylinders, 7 boxes of laundry soap, 8 bars of body soap, women’s underclothing and hygiene products).
  • 1,355 clients, mostly survivors of gender-based violence (GBV), who were supported through the UN Trust Fund’s Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW) project, and provided with medical, family psychological conciliation, education supplies, and vocational skills trainings in Balkh, Faryab and Kunduz. The beneficiaries of this project include:
    • 815 GBV survivor women and girls received dignity kits.
    • 426 GBV survivor children (boys & girls) received educational supplies and school uniforms.
    • 914 GBV adult survivors received medical services.
    • 114 GBV women survivors participated in vocational and life skills (needlework/embroidery) training.
    • 80 group psychosocial counseling sessions were conducted for GBV victims/survivors.
  • 3,035 individual psychosocial counseling sessions were provided to GBV victims/survivor
  • 3,311 individuals (male and female) benefited from GBV and information dissemination sessions
  • 6,346 individuals (male and female) from different communities (formal and non-formal) attended GBV and IDS public awareness raising sessions. And their mind positively changed toward respecting women’s rights.
  • 6,527 individuals (male and female) were supported through the IDP psychosocial project.
  • 402 individuals (male and female) were provided with referrals.
  • 7,555 individuals or 1,511 families (with the average family size being 5 persons), which are victims of conflict and other terror attacks, benefited from emergency relief aids (cash & food items), through WAW’s humanitarian emergency relief projects.
  • 203 children (boys and girls) were cared for through WAW CSCs in Badakhshan, Kandahar, and Balkh.
  • Five clinics and four schools were constructed in Kandahar and Zabul through our Technical Monitoring and Construction project in partnership with UNHCR.