NGOs and campaign groups

AFGHAN ORGANIZATIONS

Co-operation for Peace and Unity (CPAU) works to promote peace, social justice and awareness of human rights. Their Fight for Peace project teaches women and girls to box. www.cpau.org.af

Humanitarian Assistance for the Women and Children of Afghanistan (HAWCA) has provided support for Afghan women and children since 1999. It runs health, education and microfinance projects in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
www.hawca.org

Afghan Development Association (ADA) works with individuals, local communities and individuals to create food self-sufficiency, jobs and education chances. www.ada.org.af

Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) has been organizing since 1977. It runs social and political projects in Afghanistan and in Pakistan’s refugee camps and organizes demonstrations.
www.rawa.org

Afghan Women Skills Development Council (AWSDC) provides education and shelter to Afghan women and children.
www.awsdc.org

Human Rights Research & Advocacy Consortium (HRRAC) is a group of 14 Afghan and international organizations committed to promoting peace and human rights. Field research, capturing the voices of Afghans, forms the basis of advocacy campaigns.
www.afghanadvocacy.org.af

Organization for Promoting Afghan Women’s Capabilities (OPAWC) is run by parliamentarian (and warlord critic) Malalai Joya and funds medical teams, schools and literary projects.
www.geocities.com/OPAWC

INTERNATIONAL

AfghanAid has worked alongside Afghan communities for over 20 years, focusing on long term sustainable development in rural areas. Projects include micro-finance for women, empowerment for girls, health and education projects. www.afghanaid.org.uk

SAWA-Australia raises funds for human rights, education, nutrition, health and safety of Afghan women and children in Pakistan and Afghanistan. It supports a vocational training centre for war widows in Kabul.
www.sawa-australia.org

Womankind works in partnership with three Afghan women’s organizations to promote civil, social, economic and political participation and to address violence against women.
www.womankind.org.uk

Afghanistan Justice Project (AJP) is an independent research and advocacy organization whose objective is to document serious war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by all of the parties. www.afghanistanjusticeproject.org

Canadian Peace Alliance is calling for withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan www.acp-cpa.ca

Amnesty International highlights abuses in Afghanistan and campaigns for human rights.
www.amnesty.org

Human Rights Watch has produced hard-hitting reports on the current political situation.
www.hrw.org

International Committee of the Red Cross/Red Crescent (ICRC) runs programmes for landmine victims and visits people detained by Afghan and NATO authorities. www.icrc.org

Books

Descent into Chaos: How the war against Islamic extremism is being lost in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia by Ahmed Rashid (Penguin, 2008);
Afghanistan: The Mirage of Peace by Chris Johnson and Jolyon Leslie (Zed, new edition 2008);

Bleeding Afghanistan; Washington, warlords and the propaganda of silence by Sonali Kolhatkar and James Ingalls (Seven Stories Press, 2006);
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hossein (Bloomsbury, 2003)

Web

Institute of War and Peace Reporting has the excellent Afghan Recovery Report (and runs a programme for training local journalists) on
www.iwpr.org

Also for news see
www.afghanpress.org

and RAWA News on
www.rawa.org/temp/runews/

For a lively (and argumentative) ‘Afghan-oriented’ site see
www.afghanonline.com

Kabul blogger Nasim Fekrat is worth checking out on
www.afghanlord.org

This article is from the November 2008 issue of New Internationalist.

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