| Our Past, Present, and Future |
Overview A two-year ethnographic research project, housed in the American Studies Program and the Department of Ethnic Studies, began defining the history of Afghan refugees in the San Francisco Bay Area, Afghan American identity, the comparative constructions of gender within that identity, and patterns of oppression and repression within the immigrant community. Preliminary findings, accomplished through extensive dialogic processes and participant observation, uncovered numerous forms of neediness within the local Bay Area Afghan immigrant community, Afghan refugees in Pakistan, and repatriated Afghan war widows living in Afghanistan. Melanie Gadener, the undergraduate student researcher conducting the study, met Shahla Arsala, an Afghan widow living in Fremont, CA. With the guidance and assistance of Arsala, Gadener began volunteering in U.S. Afghan immigrant communities, while exploring ways to address the needs of Afghan widow refugees in the U.S. and Afghanistan. Before returning to school, Gadener, a welfare-to-work mother, spent several years advocating for disadvantaged and underrepresented populations as a staffing industry profit center manager, then as a business performance improvement coach and consultant. Gadener had a vision that the corportate business models she developed for capacity building and career self-reliance could be modified into programs that served Afghan widows in need. Then, in March 2004, Gadener met Heba Tarzi (the new Associate Director of the Widows Research and Support Center), when Tarzi came to the U.S. as a participant in the Afghan Women Leadership Exchange Program. Realizing that they shared a passion for servicing widows in Afghanistan, Arsala, Tarzi and Gadener designed a pilot program called Grants for Self-Reliance (GSR). By August 2004, after Tarzi returned to Afghanistan, she, Gadener, and Arsala, now an FSR Advisory Board member, launched the GSR program. Our first grantees consisted of a group of five extremely indigent war widows and their children. In June 2005, as the program slowly grew, Tarzi recruited and trained our current project liaison and new Director of the Widows Research and Support Center, Nargis Aini. The GSR program provides short-term grants to help pay for basic education, vocational training, childcare, transportation expenses, and supplies for the widows to begin home-based businesses. Typical home-based business are constructed around food and sewing projects. We work individually with each woman to help her move toward economic independence, step-by-step. 2006-2007 Over the past two years, we have kept the GSR program small, as we find successful ways to make the program more efficient and productive. After seeing how our grants program improved the lives of a dozen women and 40 of their children, we decided it was time to expand our outreach to include more widows in our project. Morever, Zuhra, one of our grant recipients who used her grant money to establish a literacy program, needed more space to expand her project and reach out to others. Hence, in May 2006, we established the Widows Research and Support Center which will help us centralize and expand the services we offer in Kabul. FSR is in the process of formally Registering to do business in Afghanistan. Throughout the coming year, the Widows Research and Support Center expects to service: (i) at least 25 widows and their children through the GSR program, and (ii) at least 50 widows in our literacy classes, run by Zuhra. In addition to expanding the GSR program, all representatives of FSR strongly believe that an ongoing, organized research effort must co-exist in order to stay abreast of changes in the community. The results of our research will continue to shape, and reshape, FSR's projects and services. It is important for us to understand the history, and ever-changing conditions of our widows’ communities, so that those who are most in need receive the appropriate assistance. Our objective in Afghanistan is to grow our programs slowly, always keeping in mind the need for sound management, and high degrees of integrity, transparency, visibility, and accountability to the governments in Afghanistan and the United States. Grants for Self-Reliance (GSR) Program Description HOW DOES GSR WORK?
Widows Research and Support Center In May 2006, we opened a bank account with Kabul Bank, rented two small rooms, and officially opened the Widows Research and Support Center in Taimany, Kabul. Narigs Aini is serving as the Center’s new Director; Heba Tarzi serves as the Associate Director; and Fatima Nerow, an FSR Advisory Board member serves as the Program Manager. Mrs. Nerow, who has dual citizenship in Afghanistan and America, will be traveling to Afghanistan on an annual basis to help oversee the Kabul-based programs. As U.S. travel Visas and additional funding becomes available, Ms. Aini and Ms. Tarzi will be visiting FSR’s U.S. office for supplementary training and mentoring. Likewise, when funds are available, other U.S.-based representatives will visit our Center in Kabul. Because travel expenses are quite costly, the bulk of management and administrative support for the new Center is being provided on a daily basis through the Internet and the telephone. Employing the Internet to its greatest capacity permits FSR to: (i) streamline administrative processes, (ii) keep overhead expenses to a bare minimum; and (iii) provide 24/7 services across multiple time zones. The Widows Research and Support Center will function as the central location where we will coordinate and administer our Grants for Self-Reliance Program, Zuhra’s Literacy Classes, and our Kabul-based research. WHAT IS THE SECRET BEHIND OUR SUCCESS? Consistency, accountability, and strong doses of guidance and encouragement. We at FSR believe that with a little bit of assistance, each woman can succeed. While we closely monitor the continuing eligibilty of each grantee, our international network of women mentors provide one-on-one self-reliance coaching and guidance. Our mentors are multiculturally sensitive women who have achieved their own self-reliance by developing the skills necessary to effectively overcome extreme hardships in their own lives. Our mentors are dedicated to helping other disadvantaged women succeed. Literacy Program Zuhra, our FSR Literacy Program coordinator in Kabul, is a professional teacher and war widow with four children. In October 2004, when she applied to our Grants for Self-Reliance (GSR) program, Zuhra had a dream. She wanted to use her teaching skills to begin a literacy course for poverty-stricken widows in Kabul. By February 2005, Zuhra saved enough grant money to buy a white board, books, and supplies, and begin her classes. Today, Zuhra's literacy classes are a huge success. Although she runs her classes on a meager budget, Zuhra’s FSR literacy program continues to flourish due to her extraordinary passion, sound management, and extended outreach to those who seek an opportunity to learn. Zuhra will be teaching her classes at the new Widows Research and Support Center where she will be expanding the number of girls and aged women she serves. Academic Research New transnational research collaborations are being built by Melanie Gadener, a PhD Student at UC Berkeley, CA, and Heba Tarzi, a women’s rights activist in Kabul and fourth-year student of Literature Faculty, University of Education and Training, Kabul. Our research collaborations will focus on discovering smart and innovative ways to foster and support women’s remedial education and economic independence. Our research results will continue to shape, and reshape, FSR's projects and services. USA: 2003-2006 Overview
Afghan Freedom Quilt Launched in July 2003, the Afghan Freedom Quilt is a collaborative sewing/fundraising project that is joining the hearts and hands of local Afghan American refugee women with the hearts and hands of the women they left behind in Afghanistan. The objective of the project is to unite the hearts, voices, and cultures of women in Afghanistan and America through a collage of sewn images. Pieces sewn for the quilt represent a heartfelt interpretation of what human rights, empowerment, equality, peace, hardship, sisterhood, and/or freedom means to the individual contributor. Over the past few years, women met once or twice a month, in Fremont, CA to work on the assembly of the quilt. The quilt was finally finished on April 09, 2006. We are in the process of writing and publishing an e-booklet and CD that share photos and narratives about the women in Afghanistan who contributed squares for the quilt, and the refugee women who have been assembling the quilt in Fremont. The quilt will be making a national fundraising tour during 2007. The SEED Program and Academic Research FSR will be narrowing its U.S. based activities to focus almost exclusively on Afghan Diaspora research, and community-based education programs for Afghan American widows. In particular, we have forged a new collaboration with Narika. Narika, founded in 1992 and based in Oakland, CA, assists women in the South Asian community in the USA. Embracing the notion of women's empowerment, Narika addresses the unmet needs of South Asian women by providing advocacy, support, information, and referrals within a culturally sensitive model. Seed Program In January 2007, FSR and Narika will launch the SEED (Survivors Economic Empowerment Development) program for Afghan widows in the San Francisco Bay Area. The SEED program has been designed to foster women’s economic independence through the development of leadership skills, and the encouragement of personal and professional growth. It seeks to present women with the opportunity to become economically independent. The program consists of independent 12- week training modules. Each module begins with a formal participant needs assessment to identify strengths, goals, and tools required for professional advancement, such as ESL (English as a Second Language) or computer training. Through a series of seminars and workshops, participants are introduced to: (i) personal financial management tools, such as personal banking, record keeping, and credit management; (ii) basic computer skills, such as Windows, MS Word, introduction to the Internet; and (iii) career development skills, such as resume writing, job search, and interview preparedness. Throughout the 12 weeks, there is regular ESL support and soft skills training, such as self-esteem building, overcoming fears, and creative problem solving. Informational sessions on issues of importance to participants, such as women’s health, domestic violence, immigrant rights, worker’s rights, are part of every module. Academic Research In addition to the SEED program, ongoing applied ethnographic research will be conducted by Melanie Gadener in the UC Berkeley Ethnic Studies Graduate Group doctoral program, and the War, Women, and Dislocation Research Working Group at the Center for Race and Gender. Our research collaborations will continue to shape, and reshape, FSR's projects and services. FUNDING AND OTHER FINANCIAL MATTERS FSR is unique: almost all expenses are subsidized by donors. Corporate and individual in-kind (payment in the form of goods or services) sponsors directly subsidize nearly all fixed costs and capital expenses of FSR, including, but not limited to: office rent, utilities, telephone services, office supplies, postage, website hosting, insurance, professional services, computer equipment, telephone and fax equipment, office furniture, and vehicles. In addition, in-kind human resources support, in terms of day-to-day management and administration, are donated by professional volunteers, including but not limited to: office managers, grant writers, health and welfare specialists, business and public administration consultants, attorneys, translators, event planners, technology experts, and financial advisors. Because most of our labor and overhead costs are fully subsidized, over 95% of all donations received go directly into the hard costs of running our programs. This allows us to streamline our programs in an exceptionally cost-effective manner. Because we are a designated 501 (c) (3) nonprofit public benefit U.S. corporation, we are required, by U.S. law, to make all of our records available for public viewing. FSR maintains the highest standards of financial transparency and accountability. Fundraising During the past year, FSR has been relying on small, word-of-mouth donations. However, now that our business and administration infrastructure is securely in place, FSR is embarking on its first major fundraising efforts. FSR’s Afghan Freedom Quilt will begin a national fundraising tour to raise dollars for our new Widows Support and Research Center and our Seed Program. Professional fundraisers are launching the Afghan Freedom Quilt tour on September 09/10, 2006 during the City of Fremont’s 50th Anniversary Celebration. All donations gladly accepted! We invite you to discover some of the people working with FSR, and review our current projects.
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