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Afghan Women
and Children's
Relief Project of Central New York
 One year ago, a group of like-minded citizens in Syracuse, New York,
responded to an email: " Who
wants to help women and children in Afghanistan?" Those of us who
heeded the call were mostly strangers to each other but it was soon
clear that we shared a common passion -- to help Afghan children
return to school and women regain their professional and personal
status. At our first meetings, each member of the group, now named the
"Afghan Women and Children's Relief Project of Central New York",
described what compelled us to join this effort and
what we hoped to accomplish. With winter approaching, we brainstormed
ideas such as sending clothes and blankets. We talked about sending
food and supplies. However, with each idea came many questions. How
would we decide what to send? How would we transport, store and
distribute the goods? What became clear is that we our intentions were
good but we had a lot to learn.
We started by using the Internet to research our topic. One site led to another and, before long, we found the website for the Center for International Disaster Information. After reading every word on their website, we contacted the Center's director, Suzanne Brooks, for more information and guidance. Ms. Brooks' advice was truly eye-opening. She gave examples of how collecting items for disaster relief has proven to be a waste of time and resources. She explained the logistical problems associated with transporting, sanitizing, storing and distributing goods in a foreign country. She enlightened us by warning against disrupting a local economy. She reinforced messages about appropriate donations (www.cidi.org/donate.htm). We learned that "cash is best." Ms. Brooks' advice quickly steered our efforts in a different direction. Ms. Brooks also directed us to InterAction (the American Council for Voluntary International Action). Their website proved to be as valuable as CIDI's in that it reinforced Ms. Brooks' advice about appropriate giving (www.interaction.org/disaster/guide_giving.html) and listed the standards that their member agencies must meet. She suggested that we read the descriptions of the member agencies and find the ones that strive to accomplish our group's goals. Within an hour, everything fell into place. Although we wanted to help every agency, we selected three of them. From there, we arranged a fundraiser which attracted more than 150 Central New Yorkers, raised several thousand dollars for our chosen agencies, and brought new volunteers to our efforts. We are gratified that we are educating our community about the needs of Afghan women and children and feel that we accomplished our goal of supporting them in their homeland. At our most recent meeting, we felt proud of what we have done, especially knowing that we went through the best channels, but quickly turned to the question of what to do next. Two of the new volunteers described the need for school supplies in Afghanistan. We all agreed that providing such supplies is a worthy effort. Our enthusiasm grew and we were tempted to immediately start collecting, but then we remembered the lessons we learned from CIDI. A conversation with Suzanne Brooks has since revealed that school supplies are available in the geographic region that we support and that the Academy for Educational Development (www.aed.org) has started the "BluePack" initiative (www.bluepack.org) Through this effort, education items, health supplies and toys for the BluePacks will be purchased in the region and assembled in Afghanistan by war widows to provide them with employment opportunities. The cost of each BluePack is ten dollars and a portion of the money raised by AED through this project will go to teacher training and other initiatives to help rebuild Afghanistan’s capacity to educate its children. The Academy for Educational Development's BluePack initiative is a perfect example of the kind of well-organized project that our volunteer group seeks to support. We are reminded that collecting supplies on our own is rife with logistical and cultural challenges, and that "cash is best". Were it not for Suzanne Brooks and the Center for International Disaster Information, we never would have known that projects like the BluePack initiative exist, need our support and are the best way to help others in need. The CIDI commends the Afghan Women and Children’s Relief Project on their excellent, meaningful work and the ability to demonstrate to other groups around the country how effective international disaster relief projects should be done. For additional information, please use the contact information above, or contact the Center for International Disaster Information at cidi@cidi.org. |