Libraries for Afghanistan

Libraries for Afghanistan
Literacy for Life

The goal of the "Libraries for Afghanistan " project is to raise funds to purchase books for libraries in Afghanistan. This project was spearheaded by our affiliated group, Canadians in Support of Afghan Women (CSAW) in Oakville, working collaboratively with CW4WAfghan members across Canada. Donations received from Canadians will be placed in the Library Fund managed by CW4WAfghan's national office in Calgary, Alberta. When sufficient funds become available, a contract will be established for supplying books to schools and libraries in Afghanistan.

CW4WAfghan has a history of working effectively with small women-centred non-governmental organizations as well as a strong network of Afghan women in Afghanistan to ensure projects are managed effectively (see PROJECTS). 100% of donations made by Canadian donors to "Libraries for Afghanistan" will go towards resources for libraries in Afghanistan.

To download a copy of the Libraries For Afghanistan pamphlet, please click here.

HOW YOU CAN HELP?

By donating $25, $50, $75, $100 or more! Please follow instructions under DONATE NOW and note on the memo line or your cheque: Library Fund

ENDORSEMENTS:

Sally Armstrong UNICEF’s special representative to Afghanistan, internationally award winning journalist and author. During one of her many trips to Afghanistan, Sally listened to an Afghan woman explaining how learning to read completely changed her life.

“I used to be blind. I cannot read, so I cannot see what is going on.”

Deb Ellis Governor General award winning author and founder of CW4WAfghan
“The same human species capable of horrendous acts of cruelty and destruction also created libraries, which are pure kindness, dignity and beauty. To have access to a library is to have access to all the thoughts and dreams of everyone who ever lived. A library tells us that we are not alone and never have been.”

Rachna Gilmore Governor General award winning children’s author
“At an immediate level, books uplift, entertain and inspire. At a deeper and more significant level, books nurture that vital creative spark within each of us that enables us to dream – I heartily endorse this project.”

Rukhsana Khan Children’s author and storyteller.
“To me the fundamental difference between the first world and the third world, is that in the first world knowledge is free. All you need to access it is a library card. In order to provide real hope in countries like Afghanistan, we must establish libraries. They will create avenues through which people can pull themselves out of both ignorance and poverty.”

Michele Landsberg National Award Winning Columnist, one of Canada's leading Feminists, Author and Activist in Progressive Causes.

"Books celebrate the range of life possibilities and delight the reader with the extended variety of human experience. Just as a child beginning to read is about to embark on a long voyage in self realization, so too are Afghan girls and women."

The Project Historical Background:

Afghanistan has endured war for the last quarter century. From the invasion of the Soviets, to the Civil War, to the Taliban and finally to the U.S. bombing of Al Qaeda, the people of Afghanistan have endured the loss of loved ones and the destruction of their country. Afghan women have endured extreme oppression through the denial of their basic human rights. Until recently, the Taliban rulers denied women and girls the right to education, the right to access health care and the right to make a living. Although progress is happening under the interim government, women and girls are still experiencing some of the same Taliban like restrictions imposed by some of the former warlords.

Over the years, the war against the people of Afghanistan has also been a war against the books of Afghanistan. Bombing has reduced libraries to rubble. Books that escaped the bombing were burned by the Taliban and by the other tribal warlords who ran the country during the civil war. Millions of Afghan women and children have returned to school in the past two years. However, lack of funding, security and available resources, such as books and libraries, are still restricting their education.