Take Action
Move from Acts of Charity to ACTIONS IN SOLIDARITY with Afghan Women:
Please Act Now! Review below the steps for taking action:
Download and read our suggested three Key Approaches for more information on how your efforts can be most effective. Please contact a group in your area for more information.
Become a member of CW4WAfghan; host or attend a pot luck dinner to raise funds for teachers' salaries (see FUNDRAISING). Learn about your rights; speak out to secure and protect human rights for Afghan women; raise funds, join in solidarity with social justice groups, write letters. All these and other advocacy efforts are essential to safeguard the human rights for Afghan women and to address the horrific poverty and legacy of oppression in their country.
This is a difficult question to answer the question we all contemplate: But What Can I Do? We struggle to provide concrete answers, but the reality is that there are no simple solutions to this complex issue. The conflict, poverty, and human rights issues for women in Afghanistan have to be dealt with through multiple approaches and include creative, committed efforts from many both within Afghanistan, and from the international community. Issues relating to the extreme poverty and massive resettlement of the largest refugee population in the world in Afghanistan must be addressed.
As Canadians, the very first step is to learn about and respect our own rights. Become fully aware of your rights and acknowledge that protection of human rights is everyone's responsibility. The very basic rights previously denied Afghan women--access to healthcare, education, freedom of association and security, etc.--are guaranteed to ALL people through the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Learn about the issues and strive to address the very complex elements of the issues and various perspectives, as well as the options for solutions. An excellent resource for all ages that outlines specific steps for taking action may be viewed and downloaded at http://www.amnesty.ca
Inform yourself and draw our own conclusions from a variety of sources: through human rights and women's groups, local library resources, internet web pages and discussion groups, community groups, international conferences, and so on. Explore the resources on our web site and the teachers' resource.
Raise awareness in your community, in your country. Speak out for the need to secure and protect women's rights in Afghanistan and help others learn to respect these rights. Join in solidarity with others to work towards social justice for Afghan women and their families: join local and national groups, begin a group, support larger international non-government organizations; join an email list service or discussion group, etc. Fundraise by supporting or giving presentations to schools and community groups, host dinners, organize bake sales or poster/banner making gatherings. Use your creative skills to think of other fund raising ideas.
Support projects that focus on skills training, income-generating, education, health, and other issues important in raising the dignity and quality of life for Afghan women. (See http://www.breakingbreadforwomen.com for a unique fundraising idea; Libraries for Afghanistan; give a gift donation...) Write letters or compile petitions to voice your concerns to local and national governments in Canada and UN representatives.
The following is a draft of information you can use to build upon in your own personal letters:
As a Canadian who is committed to social justice and peace building, I strongly urge the Canadian Government to consider all possible ways in which Canada can support Afghan citizens, including over 70% of the population of women and children, by pressuring NATO and key stakeholder countries such as the United States and Pakistan to deal with the corruption and abuse of economic and political power currently evident in Afghanistan.
Only with full support from the international community and a functioning government of Afghanistan which is truly accountable to its citizens will lasting peace and development be possible in Afghanistan.
