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Since 2001,Women for Afghan Women (WAW) has become the largest organization for Afghan women and children globally, and the largest women’s organization in Afghanistan. To date, WAW has provided protection, safety, and loving care to over 33,000 clients as well as 150,000 family members, and educated over 333,000 individuals from all walks of life on women’s rights. The organization has grown from being volunteer-run when it was founded to now employing over 750 staff members, the vast majority of whom are Afghan and female. Today, WAW provides life-saving and life-changing programs and services for women and children through 32 centers and broad-reaching programs in 14 provinces across Afghanistan. The vast majority of our clients in Afghanistan have endured human rights violations, including forced and underage marriage, rape, forced prostitution, unlawful imprisonment, and barred access to education and employment. WAW’s New York Community Center (NYCC) in Fresh Meadows, Queens, New York is a lifeline for the local Afghan-American, Muslim-American, as well as Afghan and Muslim immigrant and refugee communities, providing families with critical case management services, educational empowerment, youth leadership programming, and legal support. The NYCC is also active in mobilizing the community, organizing events, networking with partners, and coalition-building. The Center has expanded to serve South Asian and Muslim immigrant groups through its cultural and language competencies in English, Farsi/Dari, Pashto, Urdu, Hindi, Arabic, and Spanish. Over 5,000 clients from this isolated and often underserved population have benefited from WAW’s services since the NYCC was established in 2003. WAW’s Advocacy Office was established in 2014 and is situated strategically in Washington, DC. The program works tirelessly to ensure that Afghan women and girls’ voices and stories are heard by United States legislators and policymakers so that focus stays on the need to preserve gains and advance the progress made by women in Afghanistan. WAW’s Advocacy Office also seeks to inform US and international policy as it impacts Afghan women and girls, and works to pursue the protection and promotion of women’s rights around the world.
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