Opening a new era for the women of Afghanistan

© David Snyder/ Counterpart International

By Jennifer O'Riordan

Palwasha Saboori is an example of what an empowered woman in Afghanistan can achieve. After seeing the plight of marginalized women, Palwasha left her full-time government job and established the  Association for Defence of Women’s Rights (ADWRO).

A strong and independent young woman, Palwasha says: “Though I am a young woman and also a wife, I have no problem working in Afghanistan. I think that intelligent men cannot solve women’s legal cases, but I can.”

Palwasha learned how to turn her idea into reality, including applying for grants, connecting with donors and developing programs, with the direct support of the Afghan Civil Society Forum (ACSFo) and Counterpart International as part of the Initiative to Promote Afghan Civil Society (I-PACS). ACSFo is one of seven organizations that form part of Counterpart’s I-PACS strategy to strengthen civil society in Afghanistan.

Today, Palwasha’s organization conducts training, education and awareness programs on how to prevent the exploitation of Afghan women and children.

Since Palwasha founded ADWRO  five years ago, the organization has expanded from one location and now has three offices in Kabul, as well as one in each of the provinces of Parwan, Kepisa, Jalalabad, Mazar-e Sharif and Badakhshan. She has a staff of 56.

“Now we have a safe-house in Kabul city where we keep women and children who are fleeing exploitation,” she says. “Then we solve their legal problems and maintain contact with their families.”

Developing Women’s Role

There was a time when Afghan women were able to attend college and work in medicine, law and many other professions. 

However, when Taliban rule took hold in 1996, all of this changed. Girls were not permitted to attend school after the age of 12, and in some regions were not allowed to continue schooling at any level. Intelligent, skilled women were forced to suppress their talents and those who had yet to develop their strengths were denied the opportunity, and the right to do so.

As Afghanistan enters a new era, people are realizing the potential of one of the country’s biggest untapped development resources – women.

“Women are capable, as capable as men, of contributing in every conceivable way, in all walks of life,” says Mary Fontaine, Senior Gender Advisor with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Fontaine has followed women’s issues in the region since the late 1970s.

From the time Counterpart launched the USAID-funded I-PACS in 2005, it was clear that addressing the role of women in Afghan society was going to be a huge part of the program. Today, half of the major organizations working with Counterpart are either women-led or women-focused.

Encouraging women to get involved in the development process remains an essential component of Counterpart’s work in Afghanistan as the USAID-backed I-PACS program moves through its second phase.

Women are being given the opportunity to show how they can help shape the future of Afghan civil society. Counterpart’s programs also reach women who are homemakers, trying to raise their level of education.

The Afghan Women’s Education Center (AWEC) is an organization that combines vocational training with advocacy and participation for girls and women. Like ACSFo, today it is an Intermediate Service Organization (ISO) that directly supports civil society growth.

“In the beginning, we were just an educational center that focused on illiterate women and girls,” says Hafizullah Sajid, who is AWEC’s I-PACS program manager. Now, AWEC also “tries to engage women in the political process – or at least make their voice and comments heard in the decision-making process.”

Getting them into the process also means providing basic and vocational education. Afghanistan has one of the highest illiteracy rates in the world. In rural areas, where three-fourths of all Afghans live, 90 percent of women and more than 60 percent of men are illiterate, according to the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.

“If you educate a female, you educate [an] entire family,” says Nazir Ahmad Mohmand, Country Director of Basic Education and Employable Skill Training (BEST), which is supported by Counterpart through the I-PACS program. “If you educate a family, you change an entire country,” he says.

Ramin Nouroozi, Counterpart’s Director of Community Policy and Engagement in Kabul, agrees: “If mothers in Afghanistan take this issue seriously, I’m sure that we will have a very speedy movement to our development.”

USAID’s Fontaine says Afghans have become more accepting of educating women, with 70 percent of them approving of young girls attending school. That is almost double the “critical mass” of public opinion that is needed in order to ensure that a concept like education for girls becomes an accepted practice, she adds.

Reaching Out to Afghan Men

Providing women with skills and education is essential to Afghanistan’s development. Raising awareness among the population of that role is one of I-PACS’s goals.

Hassan Enzergul, a day laborer from the Eastern province of Ghazni, is married and has three daughters. After participating in an awareness program in his village, including workshops on the position of women in Afghan society and Islamic traditions, Hassan learned that education and medical care were among women’s most basic rights.

“I didn’t let my elder daughter go to school, because we didn’t deem this important for the girls. And I did not let my wife go out of our home,” Hassan explains. “I am now convinced that this is not consistent with Islam. It is too late for my elder daughter, but I intend to enroll my younger daughters in school.”

Enzergul’s attitude also changed regarding the roles of other women in his family saying, “In the past we didn’t let women vote, but in this election, my wife and my sisters all participated. I led and took them myself to the polling center. We all voted.”

“Many people have benefitted” from the workshops, he continued. “Most of them, like me, didn’t know, just didn’t understand, that it is right for women and girls to get an education and to participate.”

The views of community leaders, especially village elders in rural areas of Afghanistan, weigh heavily on Afghans and strongly impact community behavior. Counterpart and its local partner organizations make a conscious effort to reach out to these village elders and engage their support for local efforts.

USAID’s Fontaine agrees with this strategy. “Everyone has to go through the elders, the gatekeepers I call them. The elders, the mullahs, the fathers, those men who have control over what happens in their villages,” she says. “You have to go through them, but I think when framing our request properly they’re open to it. Many, many, many are open to it.”

January 4th, 2012 | Tags: Afghanistan, civil society, equity, gender, IPACS, IPACS II, women | Category: Impact Stories | Leave a comment

Civil Society steps up in Afghanistan

I-PACS seeks to create a sustainable civil society sector

© David Snyder/ Counterpart International

By  Maggie Farrand and Michael J. Zamba

Two decades ago, the Afghan Women’s Education Center (AWEC) focused on providing refugees flowing into Pakistan with basic literacy skills. When the Taliban regime fell in 2001, the organization moved into Afghanistan and opened an elementary school and a high school.

While those educational services continue, AWEC has expanded its role to also include advocating for the rights of women and girls. “When the government wants to make a decision,” says AWEC’s I-PACS program manager Hafizullah Sajid, “civil society has to put pressure on it and advocate for the benefit of the people.”

Public policy advocacy is a vital step for civil society that will eventually improve conditions for the country’s citizens, experts say.

Ramin Nouroozi, Director of Community and Policy Engagement at Counterpart International’s office in Kabul, says non-governmental organizations like AWEC are moving from “first-generation” NGOs—which provide only services to their communities—to “second-generation” NGOs, who expand their portfolios to include public policy work and even train fellow groups.

He describes these second-generation NGOs as the bridge between the people and their government. “Civil society is the voice of the people,” he says.

Maiwand Rahyab, Counterpart’s Acting Country Director, believes civil society’s role in public policy is essential to development since it ensures pluralism. “I define civil society as groups of people, organizations and communities who gather together to achieve a common goal, without having any personal interest,” he says.

Creating a modern civil society sector is a colossal undertaking. Through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) funded Initiative to Promote Afghan Civil Society (I-PACS), which started in 2005, Counterpart is playing a role in creating and promoting a broader and deeper civil society infrastructure that serves the true needs of the Afghan people.

“When citizens participate, you end up with stronger policies, stronger programs and a government that’s better aligned with the needs of the communities and the country,” explains Joan Parker, Counterpart’s President and CEO. “Civil society in Afghanistan is essential because it allows the citizens at the community level, at the provincial level, all the way up to the national level, to engage and be a part of deciding their own future.”

Aziz Rafiee, Executive Director of the Afghan Civil Society Forum (ACSFo), one the many NGOs supported by Counterpart’s I-PACS program, sees hope for his country’s future as a burgeoning civil society emerges and Afghans find their voice.

“The involvement of Afghan people today in the political arena is remarkable,” he says. “Never in the history of Afghanistan have we experienced this kind of participation.”

Civil society is building trust among Afghans and demonstrating how it can be another channel through which citizens may have their voices heard, says the head of ACSFo, which is a partner in Counterpart’s I-PACS  program.

Civil Society Reborn

Under the Taliban, the voice of Afghan citizens was stifled. In fact, any attempt to organize was met with swift opposition. Afghans were left powerless; the Taliban had complete control.

When the regime fell in 2001, Afghanistan’s new leaders realized that if they were going to succeed, the establishment of a vibrant civil society sector needed to rise to the top of the country’s priority list.

In 2004, a new NGO law was ratified, marking a huge stride forward for the legitimacy and visibility of Afghan civil society organizations. With support from Counterpart, Afghan NGOs provided significant input for that law, which officially gives them the legal right to organize and operate non-governmental organizations dedicated to serving the people’s needs.

Since that law took effect, there has been dramatic growth in civil society. Today, Afghanistan is home to nearly 1,550 officially registered organizations.

“The state of civil society in the past nine years has changed enormously and dramatically,” says Rafiee. “The level of understanding of civil society among the people and the level of involvement of civil society in both policy and advocacy has been remarkable.”

Obstacles Facing NGOs

Despite NGO’s legal status, they face a number of obstacles when operating in Afghanistan. As for all Afghans, the lack of security continues to be the number one issue for NGOs.

“The security situation has worsened since 2010, especially in Kunduz,” says Malika Qanih, Director of the Educational Training Center for Poor Women and Girls (ECW). “If a suicide attack occurs near our office, we have to close for two days.”

Fortunately ECW, which works in nearly a dozen provinces and is a Counterpart partner, has not yet shutdown any programs because of these concerns.

ACSFo’s Rafiee says the lack of security in some regions has a direct impact on NGOs’ ability to serve their communities.

“In the areas where we are having security problems and concerns, the development and the involvement is lower than the areas where adequate security is available,” says Rafiee.

Rahela Malekzad and her organization have faced these security issues in villages. As a gender trainer for the Legal and Cultural Services for Afghan Women and Children (LCSAWC), they have gone into communities to disseminate information on voting and other issues.

“Villages have many security problems,” she says. “But Afghans are brave. God has said in the Holy Quran that the one working to promote education and who makes sacrifices will be rewarded. With the help of God, our beliefs and courage, we went into these insecure areas.”

In general, NGOs have good reputations and use strategies to overcome local obstacles, says Nazir Ahmad Mohmand, Director of Basic Education and Employment Skills Training (BEST). “When they work in the community’s language and culture, as well as hiring people who are trustworthy, hardworking and dependable, they don’t face negative perceptions,” he says.

Another obstacle to working with communities is the lack of basic education.

In the rural areas of Afghanistan, illiteracy rates are very high – in some places it can reach 90 percent. To help inform and engage the population in these rural communities, NGOs like Counterpart and its partners use radio campaigns, broadcasted roundtables and public dialogues to reach out.

Money is also a problem facing civil society. Foreign assistance supports some of the larger organizations, while smaller groups are trying to develop a pipeline of donors. One of Counterpart’s methods for addressing this need is by prioritizing “private giving” providing a detailed analysis of ways to leverage private giving options and to introduce the concept to both civil society stakeholders and government.

As part of Counterpart’s I-PACS program, experts are working with civil society organizations to help them create strategies to make them financially strong and attractive to donors.

January 4th, 2012 | Tags: Afghanistan, civil society, governance, IPACS, IPACS II, organizational development, organizations, USAID | Category: Impact Stories | Leave a comment

Telecommunications provides long-distance healthcare in Thiès, Senegal

Josephine Trenchard, Counterpart Country Director, and Lewis Lukens, U.S. Ambassador to Senegal.

by Jennifer O'Riordan

Patients in Thiès’ rural areas now have access to a new method of medical treatment. In 2010, the regional hospital in Thiès, which is 60 kilometers east of the capital Dakar, purchased “telemedicine” equipment, medical technology used to provide healthcare from a distance.

The technology allows the hospital to reach out to patients via live video streaming, increasing the amount of consultations it provides to rural patients. With video link capabilities, doctors at the hospital can now discuss symptoms and treatment with patients, saving hundreds of people the burden and cost of a long trip to Thiès’ regional hospital. 

With funding from USAID’s Food for Peace (FFP) program, Counterpart constructed a new facility that not only houses the telemedicine center, but also accommodates conferences and internal meetings that previously had to take place outside the close-quartered compound – all at an extra fee that added financial pressure to the hospital’s budget.

At an October 17 dedication ceremony at the Thiès Regional Hospital, Counterpart, USAID and the Government of Senegal officially opened the telemedicine center for Thiès residents, particularly those living with HIV/AIDS.

Already, the University in Thiès has signed an agreement to regularly rent out the center for meetings and classes, and discussions with similar groups are taking place. The hospital intends to share this income with local groups who support those living with HIV and AIDS.

“What we really appreciate about this project is the possibility to continue care and support activities for people living with HIV/AIDS in the long term due to funds generated from the telemedicine and conference center rental,” says Medoune Diop, Counterpart’s Deputy Country Director in Senegal.

The local Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) was having trouble finding places to hold group discussions and training activities due to a lack of privacy at most out-door meeting places. At the new conference center, PLWHAs can hold their meetings regularly without fear of stigmatization. 

Once regular rentals begin, catering for this facility will be managed by an Economic Interest Group made up of PLWHAs that Counterpart trained in cooking techniques.  Several PLWHA group members will also be hired as full time cleaning staff for the facility.

“The donation of this facility by the United States will be hugely beneficial to the people of Thiès,” said U.S. Ambassador Lewis Lukens, who attended the dedication ceremony. “It will help bring care to hundreds of people who otherwise could not access it, while helping to meet the financial needs of the hospital.”

Zema Semunegus, USAID/Food For Peace team Leader, the President of Thiès Regional Council, Mr. Idrissa Camara, and Mr. Mamadou Sow, National Director of Health Structures joined other government representatives at the October 17 event.

Counterpart has a history in the Thiès region. Since 2005, through the Food For Peace, program, Counterpart has distributed more than 384 metric tons of food to the region’s nine health districts. In addition to food commodities, the organization has also provided nutritional counseling for residents of the nine districts, specifically for people living with HIV and AIDS.

Augmented by home and intra-hospital visits and group discussions, these sessions have helped reduce malnutrition rates among people living with HIV and AIDS from 59.60 percent in 2003 to just 7.4 percent in 2011. The region’s HIV rate of 0.4 percent is even lower than the national average of 0.7. However, in some districts, such as Mbour, the HIV rate can be as high as 2 percent.

November 14th, 2011 | Tags: Government of Senegal, HIVAIDS, Senegal, telemedicine, USAID | Category: Impact Stories | Leave a comment

Digital Teaching Improves Quality of Instruction in Turkmenistan

Yazjemal Rejepova, a teacher and aspirant of Polytechnic Institute discuss the ways of digitizing their paper materials with colleagues and PICTT staff at the Internet Center for Interactive Multimedia Learning

By Maggie Farrand

Until recently, access to interactive e-learning classes was only a dream for students of the Turkmen State Polytechnic Institute. Traditional teaching methods – books and lectures – were all the students had.

With the recent introduction of new e-learning technology, the gap between antiquated classroom teaching and new technological advancements is gradually closing.

Yazjemal Rejepova, a graduate student and teacher in the Economics and Finance Department at the college, believes it is essential to bring e-learning to her classroom. And other teachers from different Turkmen universities feel the same.

Throughout November and December 2010, Rejepova mastered the Internet skills, smart board, Movie Maker and CourseLab software required for the e-learning system.

Upon completion of these training courses, she developed and piloted a digital course: the “Basics of Entrepreneurship” at the Polytechnic Institute.

Development of this course was supported by the Promotion of Information and Communication Technologies in Turkmenistan (PICTT) program, which is funded by the US Agency for International Development.

50 students enroll

As a result, 50 students of the institute are now learning about Turkmenistan business opportunities through an interactive electronic course involving video and audio aids.

“CourseLab is an e-learning authoring tool that offers a programming free environment for creating high-quality interactive e-learning content which can be published on the Internet, Learning Management Systems (LMS), CD-ROMS and other devices,” says the course trainer.

 “We used to listen to long lectures before,” said a group of students when asked about the new digital way of learning. “But now we attend multimedia classes with audio and video materials, prepared by our teacher.”

Today, the introduction of this interactive style of teaching has already had a great effect in classrooms – students show more interest in class and find it easier to grasp the difficult theoretical concepts of business, teachers say.

More e-learning opportunities

PICTT plans to continue collaborating with the teachers of the Polytechnic Institute with the aim of increasing the number of digital teaching curricula in Turkmen language and the quality of education available through e-learning.

At a recent conference – “Science, Engineering, and Innovative Technologies in the Epoch of Great Revival" – officials from several Turkmen universities and ministries admired the technology and expressed an interest in adapting and applying these tools to their own work.

 “Is there any chance we could create a similar e-records system, including the database of teachers entirely in Turkmen language?” asked Baba Zahyrov, Rector at the Turkmen State Institute of International Relations,

The PICTT program is implemented by IREX through Counterpart International’s Global Civil Society Strengthening Leader with Associates.

August 26th, 2011 | Tags: e-learning, IREX, PICTT, technology, Turkmenistan | Category: Impact Stories | Leave a comment

Training the Trainers in Vietnam

By David Snyder

Though a qualified medical doctor with the Hanoi Red Cross, Dr. Nga Nguyen Hang says that Vietnam’s medical schools only teach emergency medicine to those who are going to specialize in the field. This leaves considerable gaps in many doctor’s skills when it comes to trauma care.

“In medical school we don’t focus on things like injuries unless we want to work in an emergency room,” Dr. Hang explains. “There are many branches in medical school, just like in hospitals, but we don’t all have specific emergency room training.”

With traffic accident-related injuries on the rise, Counterpart wanted to address this issue as part of its Vietnam Injury Control Program, which took place from 2001-2009.

In keeping with its mission to empower local communities to sustain their own development, Counterpart linked up with the Hanoi Red Cross to train a select group of doctors and nurses in injury treatment and prevention.

“The doctors and nurses who work in the Red Cross system do not work in the hospitals,” explains Duc Pham My, Head of Administration with the Hanoi Red Cross. “It would have been difficult to train hospital staff, but we could easily reach our own staff with trainings.”

Those chosen from within the organization to become trainers were carefully selected based on a number of criteria to help ensure their success in the program.

“They needed to have medical backgrounds and to be on the management board of the Association,” continues Pham My. “They also needed to have some level of communication skills.”

Once trained, that group then went on to serve as the core training group for hundreds of community volunteers and local motorbike taxi drivers, known as Xe Om, giving them valuable skills in First Aid and injury prevention.

As Chairman of the District Red Cross Association in Hanoi’s Thanh Xuan District, Dr. Hang was among the core group of 12 medical professionals selected for the specialized skills training.

“There were three or four training courses, and each was ten days long,” Dr. Hang says. “I was trained in first aid techniques such as how to stop bleeding and how to deal with broken bones. I was also trained in how to teach others those techniques. We focused on skills like how to present information and how to listen to others.”

Once trained, Dr. Hang herself became a teacher, instructing over 200 local volunteers and Xe Om drivers in First Aid through the successful Safe Fleet Project. However, they did not just educate Vietnam’s taxi drivers; they also brought the training program to local youth and children.

“The Injury Prevention Program was also conducted in ten schools in the district, so I trained teachers from those schools,” says Dr. Hang. “Every year now I still provide training for teachers and students in injury prevention.” 

For Dr. Hang, the skills she acquired during her training in 2006 have helped her become not only a better medical professional, but also a better teacher – skills she continues to use each year through her job at the Red Cross.

By educating youth and children about road safety and First Aid at a young age, the hope is that  they will carry this knowledge with them and become safer drivers on Vietnam’s already crowded streets.

Though the actual project has ended, its impact continues to live on.

“It may be hard to measure if injury rates have gone down in a city like Hanoi, but with the additional training of medics and the assistance of the Xe Om Safe Fleet, the care that accident victims receive has certainly improved.”

July 18th, 2011 | Tags: accidents, first aid, Hanoi, Red Cross, roads, safety, taxis, Vietnam, Xe Om | Category: Impact Stories | Leave a comment