Building A Voice For Women: One Club Makes A Difference

UWHAW began by learning as much as possible about the lives of the women they wanted to support, talking first to the military as Canadians were still deployed in Kandahar when the group began. They read books and reports from international organisations, heard lectures at Ottawa’s three universities and the Aga Khan Foundation, tapped into NGO stories, met with diplomats and development workers and listened to Afghans, both students and recently arrived immigrants to Canada. From this base of knowledge they felt they had a viable voice to advocate for these women. UWHAW has advocated for these women internationally, including at GWI in Istanbul, at the United Nations (UN) Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in New York City, at the American Association of University Women (AAUW) in Connecticut, at CFUW AGMs, at the AGM of Women Graduates-USA and at the Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan (CW4W Afghan) Symposium and AGM in Harrison Hot Springs, British Colombia. Concerned particularly with post-secondary education, UWHAW was attracted to the Gawharshad Institute. The student mix, which covers all religions and ethnicities, includes the highest percentage of female students in institutions of higher education in Afghanistan. At Gawharshad the classes are mixed, a quite exceptional circumstance, and the importance of human rights for all is threaded throughout the curriculum. Tuition, a reasonable $600 per year, makes the goal of post-secondary education a possibility. Supporting the girls at Gawharshad as they work towards their dreams has been a life-enhancing experience for many CFUW-Ottawa members as well as for the Gawharshad girls and their families.