Here is the tour schedule for 2012:

• Jan 9 – 10 Philadelphia
• Jan 10 Baltimore
• Jan 11 – 15 Washington D.C.
• Jan 15 Winston – Salem
• Jan 16 – 17 Atlanta
• Jan 17 – 18 Jacksonville
• Jan 19 – 21 Disney World
• Jan 21 – 26 West Palm Beach FL
• Jan 27 – 29 Venice FL
• Feb 1 – 4 New Orleans
• Feb 5 Austin TX
• Feb 8 – 10 Phoenix AZ
• Feb 11 – 14 San Diego
• Feb 15 – 21 L.A.
• Feb 22 – 28 up coast and San Francisco
• Feb 29 – March 3 Sacramento
• March 4 – 5 Salt Lake City
• March 6 – 8 Denver
• March 9 Omaha
• March 10 – 13 Columbus
• March 14 – 18 New York

If you’d like to know about scheduled events in your area, or if you’d like to help organize a speaking engagement for the children, please contact Ian Pounds.

Read the tour journal

Ian is also keeping a journal of the tour. Keep up with the latest here.

In the coming month, each AFCECO sponsor will receive a copy of a new booklet, Parwarishga: A Unique Vision for the Future of Afghanistan, One Child at a Time.

The booklet tells the story of the AFCECO orphanages from inception until the current day. It is filled with photos, a glimpse inside the New Learning Center, descriptions of the special programs run by AFCECO and intimate portraits of some of the orphanage residents.

Share the Parwarishga story

I hope you will treasure the booklet as I know I will. I also encourage you to share it with your family, friends and colleagues, using it as a source of inspiration to entice others to join us in the AFCECO family.

Sponsors are the lifeblood of AFCECO’s work and yet many of the 600 children in the orphanages have no sponsor at all. If each of us could bring just one more sponsor into the fold, it would go a very long way towards ensuring AFCECO’s financial future and the success of this practical vision for a better Afghanistan.

In these hard economic times, it can feel like an imposition to ask others to become sponsors, and yet each of us knows the joy of sponsorship, the delight of receiving an email from a young one who shares a drawing and says “Thank  you for your helping”, the even greater satisfaction of watching that child learn and grow, and the fulfillment that comes from making a real difference in the world. It is not an imposition to wish to share such things; it is a gift.

This booklet is a way to break through any hesitancy or shyness you may feel in sharing your joy in being a member of the AFCECO family. Not only is it a pleasure to read, it also contains a section called “Questions Commonly Asked” with answers to gnarly issues such as “Where does the money go?”, “What happens when the children turn 18?” and “How do you keep the children safe?” On the last page are details on how to join the AFCECO family.

The booklet has been made possible by a grant from USAID. I hope you enjoy your copy and please let me know if you have suggestions for making future versions of the booklet even better. I’ll pass your suggestions on to Andeisha, Jamshid and Ian in Kabul.

Your sister sponsor,
Rose Vines
(sponsor of Farzana, Sara, Madina and Jamshid)

The girls’ jersey affirms, “We can be champions”, and now they can say they are champions! To say it was an emotional victory is an understatement. The girls played with intensity, determination and intelligence. They played as a team. Nobody was the superstar, as they passed and defended and saw the field as they had been taught by their beloved coach all year long. Each player received a medal and the team brought home some new soccer balls and a sizable trophy, perhaps the first of many! They were received at Mehan orphanage by all the other children and staff of AFCECO, rose petals flying and tears of joy. We are all very proud of our girls.

Often we remind the world of the significance this program plays in the girls’ lives. They have been forever lifted from any possible denial of their worth as human beings, and they now have solid experience of their own individual potential. Additionally they realize what an example they have become to all other Afghans. The fact that they were seen by thousands of Kabul citizens on television sends a huge message to people everywhere, especially other girls. We must thank all those who have supported this program in the past, in particular Richard Riess for his significant sponsorship of the soccer program.

At present we are searching for ways to obtain a plot of land to use as permanent home field for the AFCECO girls and the national team. This is vital in terms of securing the longevity of our program, as at present use of the few fields available are tenuous and not long term.

We invite you to celebrate and tip your hat along with us as we acknowledge another hallmark in AFCECO history.

You can view more photos of the AFCECO Girls’ Team on Google+.

Dear Friends,

We have a contact in the military now, so it is possible to send items to AFCECO without paying for overseas shipping and we won’t have to shell out for the customs people in order to receive them. I know many of you know folks at your local schools, students and teachers who want to help, too, so perhaps you can forward this to them as well.

Right now, with the opening of the New School, we need periodicals and books and films. Anything appropriate you can ship to the address below, will be a huge boost to our resource center. Please use your utmost discretion, otherwise you risk paying to send items we cannot use.

Types of publications we can use:

• National Geographic Magazines are perfect.
• Other periodicals like sports magazines, history magazines, science and nature all good, as long as they are not too technical.
• Books: the resource center is being mostly utilized by 7th to 12th grade students. So try to feed their maturity level. Reading abilities run from beginner to intermediate to some very good. My best readers are reading Orwell’s Animal Farm.
• Reference materials, world book encyclopedia, picture-filled reference books.
• Secret Garden type stuff, Stewart Little type stuff, adventure stuff for young readers, perhaps Nancy Drew mysteries, etc.
• For better readers short stories, parables, short novels with basic vocabulary. Old Man and the Sea, okay.
• DVD instructional stuff.
• Movies and documentaries that you think are appropriate, educational, worldly.
• Cool maps, instructional things to put on classroom walls greatly appreciated.

What not to send:

• No Dickens, no Sydney Sheldon, no giant historical novels.
• No tiny, tiny print.
• No gossip or teen types magazines such as People or Us or Teen.
• No overly America-centric stuff, if culturally meaningless and uninteresting.
• No VCR tapes, as that technology has gone by the wayside here as everywhere
• No stationary, notebooks, pens, pencils, rulers and such right now.

Thank you thank you so much, this is really a great need, as we simply can’t get such material here. The New School (the “pink house”) is so beautiful, it really has come together and classes are in full swing. Here is the contact and address:

AFCECO c/o
Flatley, Michael A MCPO MIL USA USFOR-A J3USFOR-A/NKC
ATTN: CDT
APO AE 09356

With thanks,

Ian Pounds

In many, probably most, homes and villages, a woman’s purpose is merely to look after her husband, if she has one, and her children. An expression popular in the Pashtun-dominated south and in many other regions as well is: “A woman’s place is in the home or in the ground.” Violence against women is accepted as the norm.

In this country where women are considered inferior to men and seen as weak, childlike and naive, here, in the AFCECO orphanages, is a place of hope. In these orphanages are young girls who have lived through horrors and every kind of sadness imaginable, but who share a vision that the women of Afghanistan are sleeping lions awakening. They have hopes of living independent and productive lives, not the circumscribed existence that is the fate of most Afghan women.

They are doing this through education as they study chemistry and physics, English and computers. And now they are prepared to say no to slavery and oppression by standing on a stage and performing dance.

In Afghanistan, dancing by women is considered immoral and dancers thought to be no better than prostitutes. But these brave and wonderful girls, by dancing on stage, are telling their families and communities: “Yes, we can be dancers and still be strong, committed Afghans.” Through their dancing as well as their studies, they are living examples of all the things women are capable of.

Ballet and attan dancing are celebrations of women’s power and achievement. These girls are saying, “I am here and I can do everything!”

These young women are the embodiment of hope for Afghanistan. They are smart, thoughtful, willing to share and, above all, absolutely committed to making Afghanistan a better place for all.

Pashtana and Ian Pounds, the AFCECO Education Director, will speak at all these events, and Menizha and Sahar will join them for the presentations in Washington and New York.

Speaking schedule

• February 24: Stanford University 12 noon lunch presentation with Student Moslem League
• February 24: Channing House, Palo Alto, CA 7:00 pm fundraiser.
• February 26: The Sequoias, Palo Alto, CA 9:30 am fundraiser.
• February 27:  Private home in Sacramento, CA area, fundraiser/pot luck, email Ian Pounds for information.
• March 2: Presentation at University of California, Berkeley. 6:30 pm location to be announced
• March 3: Presentation at California Institute of Integral Studies,  San Francisco  7:00 pm
• March 5: Presentation, fundraiser at the JCCSF Gallanter Hall 2300 California St, San Francisco 1:00 pm
• March 8: Fundraiser, private home in Seattle, WA 6:00 pm email Ian Pounds for information.
• March 10: Presentation in Burk County, PA Chamber of Commerce.
• March 14: Fundraiser /presentation at Busboys and Poets, Washington D.C. 6:30 pm (see below for more details on this event).
• March 15: Presentation to Higher Achievement students, Washington D.C. area 6:30 pm
• March 21: Fundraiser in New York City at Ceremonial Hall, New York Society for Ethical Culture, 6:00 pm

Washington event

If you live anywhere near the Washington, D.C. area, Sahar, Pashtana and Menizha will speak at a special fundraiser. Together with Ian Pounds, the American volunteer educational director for AFCECO, they will be giving a presentation on:

Monday, March 14th, 6.30pm
Busboys and Poets at 5th & K
1025 5th Street, NW

The D.C. event will be one of the last chances to hear the girls speak. As one who has already had this experience, I can guarantee that you do not want to miss this opportunity. It will touch you and inform you in ways hard to imagine.

Click the image to see a full-size flyer – and please feel free to distribute it, and the rest of the speaking tour dates, far and wide.

Razia’s Ray of Hope Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of women and children in Afghanistan through community-based education. It was founded by an Afghan woman, Razia Jan, and its key project is the Zabuli Education Center, which provides free education for girls in the village of Deh’Subz, outside of Kabul.

On October 7th, the foundation is holding a fundraiser in Boston. The proceeds will go towards an endowment fund to keep their school going year after year, instead of searching every year for money.

If you’re in the Boston area, this is a wonderful opportunity to support another organization which is helping to empower girls and women in Afghanistan. You can register for the event and read more on the Razia’s Ray of Hope website.

The good news is her father and brother were released yesterday evening (US time) and they are now safe. Sadly, her mother was hospitalized after going into shock, and the children are traumatized. It has been a terrible time for all our friends working and living in the orphanages and for Andeisha’s entire family. We send our love, best wishes and commitment to ongoing support to all of them.

Due to the delicate security situation, we won’t go into the details of what happened unless we get the go ahead from AFCECO. But thanks go to everyone who helped, by emailing and phoning government departments, by activating military channels, by alerting AFCECO’s friends in the media, by spreading the word, and by making themselves available to act. In Andeisha’s own words:

• April 2010 Newsletter
• May 2010 Newsletter

I hope you’ve also been keeping up with Ian Pounds’ diary of his experiences as a volunteer in the orphanages. Ian updates his Kabul Journal each week – it usually shows up sometime on Saturday in the USA. Keep your eye out for it and feel free to respond to Ian by adding a comment to any of his posts.

Now, Ian is back in Afghanistan, once again volunteering with AFCECO at the Kabul orphanages. He will continue his journal and we will feature his posts here on Hope for Afghan Children.

I hope you will join those of us who already make it a habit to sit down with a cup of tea or coffee each weekend while we read Ian’s latest installment.