REPORT FROM AFGHANISTAN:

Women, Children and War

By Fahima Vorgetts

Winner of the 2004 Salem Award

for her work with Women and Children In Afghanistan

Friday, November 5, 2010 at 7 pm

Tabernacle Church, 50 Washington Street, Salem, MA

Presented by the Salem Award Foundation for Human Rights and Social Justice & the Salem Athenaeum

Fahima Vorgetts, winner of the 2004 Salem Award for Human Rights & Social Justice, returned to Salem share her experiences from a life’s work spent helping to improve the lives of women and girls in Afghanistan. The lecture was followed by a reception. 

Fahima walks a path beset with obstacles to her work. She faces personal security threats in Afghanistan, as well as threats to the women and girls with whom she works. Several times each year Fahima travels to Afghanistan where she has opened new schools for girls and literacy classes for women; created income-generating projects for widows, helping them become self-sufficient; and arranged for the shipment of medical supplies to Herat's women's hospital. She has distributed clothing and school supplies to refugees in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Her efforts have touched the lives of thousands of women of all ages and ethnicities.

She has committed her life to improving the plight of women and girls in Afghanistan. In her own words, "Afghanistan haunts me. It is my country, and my heart breaks for my sisters who undergo daily oppression and hardship.… My passion and life's work is to reclaim and rebuild the country so that women can be free and equal, and can live a life of dignity, literacy, and financial stability." 

Fahima Vorgetts heads the Afghan Women’s Fund, a program of Women for Afghan Women www.womenforafghanwomen.org. She is an honorary member of Afghanistan Organization for Human Rights and Environmental Protection. She has addressed the United Nations and traveled widely speaking to university conferences and religious organizations. She has appeared on national and international television and radio stations, including BBC and NPR.