January 25, 2012
AIWR has recently learned the wonderful news that one of the Afghan students in our English Program, Roya Shams, has been granted admission to a prestigious Canadian high school.
Tragically, Roya lost her father (a police officer) last summer during a gun battle with a Taliban commander in Kandahar. The tragedy was compounded by the fact that Roya and her family have since suffered through the murder of additional family members and have endured numerous and severe threats from the Taliban.
Through the tremendous efforts of a Canadian reporter who read about Roya’s story, Roya was given the chance to apply for a position at a private high school in Canada. Roya’s AIWR English Program teacher (a Harvard-educated financial adviser for the U.S. government and a trained ESL teacher) quickly tailored their on-line sessions to begin preparing Roya for studying abroad. The individualized lessons and support, on top of Roya’s amazing discipline, perseverance and hard work paid off – Roya won admission to the Canadian school and recently traveled to Canada to begin her studies. More details about Roya’s story can be read here:
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1117873--afghan-girl-arrives-in-canada-to-attend-school.
A huge congratulations to Roya!
August 17, 2011
On August 16, we learned some terrible and shocking news - one of our former English students, Rabia, was brutally gunned down in Kandahar by a man on a motorcycle as she left her home to go to work. All of us at AIWR and all our friends, students and colleagues at the Afghan Canadian Community Center are devastated. All we know about Rabia’s senseless and brutal death are the sparse details contained in the newspapers, including this article: http://www.canada.com/news/canada-in-afghanistan/Another+female+Afghan+w... .
However, the purpose of this post is not to focus on Rabia’s death – but to pay tribute to Rabia’s life. Rabia was 19 – a few days from her 20th birthday. In addition to studying English and other occupational courses at the Afghan Canadian Community Center, Rabia worked for the National Solidarity Program and she also did volunteer work as a teacher. She was committed to education and she hoped to someday travel the world. Rabia graduated from High School and studied English in different English language centers in Kandahar city. She completed a course of study in software programs and hoped to study Computer Science in the future. Her hobbies included cooking and learning to use the internet. She enjoyed finding useful information. Her favorite colors were black and light blue. She loved her family very much and wrote of her special relationship with her mother, "She is the best mom in the world all the time she is supporting me to achieve something good in my life."
We were honored to have known and worked with Rabia and we are deeply grieved at her death. In honor of Rabia, we will strive even harder to bring education and opportunity to the women and girls of Afghanistan.
April 4, 2011
The director of the Afghan Canadian Community Center in Kandahar offers his thoughts on the recent violence in Afghanistan as a result of a Florida man burning a copy of the Koran. You can read his opinion here.
February, 2011
The Alliance is happy to announce that it has been awarded a grant from the U.S. State Department to expand its English Program in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Beginning February 15, 2011, the Alliance will be working in partnership with a local organization in Kandahar, the Afghan Canadian Community Center (“ACCC”), to provide live, long-distance English classes to up to 240 Afghan women and girls during the next year.
The Alliance is currently recruiting 60 qualified English teachers to volunteer for this new project. The long-distance classes are one-to-one, with each teacher being matched with one student for two, one-hour classes a week for three months. The classes are conducted via Skype and will occur at either 7:30 a.m. or 3:30 pm, Afghanistan time. Details for the project can be found on the English Program page on this website here. Interested applicants should send a completed application form (downloadable here) and resume to Lisa Herb at lisaherb@aiwr.org.
The Alliance is very grateful to the U.S. State Department for this opportunity to expand our English Program!
November, 2010
One of our partners, The Afghan-Canadian Community Center (ACCC), has been incredibly successful in providing educational opportunities to women and girls in Kandahar through long-distance learning programs (such as the Alliance's English Program). However, despite its great successes, the ACCC is struggling to find international assistance. You can read the story here.
June, 2010
One of our partners, The Afghan-Canadian Community Center (ACCC), was on Al Jazeera News. You can watch the news story here.
December, 2009
The Alliance is very happy to announce its newest Volunteer ESL Coordinator - Jan Holland. Jan began working with the Alliance in May of 2008 as an Armchair ESL Teacher. Since then, Jan has worked with several Afghan students and she has experienced first-hand all the challenges and rewards that come with our long-distance classes.
Jan is English and she currently resides on the Isle of Man, although she is also a bit of a globetrotter and she plans to escape to a sunnier location for the winter months (where she will continue to work with the Alliance). Jan became a teacher after a varied and interesting business life that included writing and sales.
In addition to her work with the Alliance,Jan has been teaching ESL/EFL for 5 years, and 2 1/2 years ago she began teaching online. She now teaches students from all over the world online. Jan is particularly interested in the technology that goes into online teaching, such as Skype and virtual classrooms.
We are very grateful to have Jan on board!
November, 2009
As you know, we are always looking for new ways to meet our financial needs so that we can continue to provide our services and programs to women and girls in Afghanistan and Central Asia. Online fundraising is the fastest growing tool for nonprofits like ours to help make ends meet. We recently started using GlobalMojo®, a new Internet browser or add-on for Firefox that opens up a whole new way for socially conscious web users to support the Alliance for International Women’s Rights.
GlobalMojo is free and does not require any additional financial donations – you simply browse, search and shop online like you already do, and 50 percent of the gross revenue that is generated from your use of the on-line browser is donated to the Alliance. You may not have realized this, but by using a particular browser to do anything on-line, you generate a few cents of revenue for that particular browser (such as Internet Explorer). Global Mojo is a special browser with a conscience — it will donate half of this revenue to your selected charities. With enough users, these small amounts of revenue can really add up! GlobalMojo is built upon the popular Firefox browser architecture so it’s fast, safe and secure.
We are very pleased to have found this new online tool that helps us continue our work and fulfill our mission. To download the GlobalMojo browser (or Firefox add-on) and start earning revenue for the Alliance, just click below.
http://globalmojo.com/AIWR
Thank you for helping us grow our online support base with this innovative approach to fundraising with GlobalMojo! Please spread the word by forwarding this email to others who you think might be interested. Our initial goal is to find 1,000 people who are willing to support us through GlobalMojo – and we need your help to do this. Every person who is willing to support us through GlobalMojo makes a difference!
Please feel free to email info@globalmojo.com with questions about GlobalMojo – and of course, feel free to e-mail Lisa Herb (lisaherb@aiwr.org) with questions about the Alliance.
September, 2009
Due to the Alliance’s growth, we are in need of a volunteer Website and Technology Coordinator. The position is a volunteer position and the sole compensation we can offer in 2009 and 2010 is the great reward that comes with knowing that you are helping open the world to the women and girls of Afghanistan and Central Asia.
We estimate that the time commitment involved will be approximately five hours per week. The work can be performed at any time of the day or night. The position is a telecommuting position and can be performed from the volunteer's own home or office.
The volunteer Website and Technology Coordinator will:
• Assist with all website maintenance and development tasks
• Assist with creating, troubleshooting and managing our internal intranet and database
• Assist with troubleshooting all technology issues associated with our chat room and internet forums
• Assist with researching and providing guidance on issues related to the use of Skype and other internet-based technology in our volunteer programs.
The ideal candidate will have the following qualifications:
• A strong working knowledge of Drupal and the ability to work independently in maintaining, developing and troubleshooting a Drupal-based website, including numerous applications, such as a chat room, forums, internal intranet, document storage and database.
• Ability to research and provide guidance on internet based technology systems, such as Skype or similar communication and education systems.
• Experience working or traveling in a developing country; ability to understand the challenges of using internet-based technology in a developing country.
The volunteer website and technology coordinator will work under the guidance of our Program Manager and Executive Director and will provide support for our two Volunteer ESL Coordinators. For more information, please contact Lisa Herb at lisaherb@aiwr.org or Scarlett Chidgey at scarlett@aiwr.org.
September, 2009
Due to the Alliance’s growth, we are in need of a Volunteer Appreciation Coordinator. The position is a volunteer position and the sole compensation we can offer is the great reward that comes with knowing that you are helping open the world to the women and girls of Afghanistan and Central Asia. We estimate that the time commitment involved will be between five to ten hours a month. The work can be performed at any time of the day or night and from any location within the United States.
The Volunteer Appreciation Coordinator will:
• Be responsible for preparing thank you notes and gifts for the Alliance’s volunteer ESL teachers at the direction of the Alliance’s Executive Director and ESL Coordinators.
• Help research appropriate thank you gifts for the volunteer teachers (e.g. crafts from Afghanistan).
• Be responsible for updating records of thank you gifts on the Alliance’s intranet.
The ideal candidate will have the following qualifications:
• Excellent writing and communication skills and good penmanship;
• Strong organizational skills;
• Ability to quickly learn and use a database;
• A demonstrated interest in women’s rights; and
• A reliable computer and internet connection.
To apply for this position, please contact Lisa Herb at lisaherb@aiwr.org.
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