Our Goals

We’re a small nonprofit dedicated to building schools for girls in developing countries. Our first project is a secondary school for 1200 girls in Afghanistan, where the female literacy rate is only 12% (UNICEF). While a group of college students and recent grads fund-raise, organize, and spread awareness at home, experienced collaborators (below) manage construction locally.

Our mission is to equip girls with self-reliance, knowledge, and increased capacities to both enhance their own lives and to contribute productively to their societies. We believe this is the best way to affect positive, global change. Our philospophy is that one school will affect one community. One community will make a world of change.
 

Why We're Different:

WE'RE MEETING A DEMAND. Village elders designated land for the purpose, nearly 1200 students at a nearby elementary school seek secondary education, and the community has protected that school against animosity or attack since its completion in 2004. When Fahima (below), our local contractor, visited the site in April 2008, girls excitedly asked about our project. SUSTAINABILITY. We’ll hire specialty teachers, who will teach our after-school vocational skills, such as making jewelry, silk, noodles, and jam, as well as carpet-weaving. Profits from selling the goods made in class will contribute to the school's operational costs. DONATIONS SUPPORT OUR PROJECT DIRECTLY AND TRANSPARENTLY. No member of Circle of Women receives compensation for his or her work--every donation has its maximum possible impact on our future students! EXPERIENCE. While we have only built one school as an organization, our collaborators and advisors have years of experience—and dozens of charitably built organizations—under their belts.

For more reasons, please download our media kit.

Project Wonkhai 

---

Volunteers

While dozens of volunteers have offered their advice and their time, a handful of college students and recent grads meet weekly to take care of the nitty-gritty. On a strictly volunteer basis, we communicate with our collaborators, organize fund-raising and awareness-raising events, and keep our donors in the loop. 

Some of the original folks: Annelie Berner, Izzy Berner, Lizzie Brook, Ashley Camerini, Britt Caputo, Clotilde Dedecker, Megan Dempsey, Noor Iqbal, Honor McGee, Lizzy Nichols, Hannah Motley, Cristina Ros, Emily Walker.                                    Illustrations by Aliza Stone

Collaborators

 Fahima Vorgetts, a board member of Women for Afghan Women, a director of the Afghan Women’s Fund, and an honorary member of the Afghanistan Organization for Human Rights and Environmental Protection, has addressed the UN, advised the authors of two books, “Women for Afghan Women: Shattering Myths and Reclaiming the Future,” by Sunita Mehta and “Behind the Burqa,” by Batya Swift Yasgur, and won several awards for her humanitarian efforts. These include the 2002 Ann Arundel Peace Action “Lifetime Achievement Award,” the 2003 UN “Human Right Community Award,” the 2004 Ann Arundel “Most Outstanding Volunteer Award,” and the 2004 “Salem Award for Human Rights and Social Justice.” During frequent trips to Afghanistan, she founded the Humanitarian Organization for Orphans and Widows of Afghanistan, organized women’s literacy classes, and built over a dozen schools. Fahima raised her family in Maryland and West Virginia, where she lives. 

Our local contractor, Fahima manages construction during visits to Afghanistan.

  
 In 1998, Khris Nedam, an elementary school teacher in Michigan, and her third grade class founded Kids4AfghanKids, a nonprofit organization that built a six-room, 1200-person schoolhouse. Since, the group has funded and constructed a medical clinic, a bakery, a guesthouse, and an orphanage, and a well in Wonkhai, Afghanistan. In 2002, the year Khris received the Governor’s Service Award, the Center for International Disaster Information of Arlington, Virginia named Kids4AfghanKids one of the most reliable humanitarian organizations. In 2003, the Michigan Association of School Board’s gave her the “Best of the Best Award.” She has taught in France, Turkey, and Afghanistan, where she met her husband. She lives in Michigan with her two daughters.

Close friends with Seraj Wardak, the village elder who requested our school, and a veteran school-builder herself, Khris advises us and faciliates communication with Mr. Wardak.

 
Get Involved!