WHAT-WHO-WHY-BUZZ
What is Circle of Women?
We’re a young nonprofit dedicated to building schools for girls in developing countries. Eventually, we hope to make education available to every girl. For now, we’re increasing access to the classroom by building one school at a time. While we fund-raise, develop a project, and host awareness events at home, experienced individuals— our “collaborators”—oversee construction abroad. Our first school, “Project Wonkhai,” in Wardak, Afghanistan, is built and set to open in March 2009 to serve 1200 girls at the secondary school level.
Founded in 2006, Circle of Women is registered with the IRS as a tax exempt public charity under code 501(c)3. All donations are tax deductible.
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WHAT-WHO-WHY-BUZZ
Mission Statement Our mission is to equip girls with selfreliance, 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 effect positive, global change. We also raise local awareness about women and education in developing countries through lectures, movie screenings, and informational tokens, such as cloth bracelets with details about our projects.
“One school will affect
one community. One community will make a world of change.”
Our Philosophy One school will affect one community.
One community will make a world of change.
The Effects of Education These primary school students
(below) and their families, who live in or around Wonkhai, Afghanistan, have requested a secondary school to continue their education and to improve the quality of their lives. So, we built one.
If They Don’t Go to School…
• They might marry at age twelve or thirteen, have seven to eight children, and see one or two of those children die in infancy (UNICEF, 2006). They will probably join the other 78% of Afghan women who are illiterate. They are less likely to be able to support themselves or their children should their husband die or poverty strike. They are likely to marry later, have fewer kids, and watch those children escape the poverty cycle in later life (Lawrence Summers, 1992; Human Rights Watch). They are more likely to have an independent income, have a larger “stake” in family decision-making, and will probably spend some of their income on their children’s health (Summers, 1992). Economists link each year of additional maternal education with a five to ten percent decline in infant mortality (Shultz, 1989), a. 2 percent decline in maternal mortality and a ten percent increase in wages (Goldman
• •
If They Do Go to School…
•
•
•
Sachs, Global Economics Paper No:164).
• Some may go on to college or to medical school, and return to their village as midwives, while all are more •
likely to educate their children and help them with homework (Fahima Vorgetts, interview 2008). Some will encourage their sons to abandon affiliation with the Taliban (Greg Mortenson, speech 2006).
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WHAT-WHO-WHY-BUZZ
Project Wonkhai
at a glance
In accordance with the Afghan scholastic calendar, classes will begin in March 2009 at “Project Wonkhai,” a school for 1200 girls, who attend in morning and afternoon shifts of 600. The Afghan government supplies teachers, who we will encourage and support with monthly salary supplements along with additional teacher training. We will provide initial textbooks and school supplies. Construction cost $120,000, and monthly operating costs run around $1,100 per month, including supplemental teacher salaries and a vocational program.
collaborators and supporters
A Wonkhai village elder, Seraj Wardak, designated a plot of land, on which we have built, as the site for a girls’ school. Khris Nedam, who supported the construction of a nearby elementary school, medical center and orphanage, offers advice and insight as we work closely with our collaborator, Fahima Vorgetts, an experienced construction organizer and fundraiser, who travels to the site and communicates with locally-hired workers on our behalf. Combined, Khris and Fahima have built over a dozen charitably funded structures in Afghanistan.
why this will work
At first, our project seems dicey: the area is politically volatile, local obstacles can prevent girls from going to school, and distance makes our control over construction limited. Yikes! Yet we’re confident our work is as wanted and safe as it is needed. We know there is a demand for education in this community: a nearby elementary school, which Khris Nedam helped build, graduates about 650 girls each year. Further, community support and the protection of village elders, who have requested our project, have prevented any attempts at attack. In the case of security threats, teachers shut down the school for several days to ensure the safety of the girls. We are hopeful that our school will meet with equal enthusiasm and safeguarding. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, Taliban violence has concentrated in Helmand and Kandahar, rather than Wardak. Over the last few years, we have made several contacts who are pursuing unrelated work in Afghanistan. These contacts, as well as our collaborators and advisors, allow us to keep an eye on our project from multiple angles and perspectives.
Illustrations by Aliza Stone
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WHAT-WHO-WHY-BUZZ
construction details
Sayed Habibulah, the engineer Fahima Vorgetts chose based on his competitive prices and their longstanding professional relationship, designed these plans for ten classrooms, a library (after local request), and a guardroom. The two-story structure has a concrete foundation and glass windows. Seraj Wardak, a village elder, donated the land after requesting the construction of a secondary school and nearby shora, or women’s community and health care center. The wages we offer construction workers includes their daily lunch.
Note: Slight adjustments, which the above description depicts, have been made to these original plans.
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Raising Money and Awareness: One Fell Swoop
Between March 2007 and December 2009, we raised over $120,000 to reach our goal for construction costs. While sometimes we host free awareness events, such as manning an “Afghan Women” booth at a “Global Girls’ Day” parade for intercity Boston eighth graders, and a screening of the PBS documentary “Back to School,” we try to infuse our fund-raising efforts with similar awareness components. So far, our campaigns have included: • • • • • • • • • • • March 2007 Yellow, cloth “Awareness Bracelets,” featuring a Pashto saying (“drop by drop you make a river”) began selling in several stores throughout Harvard Square. April 20, 2007 “An Evening for Education,” a lecture by UNIFEM representative Socorro Reyes, for about 100 people at the Harvard Club in NYC. March 20, 2008 “Dough Raiser” event at Pizzeria Uno in Harvard Square, where diners read table-tops about our organization and contributed 15% of their check with a coupon. April 2008 “30 Under 30”: 30 women (under age 30) sent out information to 30 other women (under age 30) and encouraged them to donate $30 within the 30 days of April. 30 x 30 x $30 = $27,000! May 2008 Mother’s Day Cards: We sent photographs and cards describing our work to mothers whose children donated in their honor. June 2008 Honor a Graduate by contributing to education in his or her honor and having them learn more about their gift through a congratulatory e-card. July 2008 Mother-Daughter Teas invited a suggested donation after learning about Afghanistan and our organization through chats over tea. September 3, 2008 “Have a drink for a Cause”: A committee of 15 supporters invited their friends to toast the importance of women’s education, and Union Bar in NY donated 15% of the night’s profits. September 23, 2008 “Afghan Women: A History of Struggle” screening with in Brattle Theater in Harvard Square, followed by a discussion with Filmmaker Kathleen Foster. Suggested donation. November 2008 Sponsor a Student informational letter campaign to encourage interested contacts to donate the operating cost for a year of education for a student. November 6 & 13, 2008 “Play Poker for a Cause” hosted close to 100 supporters in an event in NY and then in Cambridge, MA to have people donate their to a tournament to enjoy a game of cards while familiarizing themselves with our organization and mission. December 2008 Handmade in Afghanistan gifts – from Aaryana Imports and Arghand – were sold in a bazaar at the University Lutheran Church in Cambridge, MA. Holiday shoppers supported Afghan artisans, promoted educated through the donated profits of their purchases, and learned from Fahima Vorgetts’ stories of building schools, women’s centers and orphanages in Afghanistan.
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WHAT-WHO-WHY-BUZZ
Who We Are
founders
B. Britt Caputo, Clotilde Dedecker, and Cristina Ros came together after a “But what can we do?” conversation in March 2006 to incorporate Circle of Women as a 501c3 to promote women’s education through awareness raising and building schools. All three are still involved in operations.
Fahima, Britt, and Noor meet for lunch in D.C. (July 2008)
volunteers
While many volunteers have offered their advice and their time, currently a dozen or so Harvard College students and grads meet weekly to take care of the nitty-gritty. On a strictly volunteer basis, we communicate with our collaborators, organize fund-raising and awarenessraising events, and keep in touch with our donors through our website. Some of the original folks: Annelie Berner, Izzy Berner, Lizzie Brook, Ashley Camerini, Megan Dempsey, Noor Iqbal, Honor McGee, Emily Milam, Hannah Motley, Lizzy Nichols, Samantha Peretore, Claire Richard, Emily Walker.
circumference program
A handful of students attending universities scattered from Miami to Buffalo to Nashville have jumped on board as volunteers and are leading their own chapters that communicate regularly with the headquarter team to support operations – not least by spreading Circle of Women to new communities! Currently, one group is designing a Circle of Women t-shirt and another is working on our informational video, “q: who, what, why? a: circle.”
Project Wonkhai: 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. Fahima communicates with local workers and contractors on our behalf during visits to Afghanistan.
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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 through the process and facilitates communication with Mr. Wardak.
The Extended Circle: Volunteers and Donors
“Project Wonkhai” construction cost is $120,000. Donations have ranged from $1 to $10,000. While we are unable to accept donations in kind at the moment, many donors have given the exact sum of a year’s worth of textbooks ($24) or a blackboard and desks ($50). We like to think our cause has united our donors— which include New Yorkers and New Zealanders, college students and octogenarians—with each other and the students they support, in an international circle of change.
Head of School……………...$10,000+ Teacher……………………….$5,000+ Tutor …………………………$1,000+ Student ………………………… $500+ Heads of School may choose to have rooms or the entire building named after them.
We are also grateful to participants who volunteer their time and advice!
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WHAT-WHO-WHY-BUZZ
Why We’re Different
With an admiring nod to the many effective, related charities that already exist, we pass along a few of the reasons why we think Circle of Women makes a unique impact.
Why Us?
• WE’RE MEETING A DEMAND
While some nonprofits struggle with communities that don’t want a school—or, worse, react violently against it—the locals we work for requested a school. 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 visited the construction site of Project Wonkhai in the summer of 2008, several young girls eagerly asked her when the doors would open. Not only are they excited, but the patterns at the elementary school suggest adult support.
•SUSTAINABLE RESULT
We’re currently finalizing plans to hire specialty teachers, who will teach our students, and perhaps their mothers, vocational skills after school. Skills include making jewelry, silk, noodles, jam, and woven rugs. We will pay around $140/month to these vocational teachers, under the program we are putting together with the advice of English NGO “Teach a Man to Fish,” which focuses on sustainable education. The sale of goods, which students produce in their classes, can supplement the salaries of other teachers and contribute to other operational costs the school requires. We are working with, smaller organizations, such as student groups at high schools, to contribute to the salaries of these vocational teachers.
•MAXIMUM IMPACT PER DONATION
Members and collaborators receive no compensation for their work. Operational costs are minimal; members, donors, or corporations contribute the space or supplies for the majority of our fund-raising and awareness-raising events. Donations support the Afghan economy by funding construction materials, wages of manual laborers, and school supplies. Our goals are discreet. When a donor supports Project Wonkhai, she contributes directly to the completion and operations of a single schoolhouse, which she can watch grow and function through reports on our website.
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WHAT-WHO-WHY-BUZZ
• EXPERIENCE
While we have only built one school, Project Wonkhai, our collaborators and advisors have years of experience—and dozens of charitably built organizations—under their belts. We recruit people who know the ropes, match them with other pros, provide them with resources, motivate them with bright-eyed idealist energy, and facilitate their life’s work!
• STUDENTS FOR STUDENTS
While the majority of our members are students in college—and a smattering in high school, part of our mission is to give each donor and participant the opportunity to be a student of sorts. Through awareness events, and the information campaigns associated with fund-raising efforts, we hope to unite our donors, members, and the students of each Project through a circle surrounding our shared cause. Even our teachers will be students! From our own experience we know that the key to learning is a good teacher. So, with advice from the Center for Afghanistan Studies at the University of Nebraska, we plan to sponsor specialized, several-week teacher training programs, already recognized by the Ministry of Education.
•NEW DATA: AN ADVANTAGEOUS ASIDE
Our first school will accommodate 1200 students. If demand exceeds our capacity, we will offer admission by lottery. Through random selection over several years, and careful collection of background and outcome variables through an economic study we conceived under the leadership of one of our college Professors, we will begin to understand the effects of education for women in developing countries.
Why this Cause?
Only 29% of Afghanistan’s 415 educational districts have schools that admit girls at all, yet educating women is an efficient, peaceful way to improve the life of an individual. The spiraling effects of that education—on her children and grandchildren—allow us to reach generations we will never meet.
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…Buzz...circle in the press:
Alicia Menendez, “Cause: Circle of Women, ‘30 Under 30,’” April 23, 2008. http://aliciamenendez.com/2008/04/23/cause-circle-of-women-30-under-30/ New Society: Harvard College Student Middle East Journal, “Circle of Women,” September 7, 2007. http://newsocietyjournal.com/2007/09/07/circle-of-women/ Newsonwomen.com, “Young Women Reach Out to Educate Others,” April 25, 2008. http://newsonwomen.typepad.com/news_on_women/2008/04/young-women-rea.html The Harvard Crimson, “Circle of Women Makes World of Difference,” April 30, 2008. http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=523429 Ziana Qaiser for Women’s Feature Service, wfsnew.org: “A Circle of Change in Afghanistan,” December 2008. http://www.wfsnews.org/searesults.php?db=wfs&dbtable=features& searchwords=Power&server=&submit=Go
contact:
the web info@circleofwomen.org www.circleofwomen.org snail mail we’ll respond faster over email, but you can also reach us at: Circle of Women P.O. Box 381365 Cambridge, MA 02238-1265
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