This is part three in a three-part series by BRAC USA President & CEO Susan Davis reflecting on her visit to BRAC’s programs in Afghanistan.
I was accompanied by male staff so the women always wore their bright blue burkhas. I was so curious how it felt to be under one. To see what they see when draped in cloth. Of course these good humored curious women got a kick out of dressing me up in one of them. For me, it sure didn't feel like freedom to have one more layer on top of me in that heat. But many women explained how it protects them and gives them freedom to move about more easily. The lens of our own culture can distort the true picture and not allow us to comprehend how relative everything can be.
The rest of my trip was as eventful and rewarding as the beginning. I saw BRAC schools and met with parent teacher associations and school management committees that BRAC has formed. I visited health clinics that were packed with women waiting to see a doctor or nurse. I remember a pharmacist who lost a leg to a landmine. He was so grateful to have his job that his work mitigated the consequences of his disability.
It was rewarding to see how BRAC programs in microfinance, health and sanitation, education, adolescent development, agriculture and livestock and social and capacity development had touched the lives of thousands of people, giving them chances for a dignified life and a more secure future for their children.
The work of BRAC Afghanistan is featured in September's O Magazine in an article by Nicholas Kristof. To learn more about BRAC's work in Afghanistan, click here.
BRAC will also be featured in the forthcoming book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide (Knopf), by husband-and-wife Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn that will be published September 10.
0 comments:
Post a Comment