The Foreign Service Journal, October 2014

38 OCTOBER 2014 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Sensitivity and technical know-how are at a premium when working in these fragile and insecure environments. BY SANDYA DAS FEATURE Learning from Women’s Successes in Afghanistan Sandya Das is an Afghanistan assistance program o cer in the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. She previ- ously served in Juba, Mumbai and the Executive Secretariat. A fter spending several years in Iran as a refugee, an Afghan teenager named Ra qa was nally able to return to her hometown in 2002— only to be forced within months to marry a much older man. Robbed of her childhood, she endured an abusive relationship with her husband for several years in hopes of giving her daughter a brighter future. In 2009 Ra qa used a program funded by the Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration to take classes on Afghan family, property and inheritance law. ose courses, taught by a nongovernmental organization that part- ners with PRM, changed her life. Equipped with knowledge about the legal age of marriage, marriage contracts and the accountability of both sides in a contract, Ra qa was empowered to prevent her family from marrying o her young daughter, which would end her daugh- ter’s education and leave her vulnerable to domestic violence and early or unwanted pregnancy. Helping Other Rafiqas Far too many of the six million refugees who have returned to Afghanistan since 2002 still face similar hardships. But fortunately, the United States has stepped up as the leading international donor in terms of humanitarian assistance and protection there. During Fiscal Year 2014 alone, Washington has programmed more than $175 million in humanitarian assistance to international and NGO partners that operate in Afghanistan and assist Afghan refugees in the region. PRM also addresses the needs of internally displaced persons and other victims of con ict in Afghanistan, work- ing closely with Afghan government o cials, the O ce of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and various international and nongovernmental organizations that priori- tize women’s protection and needs. ese programs deal with health care; access to education; water, sanitation and hygiene; employment; and gender-based violence prevention. Embassy Kabul’s Refugee Coordinator leads a team that monitors and evaluates PRM’s assistance projects in Afghani- stan, and frequently meets with our NGO partners to review project benchmarks. For instance, in 2011 that o ce identi-

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODIyMDU=