PlayCo's Fall Kick Off & Benefit

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THE PLAY COMPANY

Kate Loewald, Founding Producer
Robert G. Bradshaw, Executive Producer

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Carmine Boccuzzi, Chair
Kate Loewald, Secretary

Trip Cullman
Christine Dauchez
Victoria Detres
Ruth Hendel
George Sheanshang
Aya Ogawa
Ayo Renée Schwartz
Nella Vera

DIRECTORS EMERITUS

Lawrence Kaplen
Victoria Reese

It is a joy for us here at PlayCo to honor and highlight the work of Women for Afghan Women during our fall benefit.

About Women for Afghan Women:

MISSION

Women for Afghan Women (WAW) is a grassroots civil society organization dedicated to protecting and promoting the rights of disenfranchised Afghan women and girls in Afghanistan and the United States. In particular, WAW works to help Afghan women and girls exercise their rights to pursue their individual potential to self-determination, and to representation in all areas of life—political, social, cultural, and economic. WAW relentlessly advocates for women’s rights and challenges the norms that underpin gender-based violence to influence attitudes and bring about change.

VISION

Women for Afghan Women is committed to working towards a world in which Afghan women and girls enjoy peace, justice, equality, and the freedoms to participate in all spheres of life and live without fear. Women for Afghan Women envisions a world in which all women and their families thrive and prosper.

Over the past two decades, Women for Afghan Women has grown from a small network of volunteers to become the largest women’s organization in Afghanistan. Today, WAW has expanded to provide life-changing services, education, and vocational training for our clients across Afghanistan and in the United States (US) who have endured rights violations.The key to our enduring impact is that WAW always hires locally and uses:

• a bottom-up approach,
• local knowledge, and
• a deep understanding of and sensitivity to local culture, traditions, customs, and challenges.Pragmatically, this approach and operational model has manifested into core programs and services in Afghanistan and the US that serve to meet the needs of 8,000+ clients every year.

The New York Community Center (NYCC) provides direct, comprehensive services to the Afghan community and other Muslim immigrant communities in New York City (NYC). We also provide remote (phone or online) support to Afghans and other immigrants in the United States (US) who live outside of NYC.

Many of the people that the NYCC serves in New York are newly arrived immigrants or refugees with no knowledge on how to navigate systems in the US. Many have never gone to school and are illiterate in their own language. Many struggle with severe poverty and poverty-related issues. Many live in homes where domestic abuse is considered “normal.”

The NYCC is strategically located in Queens, which is home to an estimated 90% of NYC’s Afghan community, and is within walking distance for many clients. Our success stems from our family-centered approach, which has enabled us to build trust with the community and work within it to foster positive change.

WAW’s NYCC has become a lifeline for the local Afghan and, increasingly, the South Asian and other Muslim immigrant and refugee communities.

Many of the NYCC staff come from the community we serve and innately understand the culture. We speak English, Farsi/Dari, Pashto, Urdu, Hindi, and Spanish, so we can communicate directly with our community members in their own language. The impact of our programs has steadily increased from fewer than 100 people served in 2003 to over 1,000 people each year.

To get involved or find out more about Women for Afghan Women, please visit https://womenforafghanwomen.org