2075
UUSC Human Rights Forum & Reception
UU Service Committee
Latifa and Colin Woodhouse from Shelter Rock Congregation in New York were the speakers.
Latifa Woodhouse was born and raised in Afghanistan near Kandahar; her grandfather was a leading cleric; her father was a headmaster in a private school. He was forced to flee in the 1980s and later took the whole family with him to the United States. Latifa was educated in the U.S. and was a Fulbright scholar as well; she and Colin are committed to the rebuilding of Afghanistan.
Colin Woodhouse was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Afghanistan in the 1970s where he met Latifa.
LATIFA: Millions of Afghans are heading home, many to villages that are now reduced to rubble.
One million have returned home in the last 4 months, another million in the next year; UN refugee agencies are hopelessly underfunded. There are over 50,000 widows in Kabul, many orphans, all living hand-to-mouth… 800,000 people need artificial limbs. Only five percent of women can read; their overall life expectancy is 44 years old.
It will take generations to repair Afghanistan. We must support women, children and ordinary Afghans who are sick of war.
COLIN: The warlords are back, waiting to pounce. They are at the front row at the Loya Jerga. We must be very wary of them. Only women were brave enough to stand up to them. What will happen to these courageous women when they go back to their villages?
The United States offers the Afghans more than bricks and mortar, we offer them hope. We must not fail.
The UU Service Committee (UUSC) is supporting six organizations in Afghanistan whose programs focus on supporting women and children in conflict. Among those are the Afghan's Women's Network, the Afghan Women's Education Center, The Children's Fund, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), and the Women to Women International (WWI).
For further information, please go to the UUSC's website, www.uusc.org
Reporter & Photographer Allan Stern; Web Designer Julie Albanese
General Assembly 2002 · Program Grid 2002 · General Assembly Home