Afghanistan Relief Organization
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Afghanistan Relief Organization (ARO) is a
humanitarian Humanitarianism is an active belief in the value of human life, whereby humans practice benevolent treatment and provide assistance to other humans to reduce suffering and improve the conditions of humanity for moral, altruistic, and emotional ...
organization which provides direct aid and education to those in need in Afghanistan. It runs a large technology education centre in the Afghan capital, Kabul, and is also involved in the training of midwives.


Description

Afghanistan Relief Organization is a non-political, non-religious, nonprofit 501(c)(3), non-governmental humanitarian organization, registered in both the United States and in Afghanistan, founded in the United States in 1998. It is based in
Cypress Cypress is a common name for various coniferous trees or shrubs of northern temperate regions that belong to the family Cupressaceae. The word ''cypress'' is derived from Old French ''cipres'', which was imported from Latin ''cypressus'', the ...
, Orange County, California, USA, and works in Afghanistan. ARO was officially formed in 1998 by Abdul Satar, a communications project manager and businessman, and a fellow Afghan, Aboul Fazil Khalili, the grandson of the former Afghan poet laureate,
Khalilullah Khalili Khalilullah Khalili (1907 – 1987; Pashto/ fa, خلیل‌الله خلیلی - ''Ḫalīlallāḥ Ḫalīlī''; alternative spellings: ''Khalilollah'', ''Khalil Ullah'') was Afghanistan's foremost 20th century poet as well as a noted historian, ...
. They wanted to help a region in the northern province of Takhar suffering after a crippling earthquake. The organization delivers relief aid in the form of food, medicine, school supplies and winter relief supplies directly to those in need and offers general education programs designed to encourage self-sufficiency. ARO provides free education to 1100 girls and boys, as well as providing adult education programs to both women and men at the Technology Education Center (TEC) in Kabul, where it employs Afghan staff. The text of the article is reproduced as a pdf on the ARO site, though th
original
on ''LA Weekly blogs'' is now unavailable. The title shows up in a Yahoo! search, where the cached file may be seen in full. Also partly available on the Way Back Machine (see discussion page).
The centre operates from 7am to 7pm to accommodate the numbers. Courses at the TEC include computing, Dari, Pashtu, English, math, science, and job skills training. ARO operates with an all-volunteer team and no paid office or warehouse space and with minimal overhead in the United States. The organization spends less than 7 percent on administration and fundraising in the United States and Afghanistan, and attempts to put the maximum percentage of donor contributions to work in Afghanistan. All donations to ARO are tax deductible as allowable by IRS tax code. Afghanistan Relief Organization is not to be confused with the original UK charity Afghan Relief, set up by the writer and Sufi teacher Idries Shah in 1984 and removed from the registry in 2002, having ceased operations.Afghan Relief was registered with the UK Charity Commission (no. 289910). It was founded 25 July 1984 and ceased to exist and was removed from the registry on 3 October 2002. Se
Charity Commission record
It used the same Post Office box number in London as the Society for Sufi Studies for its address.


Activities


Aid supplies

In February 2002, for the first time in almost 30 years, a commercial 747 aircraft landed at Kabul International Airport, carrying desperately needed humanitarian supplies for Afghanistan Relief.The ''United Press International'' article is reproduced in full on the AfghanRelief site
here
Teaming up with two nonprofit organizations,
Evergreen International Airlines Evergreen International Airlines was a charter and cargo airline based in McMinnville, Oregon, United States. Wholly owned by Evergreen International Aviation, it had longstanding ties to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). It operated co ...
' Evergreen Humanitarian and Relief Services Inc. and Mercy Corps, and with the help of Microsoft, $2 million worth of aid supplies, much of it collected by Afghanistan Relief Organization following an appeal, were shipped aboard the plane. Items included hygiene kits, newborn and baby kits, livestock feed, winter clothing and blankets, school kits, and medical supplies At a meeting hosted by University of California, Los Angeles's International Institute on 7 February 2002, Noor Delawari, an advisory board member of the Afghanistan Foundation and chair of the ARO, spoke of the urgent need for aid in Afghanistan:


Education

Afghanistan Relief Organization has also raised funds for the training of teachers and the construction of rural libraries in Afghanistan. The fundraising events have been supported by many celebrities, including
Halle Berry Halle Maria Berry (; born Maria Halle Berry; August 14, 1966) is an American actress. She began her career as a model and entered several beauty contests, finishing as the first runner-up in the Miss USA pageant and coming in sixth in the Mis ...
, former President
George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...
,
Cher Cher (; born Cherilyn Sarkisian; May 20, 1946) is an American singer, actress and television personality. Often referred to by the media as the Honorific nicknames in popular music, "Goddess of Pop", she has been described as embodying female ...
, Will Ferrell, Jodie Foster, Jake Gyllenhaal, ''
Kite Runner ''The Kite Runner'' is the first novel by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini. Published in 2003 by Riverhead Books, it tells the story of Amir, a young boy from the Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul. The story is set against a backdrop of t ...
'' author
Khaled Hosseini Khaled Hosseini (;Pashto/Dari ; born March 4, 1965) is an Afghan Americans, Afghan-American novelist, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR goodwill ambassador, and former physician. His debut novel ''The Kite Runner'' (2003) wa ...
, Angelina Jolie,
Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...
, Eva Mendes, Steve Nash and Natalie Portman. Afghan Ambassador Said Tayeb Jawad visited Los Angeles, California on 23 February 2007 to deliver the keynote address at the ARO's annual fundraiser, ''Peace Through Education''. According to a
United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to ...
(UNICEF) Education Fact Sheet (plus Q and A) for Afghanistan, 2007: Film producers Participant Productions and
Paramount Vantage Paramount Vantage (also known as Paramount Classics) was a film distribution label of Paramount Pictures (which, in turn, has Paramount Global as its parent company), charged with producing, purchasing, distributing and marketing films, generally ...
have designated ARO as one of the non-governmental organization (NGO) partners in a social action campaign to accompany the award-winning film, '' The Kite Runner'', based on Khaled Hosseini's international best-seller, through an introduction by the author. In 2007, Paramount Classics and
DreamWorks DreamWorks may refer to: * DreamWorks Pictures, an American film production company of Amblin ** DreamWorks Television, an American television production company and division of the film studio ** DreamWorks Records, an American record label and f ...
Pictures studios donated 500 laptop computers to schoolchildren in Kabul. The ARO distributed the computers, provided by the One Laptop per Child initiative which is aimed at children in developing countries. ''Kite Runner'' author Khaled Hosseini is quoted as saying that "Education of the general population is critical to the transformation of Afghanistan's political and economic condition."


Midwifery training

With deaths in pregnancy or in childbirth so high in Afghanistan, and few trained women there to assist with childbirth, the training of midwives is another major project for the Afghanistan Relief Organization. In 2006, one in 60 Afghan women died of pregnancy-related causes, giving the country one of the world's highest maternal mortality rates, second only to Sierra Leone. The infant mortality rate was about 135 per 1,000 live births in 2006, which is an improvement from the 165 per 1,000 in 2001, but is still far too high.


See also

*
Humanitarian aid Humanitarian aid is material and logistic assistance to people who need help. It is usually short-term help until the long-term help by the government and other institutions replaces it. Among the people in need are the homeless, refugees, and ...


References


External links


Afghanistan Relief Organization
* Disaster Relief in Afghanistan{{Cite web, title=Home {{! Tikkun Olam International , url=https://t-o-i.org/ , website=Tikkun Olam International , accessdate=2015-12-01 , language=en-US , url-status=dead , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20151018194158/https://t-o-i.org/ , archivedate=18 October 2015 Charities based in California Foreign charities operating in Afghanistan Education in Kabul Medical and health organisations based in Afghanistan Cypress, California