On March 8, 2023, HAWCA gathered to celebrate International Women's Day, where women's rights and their difficult economic and social situations were discussed.

In addition, poems describing the struggle and standing of women were recited, and theatrical content was also presented.

Sediqa Darwishi, Acting Director of HAWCA, stated at the beginning of her speech:

"On March 8, we congratulate all the women of the world on this women's solidarity day and we hope that the women's day will be an excuse to wake up and fight more for their rights!"

In last, everyone wished that the women of the world, especially the heroic women of Afghanistan, would get all their rights so that the pigeon of progress and development of the country would fly with two wings and bring peace and progress to our bereaved and wounded country.

Afghan women face all kinds of violence, some of which are not considered violence even from the point of view of today's society, including verbal and psychological violence that women face every day. And more painful is the fact that women cannot go to any kind of justice and legal center in the country if they found that their rights are being violated by their partners, brothers, or any other person in society. This means, women now bear all types of harassment and physical violence without being helped, supported, or filing a complaint for it.

On November 25th, the day for the elimination of violence against women, HAWCA student girls come together to celebrate this day and joined their hands for the solidarity of women in Afghanistan. This program was organized by girls and women of this educational and support center of HAWCA. Topics such as violence against women, causes of violence against women in Afghanistan, how to fight against the perpetrators of violence, and the determination and standing of women to achieve their rights were among the topics discussed by the students of this center.

One of the students said, "We women always talk about violence, but I stand in front of you today and say that fighting and standing in front of the obstacles are preventing us from achieving our rights, and fighting for our rights is the only way left for us to stand for ourselves and all other women who face domestic violence and their voice ending in vain and no support is there for women whom their rights are extremely violated by anyone in the society. I am able to stand in front of you today and say that we are not the women of yesterday who bear violence anymore since now I am aware of my rights and I have to stand for my rights and the rights of other women like me".

She added, "Maybe we all have come across many definitions of violence in books, magazines, and social media, but the definition we can have about violence from our own life history will fill the pages, and it is unbearable for any human to be in such a situation. Each of us experienced many types of violence in our daily lives, so when we can say "no" to violence, we all fight together against it, and with one voice we say that we cannot bear violence anymore and we need to stand together to stop the violence against women and gender discrimination".

On behalf of HAWCA, I congratulate all the freedom-loving and oppressed women of the world and Afghanistan, who lives in a bad social and economic situation on March 8th International Women's Day.

115 years ago on March 8, more than 15,000 women workers at a New York City textile factory protested against the poor working conditions, which were suppressed by the police. In 1910, in recognition of this courageous struggle of women, Clara Zetkin proposed March 8th as International Women's Day at the International Women's Conference, which was accepted by the majority of votes.

But with the passage of decades, unfortunately, women all over the world are not only oppressed of their rights but also struggle with many atrocities. Violence against women has increased day by day, today, women in our country must fight for their basic rights in life, such as the right to work and education.

Hoping for a better world for women!

It is since a year that our project titled ‘’ Providing Health & Legal Support to Refugees in Takhar Province, Afghanistan’’ is working in Takhar province for well-being of the refugees lives, with an especial on children in this area. The project is funded and implemented with special cooperation of FONS MALLORQUI, and it was part of the project aim to provide support to refugee children under serious risk of malnutrition and need for health support. As per the UN statistics, 24.4 million of Afghans will be plunged into poverty by mid of 2022 includes 12.9 million children. And we are very concerned that situation can be worse than imagined and number of people needs food and health support jumped to millions in just a matter of few months, a course of time which have been exposed to extreme political transformations in the country.

Millions of people are internally displaced within Afghanistan, without access to food or drinking water and shelter, the main cause of these displacements were the internal wars and urge of poverty in the countryside while each day the water level drops quickly down and the coming years are expected to be more difficult for today’s government to respond to the needs of millions of people which as per UN statistics, by mid of 2022 almost 97% of the country’s population are going to live under poverty line. The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated significantly with the recent political and socioeconomic developments. Essential services are on the brink of collapse, exacerbating the needs of an already vulnerable population is yet to be discussed.

Under this project, our team observed the situation of the people in Takhar province and witnessed the sad fact of significant increase in level of poverty day by day in this province. HAWCA team has been stationed in Takhar province and provided urgent support to the vulnerable people in this province. We have distributed food packages for hundreds of children who were under serious risk of malnutrition and we believe this will effect children the most negative way and hunger is not bearable. Lack of nutrition is now widely effecting each Afghan child and this is a crucial fact unfortunately that the number of children needs basic nutrition increases each day as the country’s whole economic system is at merge of falling down. No investment in the country and growing immigration rate of people who are leaving this country as they lost their hope for this country with closure of businesses, one after another has caused millions of people to lose their jobs or are jobless.

Many children we visited for support having just one-time meal which is mostly boiled corn, these children lost their weight to a concerning level, and we found that almost 96% of these children were suffering acute hunger. Many of these children complained about their health issues and some needed serious medical attention. Children explained that they are only having one-time meal barely in a day!

Children are considered the most vulnerable part of society and the recent political transformation, economic failure of the country, shockingly increase rate of domestic violence, especially while the under-age marriage threats millions of young girls remained in homes with closed doors effected children widely as well. HAWCA feels most responsible and very concerned for the situation of children and women in the country, and aims to provide assistance with the provision of education, food, health and legal support of the children in the most difficult times of Afghanistan yet.

As we all know, the situation in Afghanistan is too bad. People in Afghanistan are living below the poverty line. Women and children are not paid attention to in terms of health, and if they are paid attention to, it is very little. Most people cannot afford to go to the doctor and buy medicine. Hence, the HAWCA team went to Khust, which is a remote province. There is a lack of doctors, hospitals, and medicines. People cannot afford three times a meal, therefore they are very sick and physically they are weak. There is significant unemployment in the Khust province. The people of Khust Province complain about the lack of living facilities. When they saw the HAWCA team, they were very happy, and they requested more cooperation. They had too many stories of their harsh and difficult life for the HAWCA team. For instance.

Bibi Gul: an elderly woman, said she is the only breadwinner in her family and because of hard and tough work, she always has pain in her knees and can't walk properly. She was very happy when she saw HAWCA’s medical team in the area to get treatment for her knee pain. She added she wants to get well as soon as possible, so she can provide food for her children.

HAWCA team is thanking and is very grateful to FONS MALLORQUI for supporting the people of Afghanistan.

With the school doors being closed to young Afghan girls, girls' hope for a better tomorrow is not lost but strengthened, a hope that will be the reality for the future and tomorrow. It is very sad that it has been a year since the doors of schools across the country have been closed to Afghan girls, they have shed tears hoping today and tomorrow the doors of schools will be reopened. In these difficult political situations, psychological and mental attention and support for Afghan girls can keep their hope alive for a better future. Education is a human right that no one can give or take away, we stand together and hold all Afghan girl’s hands in these hardships.

During a program that was held in HAWCA's office, the girls of the training and literacy courses gathered together to celebrate Teacher's Day, and on this day, they had conversations with their teachers and thanked them for their hard work and efforts.

It is an undeniable fact that war causes extreme insecurity, poverty, and scarcity, and is the main regulator of boosting domestic violence against women and young girls in a country. In Afghanistan, with a long history of civil wars, a huge number of people are affected directly, these effects are deep and devastating that led to mass displacement of people in the country. Internally displaced people survive the harshest and most extreme conditions and especially children who are at serious risk of malnutrition and various types of diseases. They do not have shelter and live in wide open spaces and this has caused many of those children to face illness and risk of death. As these IDPs are deprived of all the basic necessities of life, without pure drinking water food, and, access to health clinics. And putting aside that these children also remained out of school and education adds to their horrific living conditions. Poverty and hostile living conditions directly increased the domestic violence against women as well, mostly women and young girls are subjected to unbearable violence in such families in the country. Non-stop pregnancy, and the existence of no health care support for women's health, made the conditions even worse for the women who are mainly more affected than men in the country.

One of HAWCA’s goals is to provide urgent food and health aid to such communities, especially women and children. HAWCA, with the financial support of the FONS MALLORQUI organization, distributed food and health packages that included flour, sugar, oil, soybeans, beans, macaroni, shampoo, soap, and washing powder to needy families.

One of these families is the Khujesta family. She is 30 years old, but the problems in her life have crushed her so much that she cannot walk properly and suffers from back pain. She cannot afford her medical operation and medical needs. She says, "She has spent her whole life not having a good day, and having something to eat makes my greatest day in her life. My children always sleep hungry; I don't have the ability to work. But despite all the problems and severe back pain, I wash clothes in people's houses. Today I feel like it’s Eid, I learned the true meaning of Eid today when you have bread in your house and eat it together with your children.

We strongly condemn the cruel, brutal and anti-human suicide attack on the innocent female students of the Kaaj Training Center in Dasht Barchi, Kabul on September 30, 2022, and we sympathize with the families of the victims from the bottom of our hearts.

We will always remember them and follow their path for education and knowledge, and to not let their fight for right of education vague away, we will continue and step in their path, and education is a woman's full right, which cannot be taken away from her and we must pave the way so that women can make the world a better place with education for everyone. HAWCA is constantly seeking to establish centers for providing education to women, and this year we have been able to provide more than 500 Afghan women with the opportunity to learn literacy, vocational skills and engaged in empowerment programs for women. And yet, we are looking to expand these educational centers so to prevent women to be deprived from education at massive levels and fill the gap in these very difficult political situations of the country.

By lighting a candle, the HAWCA team shared their grief with the victims of this incident and expressed their regretful feelings for such incidents from the bottom of their hearts.