Member Video Of The Week
Video from International Rescue Committee.
From Our Blog
The Curious Case of Afghanistan’s Forgotten Parliamentarians
By Jason Hatch and Karen Kraft, Operation Snow Leopard
Interior of the newly inaugurated Wolesi Jirga Hall of Afghan Parliament (Photo Credit: Wolesi Jirga Website 2015)
Background
The Fall of a Republic
The last tragic iteration of a democratically elected government in Afghanistan came to an end on 15 August 2021.
It had been established in 2005, with its electoral branch consisting of a lower house (Wolesi Jirga – 250 seats) and an upper house (Meshrano Jirga – 120 seats). The Afghanistan Constitution, ratified in 2004, explicitly stated that men and women had equal rights and duties before the law. It reserved specific seats in both chambers for female candidates, reflecting a commitment to gender equality supported by male leaders advocating for women’s representation in the newly formed republic.
Recent Blog Posts
- A Continuum of Care for Children on the Move
- Protecting Children in Emergencies: Perspectives from Syria and Ukraine
- Making a Difference: The Impact of IRC Seattle Co-Sponsorship Program
- What is Impact Sourcing and Why It Can Help the Refugee Crisis
- Pangea Giving 2024 Grants Announced!
Subscribe to our blog by email.
Organization Profile
Empowering Communities: CARE's Response to the Global Crisis of Internally Displaced People
By Amber Cortes
CARE partner PARC (Palestine Agricultural Relief Committee) distributes 596 hygiene kits to displaced families in two shelters in Rafah, a town on the border with Egypt that used to have around 200,000 inhabitants before October 2023 and now hosts over one million people, crowded in a small space in harrowing conditions. Each hygiene kit covers the needs of a family of five during one month and contains a bath towel, soap, shampoo, laundry powder, toothpaste and toothbrushes, wipes, sanitary pads, and disinfectant. Rafah, southern Gaza, 6 January 2024. Photo: CARE
In her 16 years working with CARE’s Humanitarian Team, Camille Davis has never seen anything so dire as the situation in Gaza.
“And that’s because the situation is really so desperate and horrific,” says Davis, who is now the Senior Director of Humanitarian Resource Mobilization and Planning at CARE, an international humanitarian organization that delivers emergency relief and long-term development projects in 109 countries around the world.
“I mean, we’re six months into this crisis. There is mass displacement, we’re talking about most of the population of Gaza being displaced. And it is a really small area.”
Goalmaker
Emi Mahmoud, UNHCR Ambassador
By Joel Meyers, Director of Communications, GlobalWA
Emtithal (Emi) Mahmoud, Sudanese-American poet and activist, who won the 2015 Individual World Poetry Slam championship and in 2018 became a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, visiting the Far North Region of Cameroon. The region hosts about 121,000 refugees, mostly Nigerians fleeing Boko Haram, and over 427,000 internally displaced people, some displaced by extreme weather events and conflicts linked to climate change. © UNHCR/Caroline Irby
“So many people who are in some of the worst situations humanly imaginable are the most optimistic and hopeful and resourceful people out there. If we put vulnerable people at the forefront of change and give them even a fraction of the resources that we have, that we throw away in leftover food, or instead of buying a new upgrade on our phone, for example, if we just put aside a little bit of that, it will make a huge difference.
“I see the kids who are in the refugee camps all over the world, and I don’t see hatred in them. I don’t see them saying things or have feeling things like, ‘the first thing I’m gonna do when I get out of here is get revenge on the person who kicked me out of my home.’ That’s not what refugees say. That’s not what I’m seeing. What I’m seeing is: ‘if I had a moment, if I had a chance, I would go back, I’d rebuild it better. I would make sure nothing like this could happen again. I would help anyone who’s displaced, anyone who’s a refugee.’
“That’s the hope for me. Knowing that the people who are the most affected, they themselves want us to move forward into peace, into prosperity, into change.”
– Emtithal “Emi” Mahmoud
Emi Mahmoud is a Sudanese American and former refugee who is a celebrated poet, activist, founder, and UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador who now lives in Philadelphia. Her refugee experience is singular, though not atypical.