Peace Action - Afghanistan projects

The organization Peace Action takes on issues related to peace and justice. The following report is focused on actions the organization has taken related to Afghanistan. Peace Action wants our troops withdrawn from Afghanistan. Note the report also refers to Afghan-based organizations (NGOs of a sort) with which they met while in the country. I assume these are organizations which budget their revenues for service, not profit.

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The URL for the item is: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/161/t/288/content.jsp?content_KEY=6583

Late September and early October was a busy time for Peace Action. Peace Action’s Policy and Organizing Director Paul Kawika Martin visited Afghanistan as part of a citizen peace delegation, and upon return to the US went directly to the White House, where national Peace Action staff, board members, and local Peace Action members were participating in civil disobedience to draw President Obama’s attention to ongoing opposition to the war. While in Afghanistan Paul met with Women for Women International, a women’s civic rights and vocational educational organization: the Welfare Association for the Development of Afghanistan (WADAN), a drug treatment program; the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, the Director for an NGO supporting children displaced by the war; as well as several Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Business Leaders and one of President Karzai’s brothers.

Paul reported that much his findings echoed New Jersey Peace Action Executive Director Madelyn Hoffman, who previously visited Afghanistan. In a recent Op-Ed by Madelyn she reports that:

• Eighty-seven percent of Afghans have no access to clean water.
• Fifty-three percent of Afghans live below the government’s poverty line.
• Seventy percent of the population is undernourished.
• Infant mortality is the third highest in the world.
• More than a quarter of Afghan children die before the age of 5.
• Life expectancy for women is just over 43 years, while life expectancy for men is just under 43.
• Literacy rate for men is 35% and for women, anywhere from 10% - 20%.
• Women and girls still risk their lives in some places when attending school. The progress promised Afghan women remains just a promise.

To help change the dire situation in Afghanistan, in addition to issuing call-in days, collecting petition signatures and direct lobbying, on October 5th, the national Peace Action staff, board members, and members from along the East Coast participated in civil disobedience at the White House to raise media attention and draw President Obama’s attention to public opposition to the war. Over 300 people participated in the event throughout the day with about 100 risking arrest. The Peace Action contingent included 23 people participating in a die-in in front of the White House gates. After conducting the die-in for three hours, and receiving conflicting accounts about whether or not they would be arrested, the participants were, without warning, violently shoved and dragged away from the gates. However the event generated significant media attention around Afghanistan from news outlets around the world, including a front page story on the Washington Post.

Click here to read an article from the Washington Post on the days events