Why is OWAY needed? (Testimonials):
Educating girls at the undergraduate level is very vital. This is the stage of personality building to decide the future life and plans. Completing undergrads education can economically and socially help a girl to help her life and her family’s. There are very few undergraduates programs in Afghanistan at the moment. Low levels of information about these initiatives have helped few girls to access the opportunities. The “One Woman a Year (OWAY)” Scholarship support can be an excellent added opportunity where more girls are identified and encouraged to benefit from the scholarship opportunities. The fact that OWAY is keen to partner with civil society women led organizations to increase the outreach is a very unique and needed approach where women’s organizations can help in identifying and encouraging competent girls to benefit from the scholarships. Provision of scholarships for ‘undergrads’ studies for Afghan girls will empowerment them where they can personally and professionally turn into future women leaders in the country. – Samira Hamidi, OWAY Board Adviser and former director of Afghan Women’s Network
[In] 2014 with the [NATO] troop pullout, there is going to be even less international involvement in Afghanistan, and so Afghanistan needs to figure out a way to stand on its own two feet… through empowering women who are very disenfranchised…. through an educational opportunity, through OWAY, so that they can then take it back to their communities, become a legacy in their communities for other women who are thinking about becoming educated within Afghanistan. – Kim Motley, OWAY patron and board adviser, Afghanistan’s only Foreign Attorney who has litigated in Afghanistan’s legal system and Attorney for the Italian, British, and U.A.E. Embassies
In Afghanistan women only make 19% of the university students. This number is small but it means that thousands of women will have a better chance at employment, empowerment and economic independence than many others in a country that has suffered for decades. These women will be the pioneers of change and of creating a women’s movement and an independent Afghanistan. Adding even one more woman to this courageous league is a step towards a lasting revolution. – Noorjahan Akbar, co-founder of Young Women for Change and an undergraduate student at Dickinson College, USA.
No one but the Afghan women themselves can decide what is good for them. And nothing more than education can enable them to make that good decision. – Jawed Nader, Director of the British & Irish Agencies Afghanistan Group.
My father always said to me – my daughter, never learn for yourself. Learn and share with others. I am here to learn so I can go back to Afghan and share in the rebuilding of women in my country. – Farahnaz Afaq, a 19-year-old Afghan woman from the School of Leadership Afghanistan, graduate of Dauntsey’s secondary school in England and currently completing college preparatory courses in the United States.
We have appeared in:
- Oxford Brookes TV news series 8 episode 8 21 Mar 2014
- Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House, event on The Status of Afghan Women: Beyond 2014 2 Dec 2013
- “One Woman a Year, Empowering Women through Education” Merton College (University of Oxford) Alumni Magazine 2013
- BBC One South Today television 6:30 pm 13 Jun 2013
- The David Prever Show – BBC Radio Oxford 13 Jun 2013
Partners:
- British and Irish Agencies Afghanistan Group (BAAG), a unique advocacy and networking agency which aims to support humanitarian and development programmes in Afghanistan, and a source of expert advice for policymakers, donors, media and the public.
- School of Leadership Afghanistan (SOLA), working to bring quality education and the first UK certified curriculum to secondary school education in Afghanistan.
- Empowerment Center for Women (ECW), a non-governmental, non-political and non-profit welfare organization aimed to support the expansion of assets and capabilities of Afghan women to participate in, negotiate with, influence, control and hold accountable institutions that affect their lives.
- Education Hope Consultancy Services (EHCS), one of the leading consultancies in Afghanistan.
