Women Empowered, Inc. – Afghanistan (WE – Afghanistan) works to advance rights for girls and women in Afghanistan with special focuses on education and gender equality. The nonprofit’s mission includes preventing gender-based violence and raising legal awareness among Afghan women. In addition, WE – Afghanistan increases economic independence among Afghan women by offering skill-building opportunities.

Last year, the organization won a Peace Projects grant from the Journalists and Writers Foundation to create and implement a unique program that teaches young journalists to advocate for social change through media. The program selects 15 young minds to train in journalism for six months. Training includes basic journalistic skill development, practical internship and fieldwork experience, and discussions of human rights and women’s rights issues. Ultimately, participants learn how to use journalism to increase public awareness of these critical matters.

Program participants go through three distinct units in the program. During the first two months, they study journalistic standards and conventions while exploring the human rights issues that matter most to them. For the next two months, they intern at a range of different media outlets and human rights organizations, where they work alongside professionals and learn directly from leaders in the field. Participants also copy edit, write reports, and familiarize themselves with industry-related technology. During the final two months, participants apply what they have learned directly to a personal project that they research and produce. The resulting product is shared with the program director and potentially disseminated to media outlets.

In addition to the media program, WE – Afghanistan offers several other programs. The organization has built and supported Afghan schools, created mobile health clinics in rural parts of the country, and advocated for women’s rights at several different levels of government. Further, the organization has provided women free legal assistance and counseling, and it has taught vocational training workshops in several different fields, from animal husbandry to tailoring.