[Laura Berwick]

https://laceonrace.com/2021/09/18/september-community-partner-women-for-afghan-women/

September Community Partner – Women for Afghan Women

Discussion

[Rebecca McClinton]

I enjoyed checking out the website for our community partner this month. I love that Lace on Race lives out its mission in action this way every month. It sets the example of how I too must give of my first fruits both here and to the other organizations in my community doing this work. The city near me has put in a bid to open an Afghan resettlement office, but in looking into it just briefly, one thing I noticed right away was that it is white led, which stands in contrast to the Afghan led leadership this community parter we are supporting this month has, and I’m reminded the importance of following BIPOC leadership and lived experience in this way.

[Emily Holzknecht]

Reading your comment reminded me to look into what is being done in my area. I found an Afghan refugee who is helping other Afghan refugees now through an organization that used to be white people helping Afghani people, but now he is part of that organization too. This is a good thing AND Women for Afghan Women goes a step farther in that it is led by women for women in addition to being Afghani.

[Rebecca McClinton]

That’s cool. I saw that the white led organization in our area was seeking advice from Afghani people who have immigrated, which is a good start, but still not the same as being Afghani led. It’s so very easy to get into white savior mode, both in general and I think even more so when it comes to other countries…countries often made devastated by colonialism in the first place.

[Kelsi Watters]

This morn’ing I saw that Uber has a fund to help Afghan families get settled. However, it’s likely it may be a predominantly white led effort. I am glad also that LoR is living out its mission in this way, by supporting Afghan women and girls by partnering with a BIPOC-LED organization. ‘

[Emily Holzknecht]

I appreciate how you and Rebecca both emphasized how important it is that this organization is run by Afghan women for Afghan women.

[Christin Spoolstra]

Grateful to see this as September’s community partner, to be a part of supporting Afghan women as they support other Afghan women

[Emily Holzknecht]

I am glad to hear that Women for Afghan Women is a community partner for September. The US and that means I am greatly responsible for the suffering of women in Afghanistan now and in the past as well as for the treatment of Afghan women in the United States. This is a way of doing something to help mitigate harm.

[Shara Cody]

Even though this issue has come to the forefront of media right now due to the changes in the involvement of the US in Afghanistan causing a crisis, that WAW has been doing this work for 20 years reminds me that this work isn’t new and isn’t happening only because of a change. I’m glad to be part of our community that supports other communities through these community partners. I’ve engaged financially for the month but am planning to do more before the end of the month.

[Rebecca McClinton]

that’s a good point, Shara, and reminds me how white supremacy clings to anything that’s sensationalized with the media of the moment. the needs have existed far before the media or current events got ahold of them.

[Christina Sonas]

There are so many organizations doing critical work, domestically and internationally. $1000 can enable so much, whether it’s mutual aid or jump starting a larger project. Thank you for aggregating our funds via LOR to give a significant boost to those we support.

[Laura Berwick]

As I was researching groups to support to help people in and from Afghanistan, most of the ones being recommended around are white-led or are large NGOs. And part of me still has an… not instinctive, but now instinct-level?… trust in these types of organizations. It now wars with a distrust that… while potentially valuable, is rooted in cynicism more than abolitionist thinking?

I was happy to find this organization, and happy that I’m finding Muslim-led and non-white-led organizations local to me in Seattle who are doing the work. But I feel like… it may be that there are communities taking in refugees who perhaps don’t have large Afghan populations, and that Afghan-Americans are also… US Americans with jobs and lives that are not focused on activism and outreach. There may be white-led local organizations supporting Afghan families immigrating to those areas, or supporting a small Afghan-American population in assisting…

I feel like I need to hold all of these things. I need to work on my cynicism, because it’s not doing anyone any favors. At a time of immediate crisis like this, it may be that all hands need to be on deck. I think I’m landing on, if there were not non-white led efforts in my area, and white-led efforts were providing no-strings-attached direct aid, I’d support that. I’m glad there are global efforts and local efforts I personally can support. I think those need to be looked for first, and they’re the hardest to find. But I think I need to make sure that, if I lived in an area like the one I grew up in, I was still doing my local part if there was a local part, and not… use the excuse that I was part of an all-white enclave to avoid it? I feel like that’s a danger I’ve fallen prey to at times.

So I’m holding myself to account in the space between cynical distrust and white saviorism and expecting BIPOC to do all the work. I feel like it’s a layer of onion I haven’t really worked on for a while, and some of it is new.

[Rebecca McClinton]

that last line especially. All the dialectical balances your words have me considering, and that space between…the space between being a microwave and a slow cooker…between looking for BIPOC leadership and expecting them to take that leadership…between action and saviorism. There’s so many, and the think about dialectics and balance is that it’s constantly moving, readjusting, not a stagnant at all, and I have to be prepared to continually readjust and re-examine all the time.

[Julia Tayler]

What a great community partner! Everyone else’s comments motivated me (I should have motivated myself) to see what my community is doing. We have an “international” center led by a white woman. There are a lot of people helping but it was a little disconcerting. We have a real housing problem so that is what the story concentrated on. The lack of affordable housing is a crisis in our area. The story was a couple of weeks old and didn’t know exactly when the refugees would be arriving so I will need to follow up. Thank you for finding this very worthwhile organization to engage with.

[Christin Spoolstra]

Julia, were you able to find out more?

[Julia Tayler]

Hi, sorry for the delay. Life has been a little hairy. The refugees just got here and we have a shortage of people to help. They need more employees. Luckily the refugees are coming in waves but it’s a challenging situation. I’ve been meaning to reach out and haven’t so thank you for the reminder 2 weeks ago 🙂

[Christin Spoolstra]

Thanks, Julia. I appreciate that you’re continuing to check in with them about their needs.

[Rhonda Freeman]

I am consistently appreciative of how the community partners we choose align with our North Star. I am honored to be part of mitigating harm to Afghan women.

[Author]

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