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Vital Voices Welcomes Andeisha Farid to Westport

Vital Voices Connecticut Council Welcomes Andeisha Farid


Passionate Educator Investing in Afghanistan’s Future


 

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Friday, November 9  from 7-9 pm


Christ & Holy Trinity Church

Find out what's happening in Westportwith free, real-time updates from Patch.


75 Church Lane, Westport, CT


 


 


 


In November, the Connecticut Council of Vital Voices will host an exciting series of events to support the work of Andeisha Farid, the founder and executive director of the Afghan Child Education and Care Organization (AFCECO).  The public is invited to meet Andeisha in Westport and Ridgefield to hear her speak about the current state of affairs for women and children in Afghanistan, and the critical role she has played in helping to rebuild her country.


 


Andeisha believes that education “is a practical remedy for the ignorance, oppression, hatred, and poverty so deeply embedded in society.” Since 2004, she and her team have been providing a safe haven for Afghan children experiencing poverty, trauma and abuse.  Today, AFCECO consists of 11 orphanages and has educated more than 600 children and employs nearly 200 people, many of them widows and university students.


 


Andeisha was born in 1983 during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan - on the very day that her village was turned to rubble by a Soviet air strike. Her family fled to safety, taking refuge in a camp in a remote area of Iran; Andeisha remembers the camp as a “living graveyard” without clean water, medical facilities, education or protection. After eight years, her parents sent her to the first of many refugee camps in Pakistan where she began her education and became determined to become a teacher. In 2002, while attending University in Islamabad, she began working with the local Afghan community.  


 


Vital Voices Global Partnership is the largest international non-governmental organization that provides training and mentoring to innovative women leaders around the world. The Connecticut Council was established to support the work of Vital Voices. Over the years, the Council has invited women leaders from around the globe to Fairfield County to help raise awareness of the accomplishments of these extraordinary women.


 


For her outstanding work, Andeisha was bestowed the 10,000 Women Entrepreneurial Achievement Award at the Vital Voices Global Leadership Awards in 2010. Click here to view one of the many stories which Brian Williams of NBC Nightly News has featured on Andeisha’s works.


 


Suggested tax-deductible donation is $25 for adults and $5 for students.  For more information, to learn about joining the Host Committee and to RSVP contact Roberta Cooper at 203-227-8973 or robertacooper@optonline.net.


 


 


Her goal is for every Afghan child “to feel they need not be afraid to imagine an Afghanistan with possibility and opportunity – that’s my dream for them and all of us as well.”

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