2017.22.03 Visit by Mrs. Hiroko Tanaka and Mrs. Keiko Kawai from the Women’s Federation for World Peace.

Visit by Mrs. Hiroko Tanaka and Mrs. Keiko Kawai from the Women’s Federation for World Peace.

22 March 2017: Board member Mrs. Hiroko Tanaka and Mrs. Keiko Kawai from the Women’s Federation For World Peace (WFWP) visited the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Embassy and met with the First Secretary of Political Affair Mr. Basir Ahmad Hamdard. Mrs. Tanaka and Mrs. Kawai are close friends of Mr. Hamdard as they met during a homestay in 2008 when Mr. Hamdard was taking Japanese language courses and studied Japanese culture in Osaka.

The WFWP was established in 1991, and works to empower women to be peacebuilders and leaders in their communities around the world. They want to achieve this through education, advocacy, partnership, reconciliation and humanitarian service. Their Headquarters is in Tokyo, but the organization also has offices in South Korea and Taiwan with 10 000 members operating in 143 countries.

The WFWP have been working in Afghanistan in over 20 years, one of their more successful projects have been their sewing projects, where they have provided equipment’s like sewing machines for women to do tailoring work. The idea is to encourage self-employment.

Mr. Hamdard urged the WFWP to invest in more skilled labor projects in the future to help with the Afghan Women’s situation. Mrs. Tanaka and Mrs. Kawai said they would like to send teachers to Afghanistan to help the women there when the situation is better.

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