Building Healthy Afghan Communities
PARSA programs are created at the grassroots level. They are designed to make real, lasting impact in the communities we work in. They evolve organically over time, and are led by dedicated, inspired leaders who are deeply committed to PARSA’s vision for a healthy Afghanistan. Support from individual donors around the world means we are able to design programs that we know will be successful, and implement them based on what we have learned in over two decades working in Afghanistan.
Youth Mentors: Sisters 4 Sisters and Brothers 4 Brothers
This intensive five days per week program was originally developed in 2017 as a leadership, mentorship, and education program to provide an intensive informal education program for vulnerable youth in PARSA’s Afghan Scout program. Weekly activities include leadership training, psychosocial support, English, computers, mathematics, vocational training, and opportunities for earning stipends and for paid internships. Participants conduct outreach to youth in their neighborhoods where they pass on what they have learned in the core program. The increased need for mental health programs, and access to education for girls, makes this program vital to Afghan communities.
Afghan Scouts
The Afghan Scouts is a network of volunteer adult Scout Masters who conduct the Afghan Scout leadership program nationally through the development of local Scout troops for youth boys and girls ages 7 through 24. Scouting has a history in Afghanistan dating back to 1931, and since 2008 PARSA has played a key role in re-establishing the national Scout program after it fell into nonexistence during the conflicts of the eighties. With PARSA’s support, Afghanistan became an official member of World Scouting in 2020 and as of early 2021 there were over 11,000 Scout youth active representing all 34 provinces of Afghanistan, supported by over 600 volunteer adult Scout Masters trained by PARSA and certified by World Scouting. Program activities consist of weekly troop meetings that follow an international curriculum tailored to the Afghan context, community service, and special events such as week-long Camporees.
PARSA engages select Scout Masters in our Education for a Sustainable Future program, supporting them to further strengthen the national Scout program, stabilize themselves as individuals, and to support their communities.
S4S Professional
S4S Professional was developed in 2022 to create pathways forward for women in an incredibly hostile social environment. The program provides a safe space where women who were employed professionals before August 2021 can grow as individuals, learn new skills, regain confidence in themselves and their abilities, and find ways to put their professional skills to use both to earn an income and to support their communities.
Women in S4S Professional learn the Education for a Sustainable Future curriculum and earn a stipend for participating in a structured work assignment related to three types of community service projects, which allows them to regain their dignity and confidence as they move forward to becoming self-sufficient again. The women have the opportunity to participate in the Trade Afghan Business Network to either conduct a job search or to start a small business as a part of their effort become financially independent.
Trade Afghan Economic Program
Trade Afghan is designed to provide training for Afghan entrepreneurs in business development, management, and access to market. It is designed for those at a micro-level of starting out an enterprise to those who have viable businesses with employees. Training components focus on supporting beneficiaries to learn how to develop products and services and sell them from the individual producer to those who have employees and need to expand. Training components include market analysis and access, quality control, financial management, and business planning. The program is designed to support beneficiaries at the level they need to begin and structured around four levels of business development.
In 2023 PARSA opened its Kabul Trade Afghan Economic Center to support beneficiaries with a mechanism for job search, an incubator program for small businesses, and work experience tracks. Plans for the Center include an onsite commercial kitchen, manufacturing facility, vocational training space, restaurant, internet café, and bazaar/showroom for Trade Afghan businesses to showcase their products and network.
Safe Spaces: Transition to Community Program
PARSA’s Transition to Community Program is a comprehensive individualized program that serves vulnerable adults who need support to reintegrate into an Afghan community including returnees, women without family support, and persons with specific needs. Initiated and managed through the psychosocial department, each participants has an individualized plan and participates in multiple programs to that support them to sustainably reintegrate into the community.
Please contact info@afghanistan-parsa.org to learn more.