Completed Project Profiles

The Community Empowerment and Reintegration Project (CERP)

This project was funded by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) through the Save the Children Sweden/Norway (SCS-N) in April 2004 with the goal to empower communities to participate in the rehabilitation of their own villages and districts. The main objectives were to improve people's livelihood and to advocate for the right of children to have access to education. Involving communities in working for their own solutions encouraged not only sustainability of the project but also utilized the skills needed to strive for national unity.

WADAN conducted civic education awareness events in seventeen districts in Nangarhar and Laghman provinces and has established eighty shuras (forty for women and forty for men) in Nangarhar and Laghman provinces. Eighty trainings were conducted in four districts of Nangarhar and Laghman provinces on 'the gender and the efficient working of shuras'.

The Community Empowerment & Reintegration Project in Nangarhar and Laghman provinces, women's shuras (community governance groups) focused on gender equity and women's rights. During an advocacy event, one participant said, "Today is a positive, historical turning point for Afghan women…"On the local level, women have started to speak out to help solve community problems. They have stressed tolerance, compromise and respect. They smooth problems between villagers as well as mediate domestic disputes.

The CERP project activities were designed in a way that identified the basic needs of the target communities, found indigenous solutions to the problems and challenges through participatory approaches, encouraged effective and constructive involvement of the target communities, promoted a sense of ownership and community empowerment, furthered self- esteem and self-actualization and trained community leaders to facilitate the training of children to play leading roles in their future. This project was completed at the end of December 2004.