About Us

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Let’s change tomorrow by working together today

Decades of conflict and years of drought had destroyed much of Afghanistan prior to September 2001. Almost all social services and government infrastructure were destroyed; food shortages were widespread and millions of talented Afghans had emigrated to other countries. The root causes of these conflicts are the nation’s geographical location and political situation, ethnic tensions and nationalism, poverty, unemployment and, most importantly, lack of education.
 
After the collapse of the Taliban regime in 2001 and a decade of huge investment and enormous efforts by the international community, Afghanistan still remains one of the world’s poorest and most dangerous countries. There has been a resurgence of violence,  insurgency, political instability, the economy has collapsed and there is little to no health care system in many parts of the country. People need peace, security, education, health care, food, and most importantly they want to be self-sufficient.
 
It is possible to meet these needs, because Afghanistan has human resources, the support of international community, and - based on new discoveries and reports - Afghanistan has extensive deposits of natural resources, amounting to an estimated $3 trillion. It will be hard to utilise any of these resources without the continued efforts of the international community in helping the Afghan people.
 
Afghanistan is too often negatively portrayed and that can make some people less likely to support charities working to help the Afghan people. Afghan Action is working hard to break down these negative barriers and help to change perceptions of Afghanistan – and people’s lives: “let’s change tomorrow by working together today”.

In 2005, we opened the doors of our training school in Karte Se, Kabul.  Afghan Action’s aim was and still is to offer hope of a brighter future to young men and women by equipping them with a useful skill, basic literacy, numeracy and IT skills.

Our work has expanded to projects in the UK where we work with the Afghan diaspora in order to help their voice be heard on both a local and national level. We also promote Afghanistan and want to inform people of the positive aspects of the country which are, sadly, all too often overlooked.

How do we achieve our aims?

We provide our trainees with an invaluable practical skill which they can put to good use in the long term, as well as providing them with literacy and numeracy classes, on-site healthcare and a nourishing mid-day meal.

Here in the UK, we raise funds to help our projects by selling the carpets made by our trainees as well as receiving funding from our hardworking fundraisers.

In the UK, we run workshops seminars and classes for Afghans and non-Afghans to exchange their views on Afghanistan and related issues.  Examples of some of these events can be found in our Building Bridges section.

Our Future

We want to take what we are doing now, do more of it and do it better! We want to reach more people and communities- let’s change tomorrow by working together today. We can’t do any of this on our own, so please take a look at our Support Us page for details about how you can get involved.

Trustees and Board Members
Ken Bartlett OBE
Tony Baldry MP

Lady Bridget Cowper-Coles

Sean Crane
The Hon. Michael McLaren QC
Bonnie Mahboubian
Horia Mosadiq
Samad Samadi
Sheldon Stoutt
Zahra Qadir

Business Planning Committee (for Afghan Action)
Maj Gen Malcolm Wood (Chair)

Ken Bartlett

Chris Beales

Samad Samadi

Gerry Shattock
Luby Sparber

Mark Sweeney

Afghan Action London Team – staff and volunteers
Chris Beales
Yama Wida
Rahnuma Noor
Valerie Kaye
Maliha Kabir
Fahim Behzaad
Nina Fortnam-Paynter
Yasmin Omotosho

East Yorkshire Schools Development Worker

Jean Harlow

Kabul Team

Samad Samadi
Samim Faizy
Ahmad Fawad Asir
Habibullah
Fawad Rasouli
Sahar
Shamim

Building Bridges Steering Group
Richard Rathwell
Horia Mosadiq
Saif Ahmad
Dr. Mark Goodwin
Rahnuma Noor
Maliha Kabir
Sima Azad
Yama Wida

Website

Patricia de Vries
Yama Wida