Afghan Women's Community Aid

What is Afghan Women's Community Aid?

• The Stitch Initiative - selling items sewn by the Afghan women at local fairs and markets 
• Afghan Bread Company - an Afghan-led baking collective selling fresh-baked Afghan naan

The Impact of Your Gift

Over 300 Afghanis have relocated to Columbia since the return of the Taliban to power in 2021 made their lives there too dangerous. While other excellent local programs helped them to settle and meet their basic needs, many of the women felt lonely and depressed. 

Working with Afghan Women's Community Aid provides a sense of purpose, community, and extra spending money, while also building friendships across cultures. 

As an all-volunteer nonprofit, our expenses are very basic. We are seeking to raise $3,000 during CoMoGives to continue working together and growing our pilot projects in 2026. Some examples of what your gift could fund include:

• $100 pays for supplies, fees, and permits for entrepreneurial projects. These include our collective projects like The Stitch Initiative and Afghan Bread Company and helping individual Afghan women create their own projects. Typical costs include items like ribbon, backing, buttons, and fasteners (most of our fabric is donated), food handlers permits, craft fair fees, and ingredient costs. We help offset these costs during the growing stage of a business since it can take a while to break even!
• $50 pays for transportation to bring the Afghan women to and from one of our monthly meetings. Broadway Christian Church provides a bus and driver to bring the Afghan women to and from the meeting for a very reasonable fee of $50 per meeting. Rock Bridge Christian Church provides our meeting location at no charge.
• $40 pays for a Pashto-English translator at a meeting or training session. When possible, we hire translators from MU's Afghan Student Association. 
• $20 pays for meeting refreshments and supplies. Sitting down over tea is an important cultural element of Afghan gatherings. We also provide snacks and activities to occupy their preschool-age children when we gather.  

History

Afghan Women’s Community Aid began when Columbia Metro Rotary was approached by an Afghan immigrant at MU to help women refugees adapt to life in the United States. Metro’s Revenues for Refugees project was then funded through a 2022-2023 Rotary District Simplified Grant. 

Building on that success, we incorporated as a nonprofit in July 2024 with a board of directors composed of local Afghan women and Rotarians. We were recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) in 2025. We are entirely volunteer run.