Humanitarian aid for the people of Afghanistan and Iraq
Links for additional resources (teaching kids about Afghanistan & Iraq, deployed military support, military working dog & handler support, etc.) are all listed above.
Scroll down to learn more about these resources:
Afghanistan
Iraq
Books about outreach in Afghanistan and Iraq
A little background...
When my husband (a chaplain) arrived for his tour in Afghanistan he had heard of the villages in the mountains that were so poor and had minimal warm clothes, let alone shoes to protect them from the cold and the snow. Our church was having a community event for kids, and they also used it as a warm clothing and blanket drive for the people for Afghanistan. We were able to send 2600 lbs. (46 large boxes) to two villages and an orphanage. It was such a unique opportunity to reach out to the poor people there, and also was a encouraging experience for the Soldiers who delivered the clothes.
Here you will find a sampling of agencies that are actively at work bringing aid to the people of Afghanistan and Iraq. By listing these agencies, I am not endorsing these agencies. I simply want to make you aware of some wonderful opportunities of bringing hope to the people of these countries.
~ Benita Koeman, founder of, Operation We Are Here
Afghan Children's Songbook Project - Revitalizing the children's music of Afghanistan
The Afghan Children’s Songbook Project strives to revitalize the children’s music of Afghanistan which was almost completely eradicated by the war and oppression that has afflicted Afghanistan for over 30 years. Fourteen thousand copies of the songbook, Qu Qu Qu Barg-e-Chinaar: Children’s Songs from Afghanistan have been distributed to pre-schools, elementary schools and orphanages across Afghanistan. The songbook includes a CD and a cassette tape. It has been used both to introduce children to the vibrant music of Afghanistan and also as a basic literacy text. The songbook is printed with bright colorful illustrations and easy-to-read text, making it fun for children to listen to the CD and read along.
Afghan Girls Financial Assistance Fund
The Afghan Girls Financial Assistance Fund (“AGFAF”) was established in 2008 to aid young Afghan women who seek a college education in the USA. AGFAF identifies promising young women, matches them with participating educational institutions and American host families and provides financial support for expenses not covered by either these institutions or host families. These women often need additional secondary education before starting at a college or university. AGFAF also provides assistance at this level.
The women selected by AGFAF are not only well qualified, highly motivated and in need of financial assistance, but also are committed to bring social change to their country and sharing the benefit of their education to improve conditions in Afghanistan. They share this benefit while back home during the summers and will continue to do so once they return home having completed their USA based education. AGFAF provides round trip transportation home each summer to allow recipients time with their families, to maintain their cultural ties and to engage in worthwhile projects.
The value of providing such assistance goes beyond the life-changing opportunity for these individuals. It is measured by the profound and lasting impact that educated women have in the growth and development of their country’s future.
While here in the USA, the AGFAF supported young women serve as educators and ambassadors helping their fellow students, teachers and the members of their host communities better understand and appreciate the conditions in Afghanistan. Further, when they communicate with family, friends and acquaintances back home, they bring a new perspective that helps foster mutual understanding and respect.
Afghanistan National Institute of Music - Music program
Afghanistan’s National Institute of Music is the first and finest institution for the education and nurturing of gifted young Afghan musicians. Integral to our music program is a high quality academic education ensuring that our students are able to achieve at the highest level internationally as musicians, music educators, academics and specialists.
The institute is committed to providing a dynamic, challenging and safe learning environment for all students regardless of gender, ethnicity or social circumstances. We also have a special focus on supporting the most disadvantaged group in Afghan society – the orphans and street vendors – to help them attain a vocation that will allow them to reach their full potential, while contributing to their emotional healing.
Through the provision of an internationally-accredited curriculum our graduates will have the skills, creative vision and confidence to contribute to the artistic, social and cultural life of Afghanistan, and the rebuilding and revival of Afghan music traditions.
Afghans for Afghans - Sending blankets, sweaters, vests, hats, mittens, socks...
Afghans for Afghans is a humanitarian and educational people-to-people project that sends hand-knit and crocheted blankets and sweaters, vests, hats, mittens, and socks to the beleaguered people of Afghanistan.
Your gift of a handmade blanket or garment will bring comfort and warmth to Afghan women, men, and children who continue to suffer from oppression, war, hunger, poverty, and sickness. Your lovingly made gifts will send a message of concern and hope to our fellow humans on the other side of the globe. Your participation is important.
Afghan Stray Animals League
The Afghan Stray Animal League is a private non-profit organization in the U.S. that operates and supports a shelter and low-cost veterinary clinic for homeless, abandoned, sick or injured small animals in Afghanistan. The shelter is located in a refurbished house in Kabul, the Afghan capital, which has a large population of neglected street dogs and cats as well as thousands of backyard animals such as goats and donkeys whose owners cannot afford treatment for them.
Our primary mission is to care for needy small animals, restore them to health and find them loving homes. Most of those who adopt our animals are foreigners, and we are able to arrange to ship their rescued pets home if needed. We are also working to foster and encourage a culture of companion animal ownership in Afghanistan. The country has been devastated by war and poverty, and there is widespread neglect, abuse and fear of animals. We provide free dog houses, food, vaccines and other supplies to any Afghan who adopts a pet, and we conduct home visits to ensure the animal is being well treated. We also offer free talks at local non-profit children’s programs about the humane treatment of animals.
Afghan Women's Education Project
The AWEP, Afghan Women’s Education Project, was started in 2010 to assist young Afghan women in receiving a college education in the United States. The project began when two eighteen-year-old women acting as volunteer interpreters for critically ill Afghan children being treated in the US, were hosted by American families in NC & Ohio. The young women were interested to learn about educational systems in the US, and with their host families, investigated the possibility of attending college in the US. It was during a visit to a community college in NC that the women learned about a special tuition arrangement available to foreign students.
Afghan Women's Writing Project
The Afghan Women’s Writing Project began as an idea during novelist Masha Hamilton’s last trip to Afghanistan in November 2008. Her interest in Afghanistan was sparked in the late 1990s during the Taliban period, when she understood it was one of the worst places in the world to be a woman. Masha first visited the country in 2004, and was awed and inspired by the resolute courage of the women she met. When she returned, she saw doors were closing and life was again becoming more difficult, especially for women. She began to fear we could lose access to the voices of Afghan women if we didn’t act soon. The Afghan Women’s Writing Project is aimed at allowing Afghan women to have a direct voice in the world, not filtered through male relatives or members of the media. Many of these Afghan women have to make extreme efforts to gain computer access in order to submit their writings, in English, to the project.
Arzu Studio Hope
ARZU, which means “hope” in Dari, is an innovative model of social entrepreneurship that helps Afghan women weavers and their families break the cycle of poverty by providing them steady income and access to education and healthcare by sourcing and selling the rugs they weave. While structured as a 501(c)(3) in the United States and an international NGO in Afghanistan, ARZU operates as a “for-benefit” corporation, using private sector practices to create jobs in desperately poor rural villages where little opportunity exists.
Books for Afghanistan
The beginning of education is literacy. The fundamental need is that girls and boys in their homes and in schools have access to quality books, which foster a love of reading and a taste of what reading and learning can offer them.
Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan - Education, Awareness
Our goals are to advance education and educational opportunities for Afghan women and their families; and to educate and increase the understanding of Canadians about human rights in Afghanistan.
Donor funded projects are implemented and managed in partnership with Afghan non-profit organizations. These projects include a number of community schools, village libraries, an orphanage, as well as teacher training, literacy, English and computer classes.
The projects are funded mainly from individual donations from Canadians and 100% of funds donated go to women-centered projects in Afghanistan.
Central Asia Institute - Building Schools
Our mission is to empower communities of Central Asia through literacy and education, especially for girls, promote peace through education and convey the importance of these activities globally.
Cure International
CURE's hospital in Kabul is transforming the lives of children with disabilities and their families in Afghanistan through medical and spiritual healing.
CURE International Hospital of Kabul is one of the leading medical institutions in Afghanistan. The hospital represents many things to many people. To expecting mothers, it is a haven where they can safely deliver their child. For children with physical disabilities, it is where they can be made whole. For health care professionals, it is a center of medical excellence where they can receive advanced training and education. For the nation of Afghanistan, it is a source of hope.
Feeding the Nations - Food, medicine, vitamins, planting seed, etc.
Feeding The Nations® is a non-profit International Christian humanitarian relief organization with supporting international offices. Feeding The Nations is a division of Provident® Ministries with headquarters in South Bend, Indiana. The mission of Feeding The Nations is to deliver food, medicine, vitamins, planting seed and other necessities to families who lack these essentials due to famine, war, poverty, or other natural disasters.
HEMEfund Worldwide - Project Vocational Schools for Afghan Women
HEMEfund Worldwide, formerly known as Project Help Afghanistan, is a 501(c)3, tax-exempt, non-governmental, non-profit organization dedicated to improving communities around the world by providing assistance in the areas of housing, education, medical and employment. Founded in 2009 by William Seo, during a year long tour to Afghanistan, the organization implements the core value of H.E.M.E.
Project Help Afghanistan is a start-up non-profit organization dedicated to help alleviate poverty among widows and children in Afghanistan by implementing the core value of H.E.M.E. by facilitating literacy, practical skills training, and other services.
- Housing(H)
- Education(E)
- Medical(M)
- Employment(E)
Heme is the main part of blood that carries 4 oxygen molecules to every part of our body which is critical for survival; likewise H.E.M.E. is the essential part of survival for Afghanistan.
International Committee of the Red Cross
The ICRC protects detainees and helps them maintain contact with their families; monitors the conduct of hostilities and acts to prevent IHL violations; assists the wounded and disabled; supports hospital care; improves water and sanitation services; promotes IHL; and supports the Afghan Red Crescent.
Kandahar Treasure - Empowering Afghan women artisans
Kandahar Treasure employs women artisans from the Kandahar area in order to develop an economic base for the province and support the advancement of women throughout Afghanistan. We offer home décor items, such as pillows and tablecloths, as well as clothing and accessories embellished with a uniquely Afghan style of embroidery. This style is called Khamak (pronounced kha-mahk) and is one of the oldest and purest forms of embroidery art in the world. For centuries this embroidery has been produced by women who gather in their homes to create pieces of functional beauty. Until recently, it was shared mostly within Southern Afghanistan. Today Kandahar Treasure is bringing this art-form to the world.
Lamia Afghan Foundation - Basic necessities of life, assist and facilitate opportunities for self sufficiency through education, skills training and jobs.
After 41 years of service, Lt. General (Ret.) John Bradley, USAFR Commander, and his wife, Jan Bradley formed The Lamia Afghan Foundation, in order to provide hope, compassion and aid to the people of Afghanistan.
Their mission is to work in a cooperative fashion to provide not only the basic necessities of life but to assist and facilitate opportunities for self sufficiency through education, skills training and jobs. Their secondary mission is to support all men and women in uniform working in remote locations in Afghanistan with limited access to military exchanges to receive personal hygiene items, comfort items and other amenities.
Mercy Corps - Helps build businesses, improve health, education, microloans, mobile veterinary services
Mercy Corps exists to alleviate suffering, poverty and oppression by helping people build secure, productive and just communities.
Mercy Corps has been working alongside the indomitable Afghan people for more than 20 years, helping them build their businesses, improve their health, educate their children and participate more fully in civil society. This boy radiates the enthusiasm of participants at a field-based coaching session for community workers. They’re learning how to improve village life by involving local people in the decisions that affect them. Other Mercy Corps programs in Afghanistan provide microloans to hardworking entrepreneurs (more than two-thirds of whom are women) and mobile veterinary services to help farmers improve the health of their animals.
Open Doors - Serves persecuted Christians worldwide
Open Doors works in the world's most oppressive countries, strengthening Christians to stand strong in the face of persecution and equipping them to shine Christ's light in these dark places.
Operation Show Our Love
Our mission is to improve the morale of our military personnel who are overseas fighting for our freedom and to let them know that those of us at home care about them and support them! We do this by collecting and shipping donations of snacks and toiletries to allow our troops to have a 'part of home' in a foreign land, and humanitarian items to distribute to the local population to build relationships that will help now as well as in the future.
Operation World - More about Afghanistan and how to pray for this country
The primary purpose of Operation World is PRAYER.
Project Artemis - Business skills training program that aims to build entrepreneurial skills of Afghan businesswomen
Included in the project are two weeks of business and entrepreneurial decision-making training; mentorship by women entrepreneurs; site visits to U.S. businesses; and follow up support and business coaching online.
Thunderbird is uniquely positioned to provide the type of training that has made Project Artemis successful. As the world’s top-ranked international business school, Thunderbird has the knowledge, the capacity, and the global network to provide business training in even the world’s most challenging environments. In keeping with our mission, to educate global leaders who create sustainable prosperity worldwide, programs like Project Artemis prove that business and education can be powerful tools for building peace and prosperity.
Project Artemis helps educate the best and brightest of women. Fellows move forward with their individual accomplishments that make, not only a personal economic impact, but a contribution to the greater society.
Razia's Ray of Hope Foundation - Community-based education
Razia’s Ray of Hope Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of women and children in Afghanistan through community-based education. Founded with the belief that education is key to positive, peaceful change for current and future generations, the foundation strives to provide opportunities to learn and grow in a safe, nurturing environment.
Shelter for Life - Humanitarian assistance
Our mission is to demonstrate God’s love by enabling people affected by conflict and disaster to restore their lives and rebuild their communities.
As a faith-based relief organization, we are dedicated to:
- Showing God’s love through humble, compassionate, sacrificial service
- Serving the needs of vulnerable populations, such as refugees, internally displaced people (IDPs), women, children, the elderly, the disabled, ethnic and religious minorities, and other marginalized groups;
- Providing holistic, culturally-appropriate community-based programs that bridge emergency relief with long-term, sustainable development;
- Facilitating communication and working relationships between grassroots movements and government authorities;
- Educating communities to maximize local resources;
- Promoting self-reliance and settlement for communities in their current locations.
- Upholding professional excellence in program delivery through accountability and transparency
Shelter Now - Humanitarian assistance
Shelter Now has been working in Afghanistan since 1988 and has been officially registered there – under various governments – since 1992. Shelter has set up a number of factories for producing prefabricated concrete sections, designed in particular for building roofs to assist with reconstruction of homes. To allow a normal family to be able to build a house, the material is sold very cheaply or, in some cases, given away for free. Other key Shelter Now projects during those years included rebuilding irrigation systems and setting up a center for street children in Kabul.
Distribution of winter survival kits to the earthquake victims in northern Pakistan
In 2001, 24 Shelter Now workers – 8 westerners and 16 Afghans – were arrested by the Taliban, accused of proselytizing. The arrests later proved to be more of a hostage-taking. Faced with the threat of a US invasion following the September 11th attacks, the Taliban were keen to have a bargaining chip. The workers were freed in November, in a dramatic rescue operation.
Since the summer of 2002, Shelter Now has been back working in Afghanistan. A number of "Villages of Hope" have been rebuilt for returning refugees, along with schools, both for girls and boys. A sizeable eye clinic that had previously been destroyed in Kabul was rebuilt in cooperation with other partners. Shelter also took on a center for the deaf and mute in Kabul, where children and adults can receive schooling and vocational training. In northern Afghanistan, Shelter Now runs a school, offering English and computer courses and conducts a number of projects to provide drinking water for the local population.
Spirit of America
We provide whatever our troops need to help the local people: sewing machines, blankets, clean water, job training, expert solutions and more. This builds goodwill. It
makes our troops safer and more successful in their mission.
The Afghanistan Orphanage Project (TAO Project) - Raising funds to build an orphanage
The TAO Project is dedicated to providing the orphaned and homeless children of Afghanistan with shelter, food, clothing, health services, education, and love. The TAO Project will achieve this mission statement by raising the funds to build an orphanage in the Kahlakhan district, near Kabul. The orphanage will be home to over 1,000 children. Another focus of the TAO Project is to bring Afghanistan children to the United States for life-saving surgeries, critically needed medical aid and rehabilitation.
The Khaled Hosseini Foundation - Relief and shelter for families, econonomic opportunities for women, education for children
The Khaled Hosseini Foundation provides humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan to help alleviate suffering and build healthy communities. We make these grants with the hope that our gifts will make a meaningful and enduring difference. The Foundation will give priority to programs and projects providing relief and shelter for families, economic opportunities for women, and education for children.
Trust in Education - Education, health care, reconstruction and economic programs
We, a group of neighbors, began in 2003 by raising funds to build a school in Lalander, Afghanistan. The school opened in the Spring of 2005.
As support grew, so did out commitment. We are now providing education, health care, reconstruction and economic programs to several Afghan villages, including Lalander. The generous contributions of Stop Hunger Now and Reverend Billy Olsen and his congregation (located in North Carolina) enabled us to provide food and clothing to refugee camps in Kabul. We are also assisting Aschiana, a nonprofit NGO located in Kabul, by finding sponsors for street children. Sponsors provide $20 a month to a street child, which enables that child to leave the streets long enough to attend school.
We are constantly searching for ways to assist Afghans and their communities. As you read through the website, particularly the newsletters, you will discover that our search has taken us in several directions. Why? We learned early on that if you want to know what “they” need, ask them. Together we identify and prioritize their needs. Then we set about addressing as many as we can. It’s the best way to go toward the ultimate goal, which is, helping them free themselves from their dependence upon others.
USAID
Welcome to the USAID/Afghanistan website. Our website demonstrates how American taxpayer dollars are being used to help Afghanistan and its people to build a peaceful, prosperous, and democratic state. It features projects that are improving the lives of the Afghan people. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Afghanistan implements these projects and works with a team of outstanding local and international partners to help carry them out. Our work in Afghanistan is an excellent example of how the American people are helping the people of Afghanistan build a better future.
Veterans Rebuilding Life - Medical treatment
Veterans Rebuilding Life is a certified nonprofit organization with a dual objective:
Provide medical treatment to children harmed in the Iraq/Afghanistan Wars, and offer reintegration services to severely wounded American soldiers.
100% of all donations directly aid those in need: No profit is made by our all–volunteer staff, and all donations are tax deductible!
War Kids Relief - US/Afghan Junior Investor Program
War Kids Relief, a program of the nonprofit Children’s Culture Connection, is a nonpolitical peace-building organization that creates facilities, programs and expertise enabling children traumatically affected by war to realize new possibilities for their lives. As an integral part of this mission, War Kids Relief provides opportunities for young people to play a leadership role in the pursuit of peace. (See also A Soldier's March for Peace)
The goal of this particular program is to implement a joint peace-building and educational program in American middle and high schools that gives US students the opportunity to build positive relationships with their Afghan peers by teaching one another about their lives. This groundbreaking program will also give US students the opportunity to co-invest in the vocational training of their Afghan peers. US students will learn from their Afghan friends as they receive training to develop sustainable, market-based solutions in order to strengthen their local economies and help them avoid recruitment into insurgent groups as a means to an end.
Welfare Association for the Development of Afghanistan
To advance the spread of democratic principles, development, social justice, human rights and freedom in Afghanistan as well as to strengthen communities and local governance by promoting effective community and institutional development practices and drug control initiatives.
World Food Programme
In a sweeping valley of Khulm district near Mazar-e-Sharif, spring flooding was an annual problem for local communities until a joint WFP and FAO watershed management project made the area safe and turned the rainwater into an asset.
World Vision - Health Services, Water and Sanitation
World Vision is working to construct and rehabilitate water systems and improve the domestic water supply for 1,750 families. Irrigation rehabilitation and other health-related hygiene and sanitation programs are included.
Several projects operate to address the need for adequate health services when chronic illnesses such as tuberculosis are widespread. Currently, maternal and children’s health services are inadequate, and prenatal and postnatal care is nonexistent despite women giving birth to an average of seven children in a lifetime. To help address these needs, World Vision is constructing health clinics to provide care for needy families. Efforts also support mobile clinics that provide emergency health-care services, offer community-based monitoring, and distribute basic emergency health kits.
Through its many programs, World Vision is working to transform the lives of people living in Afghanistan, giving them hope for the future.
Doctors Without Borders - Medical attention
One of the greatest challenges facing independent humanitarian action today is that of reaching civilians caught in war and armed conflicts. Nowhere is this more frustratingly illustrated than in Iraq, where MSF (DWB) has struggled to gain a meaningful foothold since the US-led invasion of 2003. Various military and political actors have sought to use and abuse humanitarian action for political purposes and in doing so have made humanitarian organizations a target for violent attacks. This has undermined the ability of MSF (DWB), and other neutral humanitarian organizations to address critical needs of the civilian population.
International Committee of the Red Cross
The ICRC has been in Iraq since 1980, addressing the consequences of violence and conflict. It visits detainees and enables them to maintain contact with their families, helps vulnerable groups, improves access to water and health care and supports the authorities’ efforts to clarify the fate of people missing from earlier conflicts.
Mercy Corps - Emergency humanitarian supplies, assistance to most vulnerable (disabilities, children), education
Mercy Corps exists to alleviate suffering, poverty and oppression by helping people build secure, productive and just communities.
Ongoing violence has forced millions of Iraqis to leave their homes and communities. Mercy Corps is providing emergency humanitarian supplies such as drinking water, blankets, cooking stoves and kerosene. We’re also helping those most vulnerable, particularly people with disabilities and families with school-age children. We’re helping thousands of Iraqi children keep learning, restoring a measure of normalcy amid extremely difficult conditions and offering a path toward greater opportunity.
Open Doors - Serves persecuted Christians worldwide
Open Doors works in the world's most oppressive countries, strengthening Christians to stand strong in the face of persecution and equipping them to shine Christ's light in these dark places.
Operation World - More about Iraq and how to pray for this country
The primary purpose of Operation World is PRAYER.
Save the Children - Supporting the psychosocial care of children in Iraq
After a two-year hiatus in Iraq, Save the Children has returned and since the end of 2008, built up a presence in northern Iraq. Working with a partner — Mercy Corps — the organization has set up an office in the north of Iraq to support the psychosocial care of children in the districts of Sulaimaniyah and Kalar (Sulaimaniyah governorate) and Khanaqueen (Diyala governorate).
In June 2009, Save the Children also began planning to expand programmatic activities into southern parts of Iraq, including Basra, Thi-qar, Muthanna and Missan governorates. In the space of only a few months, Save the Children has set up programs that are producing early results.
The List Project - Resettle Iraqi Allies
The List Project is a U.S. non-profit, founded in 2007 with the belief that the United States Government has a clear and urgent moral obligation to resettle to safety Iraqis who are imperiled due to their affiliation with the United States of America. We are the first comprehensive organizational effort to honor the sacrifice of these Iraqis.
We've launched this site for Americans who want to help and the Iraqis who need it. Looking for a place to begin? Educate yourself, get involved, support The Project, stay informed. If you are an Iraqi who helped the U.S. or you represent one who needs help, email us immediately: [email protected]
USAID
USAID supports responsive government, economic growth and civil society, while ensuring that the needs of vulnerable Iraqis, including women and minorities, are addressed across all sectors.
Veterans Rebuilding Life - Medical treatment
Veterans Rebuilding Life is a certified nonprofit organization with a dual objective:
Provide medical treatment to children harmed in the Iraq/Afghanistan Wars, and offer reintegration services to severely wounded American soldiers.
100% of all donations directly aid those in need: No profit is made by our all–volunteer staff, and all donations are tax deductible!
War Kids Relief - US/Iraq Young Ambassador Program
War Kids Relief, a program of the nonprofit Children’s Culture Connection, is a nonpolitical peace-building organization that creates facilities, programs and expertise enabling children traumatically affected by war to realize new possibilities for their lives. As an integral part of this mission, War Kids Relief provides opportunities for young people to play a leadership role in the pursuit of peace.
The goal of this particular program is to foster peace, respect and friendship among US and Iraqi teens through a multi-faceted cultural exchange experience; to create marketable evidence of the process and results for the American and international communities to see; to inspire participating kids to embrace their leadership roles beyond completion of the program and reach even larger audiences; to create a teaching template that can be used in middle and high schools nationwide.
Wheelchairs for Kids International
Wheelchairs for Kids International brings better health, mobility, educational, recreational and social opportunities to children with walking disabilities in developing countries by providing high-quality adjustable pediatric wheelchairs.
World Food Programme
WFP has been working in Iraq since 1991. With the large-scale displacement of people seen in 2006 and 2007, food emerged as a priority need for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Iraq.
Books about Afghanistan and Iraq
Benita Koeman of Operation We Are Here is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. When you purchase a product that is linked to Amazon, I earn a small commission which in turn helps me to continue with my mission of providing resources to the military community and military supporters. Learn more...
Copyright 2008 - 2017 Benita Koeman, Operation We Are Here. All rights reserved.
Operation We Are Here is a HUB of RESOURCES for the military community and military supporters.
Military support is not a concept to embrace; military support is sacrificial action. Visit our military support TOOLKIT.
Resources for supporters of military and veteran families
- Practical insights in caring for
Military and veteran family resources
- Christian encouragement
- Deployment support for
- Downloads and printables
Operation We Are Here
Follow us on
resources
Be sure to check out these ADDITIONAL resources:
Support for deployed military
Support for
A Flame on the Front Line
Journey from America to Afghanistan
Author: John Weaver, Copyright @ 2009
Since 2000, John Weaver has been A Flame on the Front Line sharing God's love in Afghanistan. He serves as a Team Leader for Shelter Now, which has been helping Afghans for over 25 years. John is the happy husband of Jeanne, whom he met and married in Afghanistan. "I saw John Weaver for the first time in October 2001 on ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings. When John's face appeared on the screen, I knew there was something special about him. I could see it in his eyes, his smile, and his interaction with the Afghan people." - Franklin Graham, President of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan's Purse. Journey from America to Afghanistan is an invitation to step into an incredible adventure led by the Sovereign King. The voyage features views of earthly struggles and saving grace; painful experiences and purposeful excursions; disappointing failures and dreams fulfilled. It also explores aspects of life in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. This inspiring story is both enjoyable and unforgettable. Join us inside... John and Jeanne Weaver, with their three sons, live and work as a family of flames.
Farewell, Four Waters
One aid workers sudden escape from Afghanistan
A novel based on true events
Author: Kate McCord, Copyright @ 2014
Day 14: It should have been the beginning . . .
All she needed were stamps and signatures. Marie and her translator stood in the government offices in Kabul, Afghanistan to complete the paperwork for her new literacy project. The women in her home town, the northern village of Shehktan, would learn to read.
But a spattering of gun shots exploded and an aid worker crumpled. Executed. On the streets of Kabul. Just blocks from the guesthouse. Sending shockwaves through the community.
The foreign personnel assessed their options and some, including Marie's closest friend, Carolyn, chose to leave the country. Marie and others faced the cost and elected to press forward. But the execution of the lone aid worker was just the beginning.
When she returned home to her Afghan friends in Shehktan to begin classes, she felt eyes watching her, piercing through her scarf as she walked the streets lined in mud brick walls.
And in the end . . .
It took only 14 days for her project, her Afghan home, her community-all of it-to evaporate in an eruption of dust, grief, and loss. Betrayed by someone she trusted. Caught in a feud she knew nothing about, and having loved people on both sides, Marie struggled for the answer: How could God be present here, working here, in the soul of Afghanistan?
Inside Afghanistan
Author: John Weaver, Copyright @ 2002
He is living what many would call a nightmare. John Weaver is serving God in a war-torn country that is being blamed for the terrorist acts on American soil. Despite the fact that every day is dangerous and possibly life-threatening, John Weaver believes he sees God at work in Afghanistan and he is optimistic about its spiritual future. Inside Afghanistan is the story of the Taliban and September 11, as only this servant of God can tell it. John Weaver was there as the last American aid worker in the hostile country he now calls home. He is witness to God's ability to use ordinary Christians in the U.S. to "spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a country that otherwise wouldn't have had the opportunity." This is John Weaver's riveting account of why he went and why he wouldn't leave.
In the Land of Blue Burqas
Author: Kate McCord, Copyright @ 2012
The author speaks the local language and has interviewed and conversed with hundreds of Afghans, both men and women. She listened to their stories and lived among them. And in the midst of all of that, she found Kingdom responses to the beliefs Afghani Muslims hold to be true.
Riveting and fast paced, In the Land of Blue Burqas depicts sharing the love and truth of Christ with women living in Afghanistan which has been called "the world's most dangerous country in which to be born a woman." These stories are honest and true. The harsh reality of their lives is not sugar-coated and that adds to the impact of the book. Through storytelling the author shows how people who don't know Christ come to see Him, His truth and His beauty. The stories provide insight into how a Jesus-follower brought Jesus' teachings of the Kingdom of God to Afghanistan. They reveal the splendor of Christ, the desire of human hearts, and that precious instance where the two meet.
This is a collection of vignettes tethered together by the real danger that Muslim women face in Afghanistan. These are firsthand accounts from the authors experience drawn from living among these women. The reader will see just how revolutionary Christ's message is today, and how radical it was during Christ's lifetime - the present day Afghan cultural attitudes are not unlike they were 2000 years ago. All of the names of those involved - including Kate's - plus the locations have been changed to protect the participants. Just take a few minutes and read the opening pages. You'll be hooked.
Off the Couch Into the War for Hearts and Minds
Author: Budd Mackenzie, Copyright @ 2016
Khaled Hosseini, author of best selling novels The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns and And the Mountain Echoed wrote; Budd MacKenzie's book is more than a chronicling of his extraordinary humanitarian efforts in Afghanistan since 2003-which my foundation has been proud to support. Budd's book is a passionate cry against apathy and its insidious power. It is a call to action. In his own words, "hope is not a strategy". MacKenzie, an ordinary person moved to service by a deep sense of goodwill and moral urgency, bravely challenges ordinary Americans to join the struggle against poverty and human suffering. He asks us to not forget that millions inside war-wracked Afghanistan, especially children and women, remain marginalized, brutalized, and in need of education, work, food, and shelter. He asks that we give something of ourselves to those who, as the fable goes, suffer the most and cry out the least. Not only because it is needed, or the right thing to do. But because, as Winston Churchill put it, you make a living by what you get. You make a life by what you give. Budd MacKenzie has made himself quite a life". Off the Couch Into the War for Hearts and Minds is exactly what happened to the author beginning in 2003. By sharing his experiences and observations over the years, he has been able to inspire others to do the same. The stories are fascinating and will be astounding to most. He urges others to get off the couch and into the war on poverty for their own benefit as well as those less fortunate. Whoever does will experience the joy of injecting hope into the lives of those who have little.
101 Ways to Help the Cause in Afghanistan
Author: Jim Hake, Copyright @ 2009
Help the Cause provides 101 ways you can make a difference in Afghanistan. You ll discover how you can reach around the world to help the Afghan people and increase the safety, well-being and success of our troops.
Help the Cause is about initiative, optimism and service. It shows you how to help Afghan women earn a living with microloans and business training; how to give clothing, blankets and shoes to Afghan children; and, how to support education and job creation.
Help the Cause is also a handbook for supporting our troops. You ll learn how to assist a Soldier who is helping Afghan women become midwives. You ll read how to support a Marine who is providing solar-powered radios that open remote villages to the world and another who is supplying schools for children previously denied an education. You ll find new ways to care for our troops in Afghanistan and those who have served.
Saved by Her Enemy
An Iraqi woman's journey from the heart of war to the heartland of America
Authors: Don Teague, Rafraf Barrak, Copyright @ 2010
For her entire life, Rafraf, a devout Muslim, had been told that Americans were the enemy. Her understanding of the world, of her place in it, and of the United States had been steeped in the culture of Iraq under the rule of Saddam Hussein. Yet, in the midst of insurgents attempting to kidnap and kill her, she found herself on the receiving end of lifesaving help from those she considered her enemies.Rafraf suddenly finds herself living with a Christian family in the Bible Belt of America. Nothing had prepared her for this new reality—the life of a college student in a vastly foreign culture, in a community as far from her expectations as she could have imagined, and in a family that opens their hearts to enfold her.
Saved by Her Enemy is a riveting journey of two very different people from opposite sides of the world, of faith, of experience, and of expectations. The dramatic intersection of their lives and their journey together is an inspiration to those who have ever felt there was more to life than the world they knew. A young Iraqi woman, an American war correspondent, and a true tale of friendship, faith, and family against the backdrop of war and the collision of cultures.
This is a story of a very unlikely friendship—between American war correspondent Don Teague and Rafraf Barrak, an Iraqi college girl who won a job as a translator for NBC during the early months of violence in the wake of the American invasion of Iraq. While covering a story together, the two were nearly killed by a bomb, an experience that created a bond between them that led them down a path neither could have imagined. What follows is a story of transformation, as Rafraf—from a devout Muslim family—becomes the target of terrorist threats to kidnap and murder her. Don and his fellow correspondents mobilize to help save her life and suddenly Rafraf finds herself on the receiving end of an offer for safety and a new life in the United States. Dramatically transplanted from the streets of Iraq to the Bible Belt of middle America, Rafraf finds everything that she knew—or thought she knew—about herself, her values, her world, even faith and family, turned upside down. Meanwhile, Don; his wife, Kiki; and their children discover they’ve embarked on an adventure with Rafraf that reshapes their lives. This captivating story inspires us all to join Don and Rafraf in discovering that there is far more to life than the world we know.
