Women’s Empowerment Centre

Kabul, Afghanistan
2011 - 2020
From 2011 until 2020 indigo foundation partnered with the Women’s Empowerment Centre (WEC) at Gawharshad Institute of Higher Education (GIHE) in Kabul to support programs that enabled financially and educationally disadvantaged Afghan women to access a quality education in law, political science and economics.

Decades of war and civil conflict made it difficult for any young Afghan man or woman to obtain post-secondary education. However young women face a particular set of obstacles. Most still need to overcome educational disadvantage as well as significant financial and cultural barriers to access higher education and to graduate successfully. Many come from sole parent families or from families where boys’ education is prioritised.

indigo foundation provided seed funding to the Women’s Empowerment Centre in 2011 and the Centre went from strength to strength. During the partnership, 259 female students received full tuition scholarships from the Women’s Empowerment Centre.

As well as the scholarship program, indigo foundation supported capacity-building initiatives for the Women’s Empowerment Centre, such as computer training for scholarship holders and advocacy for gender studies. The success of the Centre’s gender training initiatives secured German government funding for a Gender Studies Department within GIHE and a Peace Building Department developed from training and workshops around Women, Peace and Conflict.

GIHE was established in 2010 by Dr Sima Samar, Nobel Prize nominee and head of the Afghan Independent Human Rights commission.