Afghanistan Projects
http://goodrichfoundation.org/files/Istalif Mountains Darker WEB.JPG
Istalif
Photo by Kathleen Rafiq


The Foundation relied for years on an indigenous non-government organization, the Welfare Association for Development of Afghanistan (WADAN), to provide critical advice and oversee its work. To learn more about WADAN, please use the link below:

Welfare Association for Development of Afghanistan

Current Projects

In the United States, the Peter M. Goodrich Memorial Foundation supports a number of male and female Afghan exchange students.

The Foundation partially funds the food, fuel, and clothing needs of eighty orphans in Wardak and staff members charged with educating, nurturing and protecting these victims of conflict. The Foundation replaced a deep water well for the orphanage in early spring. Past donations purchased arable land in Baghlan to supply food and a flock of sheep to lay the groundwork for economic self sufficiency for the orphanage. Sadly, Saraj Wardak, the man responsible for the care of the orphans and operation of the schools in his village died in early August. What will become of the orphans and the schools is now uncertain. The Foundation will help as it can.

Most recently the Foundation raised funds for a dental clinic in Kabul in memory of Dr. Tom Grams. Tom was a regular visitor to Wardak where he was the only dentist for the orphanage, school children their, caregivers and villagers. He was killed in Afghanistan in August 2010 while on a mission with ten other aid workers.

WADAN will continue to advise the Foundation on the best way to support its Logar school and those villagers who were killed and injured in the July 2009 attack. In January 2010 it provided financial support for those families who lost children or were made destitute as a result of the July bombing. Last summer at the school it constructed a sidewalk, filled a depression which was a habitat for malaria-breeding mosquitoes and installed barbed wire on the top of the security wall.

Don Goodrich met with the Principal of the school and the village elders in Kabul in early July and learned that the school now has an enrollment of over 700 girls. It graduate its first class of seniors this year (17), two of whom will teach at the school next year. There are now 27 teachers at the school, two of them elderly men. During the meeting in Kabul, list of items needed at the school was supplied and discussed and the Foundation will attempt to meet those needs.

The Foundation served as a conduit for funds for one of its Afghan exchange student who purchased 20 tricycles for disabled victims of landmine or bombing attacks. The project was funded primarily by a Davis Foundation Grant.

The Tricycles for the Disabled project was designed to help disabled landmine victims become self-sufficient and to provide them with working opportunities so that they gradually become socially and economically reintegrated into Afghan society. The project trained them to repair and/or use mobile carts or tricycles. The tricycles not only serve as a source of transportation for the disabled people but also serve as a small mobile business station. The mobile cart is made of old spare parts of bicycles; hand pedals are used to rotate the wheels, and in the front a flat board is attached where materials can be placed for sale — mainly vegetables, clothing or fruit.

In both Afghanistan and the United States, our hope is to contribute to a new generation of citizens and leaders capable of devising solutions to complex problems.

Past Projects

The Foundation provided technical assistance to SOLA - School of Leadership, Afghanistan. It is now a corporation with not-for-profit, 501c3 status in the United States. SOLA provides a secure place of learning in a private school setting for girls in Kabul and supports those who wish to come to the US for educational opportunities. For more about SOLA visit its website at SOLA.

The Foundation acted as a conduit for funds for The Afghan Women’s Writing Project which is aimed at allowing Afghan women to have a direct voice in the world, not filtered through male relatives or members of the media. The Afghan Women's Writing Project has also become a corporation and applied for tax exempt status.

The Foundation was contacted by physicians and other medical staff serving in the US military at Bagram who treated Razia, a young child who was seriously injured during a conflict between insurgents and US troops. The Foundation transferred all donations to those responsible for her care according to instructions it received.

During the summer of 2009 the Foundation joined with other US non-profits and individuals to raise funds for earthquake victims in Nangahar. Those funds were distributed by WADAN, the Foundation's Afghanistan indigenous non-governmental organization that guides its work and accounts for its expenditures.

The Foundation constructed a 26 room K-8 school in the province of Logar. The school was conveyed to the government of Afghanistan and dedicated in April 2006. Last year the Foundation funded the construction of two bathrooms for staff members, a septic system and piped water to the interior of the building.

During the spring of 2006, it also completed a second smaller project: a well, reservoir and water distribution system in a village in Kunar. Former Afghanistan Deputy Interior Minister, Shamahmood Miakhel, supervised both projects.