[act-ma] 5/14 Afghanistan: Locally Based Development or War? (Thu)

[Cole Harrison]

Afghanistan: Locally Based Development or War?

Speaker: Gary Moorehead, Field Director, Marigold Fund
AFSC, 2161 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Thursday, May 14, 7:00 p.m.

Amherst-based Gary Moorehead, Field Director of the Marigold Fund, has
recently returned from Takhar Province, Afghanistan.  Marigold is a
people-to-people effort to help Afghans rebuild their country after
decades of war and to establish friendship and understanding between
Afghans and Westerners.   In Takhar,  Marigold sponsors a midwife
training program, is building a tuberculosis clinic, and is setting up
a vocational training project which manufactures school furniture.

Can locally-based reconstruction efforts like Marigold make the
difference in Afghanistan?   Although President Obama said he favors
reconstruction aid, his policy spends over 90% of the
Afghanistan-Pakistan money on military, including 21,000 troops and
drone aircraft raids.   The aid money that is provided is channeled
through large-scale bureaucracies which waste much of the aid money
and do little to build up Afghan civil society.

In the next few weeks Congress will vote on the President’s request
for a supplemental appropriation of $83.4 billion to fund the wars in
Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In coordination with the national UFPJ coalition, the UJP Afghanistan
task force will join a Media Day of Action on May 21 to reach the
American people with a message of opposition to the Afghanistan
escalation.    We'll do letters to the editor, blogs, Facebook, radio,
and TV!

This evening will include:

* an introduction to the Marigold Fund’s work by Gary Moorehead
* a summary of the Congressional situation by the UJP Afghanistan task force
* training on use of new and old media to prepare for the Media Day of Action.

For more details about this event, go to
http://justicewithpeace.org/afghan-marigold-event.

The Marigold Fund
http://www.marigoldfund.org

United for Justice with Peace
http://www.justicewithpeace.org
mailto:ujpcoalition at gmail.com
617-491-4UJP