California Welcomes Afghan Women's Delegation Afghan Delegation, March 2004 Itinerary Daily Diary Sponsoring Organizations for Afghan Delegation Host Organizations Honorary Host Committee Partner Organizations Afghan Advisory Council US Advisory Council US/Afghan 2003 Delegation to Afghanistan Calling the Circle of Women from Afghanistan and the US

May 2003 Delegation to Afghanistan Rona Popal, Executive Director of Afghan Coalition, founder and President of Afghan Women's Association International (AWAI) based in Fremont, California. She worked for Alameda Social Services for 15 years (1987-2000) and is a representative of the Northern California Afghan community to Loya Jirga (Grand Assembly) in Kabul. She founded the Afghan Women's Association International in 1992, and has worked for women's rights since. She graduated from Cal State of Hayward in 1999 with a major in Political Science and International studies. Marilyn Fowler, President/CEO Women's Intercultural Network (WIN) is coordinating the Delegation, and has led several delegations of women in cross-cultural exchanges into developing countries including Uganda, 2001 and 2002, China, 1995 and 2000. A full biography is at http://videodocument.org/Uganda/files/participants/Fowler.html Charlie Toledo is Director of Suscol Intertribal Council, a community-based organization in Napa, and Chair of WIN Board of Directors. She is of Towa/Tiwa ancestry (New Mexico) and has served since 1997 on the executive Board at DQU, the only tribally controlled Community College in California, and one of the first tribal colleges in the U.S. With over twenty years in alternative healthcare fields, she has extensive travel experience in developing countries and a background in mediation and reconciliation. Elahe Amani, President of the Coalition of Women from Asia and the Middle East (CWAME), and Professor at UC California at Fullerton. She serves as State Chair of International Section of American Association of University Women California, and as a WIN Board Member. As a specialist in conflict resolution who speaks Farsi, Elahe wants to connect the Afghan women's education to AAUW in California for curriculum and other organizational resources. Cynthia Gehrie, Ph.D. of The Documentation Partnership is a videographer and ethnographer, who has documented women in several post-war areas including Croatia and Uganda. Taiba Hosseini is the Office Manager for the Afghan Coalition. She graduated from Kabul University, and received her Master Degree in Public Administration from the University of Nebraska, Omaha, NB. She has been a member of AWIA since 1993 and worked with the Afghan Community since 1992. She has worked in the Ministry of Finance in Kabul. She wants to work with women's organizations to reconstruct the education system. She attended the UN Panel on Women's Right, 1999 and has been involved with the Afghan Widows Project and health centers in Herat. Nazema Momand has been a Medical Translator and Family Plannng Educator for Alameda County Health Care Agency for the past 17 years. She graduated from Kharkoc Institute of culture in the Soviet Union, 1982. She is a Certified Trilingual (Farsi, Pashto, Russian ) translator. She has worked with many Afghan refugees here, and wants the opportunity to visit Afghanistan and start a women's health project to benefit women and children, especially in the area of family planning. Zakia Kohzad was an Afghan Journalist for many years with Kabul TV and Radio as the Cultural Director. She is a member of AWAI and interested in connecting Afghan media with U.S. Media.

WIN & AWAI would like to extend a special thanks to the individuals, sponsors and groups whose commitment & support are making the U.S.-AFGHAN CIRCLE possible