Diane Sawyer Visits a Secret Women’s Shelter in Afghanistan
Just recently, a story of intimate partner violence in the far corners of Afghanistan reached american news stations. The story’s hero is named Aisha, who at the age of 18 had been the repeatedly and severely victimized by an abusive husband. In an attempt to save her own life, Aisha fled her village, however, shortly after she was captured and brutualized by the men in her community for trying to escape. Her very own husband, and his brother, held her down as they cut off the tip of her nose and the bottom of her ear and left her for dead in the mountains far away from her village or anyone that could have saved her life. Yet Aisha perservered and was able to drag herself to the closest village and 
where she was found by American military personnel who provided her medical treatment and shared her story with the world. Follow her incredible story as well as the documentation of Diane Sawyer’s trip to a secret shelter for battered women in Afghanistan below. The video reports that an astounding “90% of afghan women have experienced some form of human rights violation” and that more than “15 million women” in Afghanistan need the help of safe, secret shelters to protect themselves from domestic violence.
Post Election – Boulder County
After months of bated breath, Coloradans from the Western Slope to the Front Range are finally beginning to breathe with ease. Why? The answer is simply that November 2nd has come and gone and while statewide amendments 60,61, and 101 have failed, 1A in Boulder County successfully passed.Though there is much to be said about the undeniable destruction that would have ensued in the wake of the terrible 3 (60, 61, 101) had they passed, Coloradans have made their voices heard in their overwhelming opposition so we will leave it at that.
1A on the other hand leaves plenty of room for discussion and for hope. As said by the campaigns 1A will …
• raise almost $5.2 million dollars annually to help the increasing numbers of people in crisis
• provide accessible food sources, medical assistance, child care, and other non-profit services to boulder county citizens
• be used to back-fill state cuts to boulder county’s housing and human services department, and will give funding to our nonprofit safety net agencies who have been gravely affected by the economic downturn
As exciting as this is for the county in general, it’s particularly encouraging for non-profits working with survivors of IPA because the county will have the opportunity to begin restoring some of the devastating budget cuts that have compromised the funding for DV assistance programs. Due to the recession professional positions have been cut, the number of free services advocacy organizations can offer have dwindled, and the existence of emergency shelter and transitional housing programs have been threatened due to decreased operational funds. It’s no surprise under such conditions many non-profits have already been forced to close their doors in recent years, and rumor has it that many more had contingency plans to shut their doors November 3rd had 1A not passed. While 1A may not be the panacea to Boulder county’s economic strain, its seems to be the first chance in a long time to start rebuilding our community´s resources.
For now the non-profit sector remains hopeful for 1A’s potentially positive implications, but only time will tell how large of an impact this greatly anticipated legislation will truly have.
DV Edu 
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