DAI Raises $5,000 for Linda Norgrove Foundation

October 17, 2019

DAI hosted four fundraising events this month for the Linda Norgrove Foundation, a grant-giving trust that provides funding for women, families, and children in Afghanistan, focusing on education, health, childcare, and scholarships to help Afghan women go to university.

The events—an Executive Happy Hour (where DAI executives fashion their own cocktails), Tone-Up Tuesday Dance Lessons, Penny Wars, and our annual 5k run/walk—raised $5,153.

DAIers gather to run or walk the 5k that supports the foundation.

This year, the funds will support Rustam High School, a Hazara community school in a remote part of Yakawlang province in central Afghanistan. Rustam is the only high school in the area with more girls enrolled than boys. These girls are achieving high academic success with 92 percent of them, having graduated and gone on to university, even though most come from illiterate households. The new funds will go toward addressing access to clean water, electricity resources, rugs, and general school supplies.

The foundation was set up after the death of Linda Norgrove, a DAI employee who was kidnapped September 26, 2010, in Kunar Province, Afghanistan, and died October 8 during a rescue attempt by U.S. forces. Norgrove was working on the Incentives Driving Economic Alternatives for the North, East, and West Program.

The foundation has distributed more than £500,000 to help women and children affected by the war in Afghanistan. It has funded almost 50 projects including orphanages which care for some of the country’s most disadvantaged disabled children, homes for widows, education for girls, and emergency medical help for abused women.

Every year, across the globe, runs and other events are held around this time of year in honor of Linda.