Hundreds of Women and Children in Afghanistan Assisted by Linda Norgrove Foundation

December 28, 2011

The Linda Norgrove Foundation marked its first year by releasing a list of its accomplishments in Afghanistan, including:

• Vaccinations of people in 28 villages against diseases such as measles, polio, whooping cough, and tetanus (cost: £7,500);
• Educating women in 15 villages on life-saving birthing skills (cost: £8,433), and;
• Gifting children in a Kabul disabled children’s home with toys that encourage sensory learning, as well as new winter clothes, a chicken coop and hens, and 10 locally sourced beds so children would not have to sleep on a cold floor (cost: £4,823).

“We are keen on small-scale projects that donors can identify with and that we can more easily monitor to ensure that the money has been spent as planned,” wrote John and Lorna Norgrove in a letter that accompanied a newsletter from the foundation named for their daughter, Linda Norgrove.

Linda Norgrove, 36, was working for DAI on a job-creation project in eastern Afghanistan when she was abducted September 26, 2010, and she died 12 days later during the course of a rescue attempt. The tragedy inspired the foundation that is dedicated to helping women and children in that country.

Other first-year accomplishments by the foundation include:

• Helping fund 250 women in remote communities to learn to read and write with partners Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan (cost: £14,975);
• Building a bread oven to sustain those in a widows’ home in Jalalabad (cost: £529);
• Funding tents, equipment, and English lessons for guides for a tourism business in the remote Wakhan corridor (cost: £3,486), and;
• Building and furnishing a counseling room in a safe house for abused women and children (cost: £11,025).

The Norgroves reported that the foundation’s first-year administrative costs were less than £1,700. DAI is assisting the foundation inside Afghanistan to identify suitable projects and help with the delivery of funds.

“We have found Afghanistan to be a difficult place to work because of the pace of change, the complicated politics, and the security situation,” John and Lorna Norgrove wrote in their letter. “At first we didn’t seem to be getting anywhere but, as time has passed, we’ve found our feet and have now made good progress identifying projects that fit with our requirements of making a real difference whilst avoiding aid dependency as much as possible.”

Linda Norgrove spent her career trying to help the less fortunate. To learn more about the Linda Norgrove Foundation including how to contribute, click here.