Mary MacMakin
Mary MacMakin founded PARSA in 1996. Through the 1960s and 1970s and into the 1980s, Mary worked as a physical therapist in the hospitals of Kabul. She returned in the early 1990s to teach physical therapists in Taloqan, a city in northern Afghanistan, and later to teach in the capital, Kabul.
After experiencing the desperation of the widows in the spring of 1996, she decided to establish a non-governmental organization (NGO) to provide comprehensive services to disabled Afghans and to the widows and orphans of Afghanistan.
Throughout its history, PARSA flourished under the leadership of its founder, Mary MacMakin. Despite imprisonment under Taliban and exile to Pakistan, Mary continued to expand PARSA.
In the spring of 2005, Marnie and Dr. Norm Gustavson joined Mary to assist her in transitioning PARSA into an Afghan directed NGO. In 2006, Mary retired to Bisbee, Arizona, with her husband, Bob.
October
1, 2009
