Widows Garden Program

Yasin Farid and Mary MakMakin provide physiotherapy services at the Widows Garden.

In Afghanistan, the poorest of women are the widows whose husbands were killed in the many wars that have plagued the country for over twenty years between 1979 and 2001. First the Russians came to take over Afghanistan and in the ensuing battles, men, women, and children died. Then the Afghan civil wars started and more women lost their husbands and loved ones. Next the Taliban regime killed and maimed many. The Widows Garden Program offers the widows and the women whose loved ones have disappeared or died a chance at becoming economically independent.

In 1996, PARSA started a women's economic development program, The Widows Garden Program, for 20 widows in a poor area just outside of Kabul. The idea for the Widows Garden came from Zarguna Hashimi, PARSA’s former Director of Literacy and Early Childhood Development Services. Zarguna was widowed during the Russian war and was left with a son to support. One day when she was out of money, she took some of the radishes she had grown to the bazaar to trade for onions and potatoes. When the shopkeeper in the bazaar told her to bring more produce from her garden she decided to help other women do the same thing.