Published Wednesday March 25th, 2009

For The Daily Gleaner [Jamaica]

The auditorium of the Charlotte Street Arts Centre was filled recently with people coming together to support a longtime prominent women’s group in Afghanistan, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA).

It was established in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1977. It struggles for women’s rights and runs schools, literacy programs, health clinics, orphanages and refugee programs.

The association’s Benefit Variety Show is an annual event organized by the Fredericton Peace Coalition and the University Women’s Centre with support from international development agency CUSO-VSO.

This year the NB Rebelles, a new feminist organization, joined organizing efforts. The event was full of local talent and analysis of the situation of women in Afghanistan, the Congo and New Brunswick, and native women in Canada.

Dana Ghanem, a Palestinian child living in Fredericton, touched hearts by reading a poem of hope for Palestine called The Seed Keeper.

The event also featured gumbooting, a resistance dance founded in South African mines.

The event closed with dancing to the reggae tunes of Sierra Leone’s Saa Andrew.

The third annual benefit raised $1,900. Donations can be made to the association until the end of April via the Fredericton Peace Coalition by e-mailing info@frederictonpeace.org.

For more information about the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, visit www.rawa.org.