The Sweater Project

We founded The Sweater Project 8 years ago to provide relief to Afghan women, men and children. The project allows a glimmer of light to the Afghan people who live in an abysmal conditions during the cold winter months.

Here's how it works:

Your donation of
↳ $25 can help 25+ people

Yarn purchased from local shopkeepers
↳ Allows them to feed their family and pay their store rent

Local women confined to their homes, knit sweaters and are paid for doing so
↳ Offers independence, income and hope

The completed sweaters are gifted to the poorest children
↳ Helps them to stay warm through the freezing Afghan winters

Please get involved?
↳ Comment 'DONATE' below

IDP camps aren't a topic that we WANT to educate you on.

But it’s a topic that we NEED to speak about.

Now it’s no secret that in recent decades, Afghanistan has been marred by:

Conflict
Political instability
Poverty, famine and low life expectancy

This has led to a steady stream of internally displaced persons (IDPs) seeking refuge within their own country.

That’s right.

In their OWN country.

The creation of IDP camps has become a necessity to address the dire humanitarian needs of those fleeing:

Violence
Persecution
Economic hardship

It’s a very real thing.
Although it shouldn’t be.

When you think of Afghanistan you probably don’t think of talented and remarkable artisans..

Well you should from now on.

Afghan women have extraordinary knitting skills.
It’s almost a way of life.

Through knitting, these women showcase their:

Creativity
Passion
Resilience
Talent

The art of knitting has been passed down from mother to daughter, a cherished tradition that connects generations and communities.

Afghan women are known for their ability to create exquisite textiles, ranging from intricate shawls to cosy blankets.

The goal?

Vibrancy
Intricacy
Culture

These three things shine through in all finished projects.

These women are an integral part of The Sweater Project and everything that we believe in.

Their talents serve as a source of motivation and a reminder of the strength and beauty that can emerge from even the most adverse situations.

There is rising international concern in Afghanistan

Our founder Wendy Summer is passionate about a number of things. In particular, she loves the Afghan people, many of whom she has forged deep relationships with over the past 2 decades.

The list of crises in Afghanistan is growing larger

Humanitarian crisis
Women’s rights
Security issues
Economic challenges
Regional dynamics
Natural disasters

We can't conquer all of these at once, but we can slowly chip away at them.

All donations go a long way and contribute to the overall change that we’re trying to affect.

The Sweater Project won't change Afghanistan overnight, but one life by one life, we are having an impact.

The situation constantly evolves. Our passion to help those who need us remains steadfast.

Comment below or message us to find out how you can help.

Women need to be allowed to study

Since December 2022, only girls below the sixth grade are allowed to attend school. High schools for girls have been closed, despite repeated promises to reopen them. In a major blow, the current government banned women from attending university on December, 2022. Some online learning continues.

Being deprived of an education leads to:

Depression and other mental disorders
Boredom
Diminished job opportunities
Lack of hope for the future.

Furthermore, lacking an education, girls face the likelihood of

Exploitation
Maltreatment
Being forced into early marriages

The ability to learn and study is a basic human right.

Nobody should have that stripped away from them.

Nobody.

Internally displaced person camps (IDP camps) are full of children facing challenges including:

Limited access to education
Health and nutrition issues
Psychological trauma

Education is often a casualty of displacement for these children. Many lack access to schools or face significant barriers to regular attendance. The absence of education limits their future prospects.

Malnutrition and health problems are common among children in IDP camps. They have limited access to:

Clean water
Nutritious food
Healthcare

This exacerbates their vulnerability to diseases and health related complications

Psychological trauma is endemic in IDP camps. Let alone actually living it. Can you imagine children living in tents during the frigid winters? These children have already faced:

Displacement
Loss of homes
Exposure to violence

all of which have profound and lasting effects on children's mental health.

Can you help? Drop us a message if you'd like to get involved

Many children in Afghanistan will spend 2024 working on the streets

Trying to sell basic products
Working in freezing conditions
Unable to attend school

Their families have no other choice
It's that or starvation

Our work helps provide an income for parents

Meaning their children can

Attend school
Begin to build a future
Be children.

Purchasing one of our sweaters can support up to 25 individuals.

Isn't that a gift very worth giving?

Does one child deserve warmth more than another? We don't think so.

Winters in Afghanistan are frigid and harsh. This Christmas, please gift the gift of warmth to a destitute Afghan child living in a displaced persons camp.

Donate $25 money for a sweater. Each donation affects the lives of 25 people

Here's how:

The shopkeeper who sells the yarn
The women who knit the sweater
Families of these people who need food and shelter

Comment 'CHRISTMAS GIFT' and we'll send you a secure link to donate. You'll be glad you did!

What's the most powerful gift you can make this Christmas?

The gift of warmth for a child?
The gift of feeding a destitute family?
The gift of hope + income?

You can make all of these gifts with one $25 donation to The Sweater Project.

Visit our website (link in bio) to find out how ❤️

The mission of The Sweater Project is:

To generate income for Afghan families through yarn sales and knitting of sweaters. The finished warm sweaters are gifted to Afghanistan’s most vulnerable children.

Everything we do is about helping vulnerable Afghans.

The Sweater Project is a humanitarian initiative continuing in Afghanistan.

All monies raised for The Sweater Project, both in the US and internationally, are administered by Zaanha Fund, a not-for-profit registered in the United States.

We help:

✨Shopkeepers - by buying yarn
✨Women and girls - by paying the women to knit
✨Children - by gifting children sweaters to keep them warm

This could not happen without YOU.

Without donations, word of mouth and people who want to see others have better lives, we could never help local Afghans.

So help us to help them.

$25 does change a life. Visit our website to make your gift.

Only 19% of IDP camps have a functional health clinic

Let that sink for a moment.

Among the most basic and dire needs of IDPs in Afghanistan are:

- Healthcare
- Protection and safety
- Emergency assistance

Within the confines of their community (IDP) there is barely any access to healthcare..

And the lack of female healthcare workers often determines whether women and girls can access care.

These IDPs struggle to find vital medical and psychological support needed to overcome the effects of everything that is happening right now.

Today, over 6 million Afghan people live in Internally Displaced Person camps.

Only 1.1 million can access healthcare.
This is wrong.

While the lives of all in IDP camps are characterised by adversity, these lives showcase the incredible resiliency and courage people living there have.

Not to mention the will to survive.

Despite the:

- Unimaginable challenges
- Political unrest
- Uncertain futures

inhabitants of the camps continue to strive for better futures.

It is imperative that the international community continues to help those who are forced to live in IDP camps across the country.

The Sweater Project provide jobs and income.

Will you help us to help these vulnerable people? Please message us to find out how you can support our project

How to make a difference to lives in Afghanistan:

💛 Speak about what's happening with friends and family
💛 Share reputable content on your social media
💛 Read stories based on real experiences
💛 Learn about Afghanistan's history
💛 Donate to charities

How not to make a difference to lives in Afghanistan:

❌ Brush it under the carpet.

The people of Afghanistan don't have a voice right now.

We need to be that voice.

Please share this post to help spread the message ♻️

Do you think of Afghanistan as a place of beauty? Or a place of war?

Afghanistan has such scenic, vast landscapes that make the jaw drop.

Rolling cliffs
Crystal clear lakes
Mountains as far as the eye can see

Including 2 UNESCO World Heritage Sights.

However laws are now being implemented banning women from parks.

Now it’s one thing to take away:

Education
Employment
Free movement

But to go one further and also ban them from nature?

Step by step, the walls are closing in on women as every home is becoming a prison.

We must take action.
We must take action NOW.

Hit the link on our profile to find out more.

The relationships we’ve made with many local Afghans is why we’re doing what we’re doing.

Everybody has a passion, be it music, literature, art, sports and/or travel.

Whatever your niche is - you must pursue it tirelessly.

That is how we feel about The Sweater Project.

We can't begin to understand the tremendous hardships local Afghans face. There isn't enough money to feed families, much less use free time to go to school.

By contributing to The Sweater Project, you help local Afghans to earn much needed income that allow them to survive!

Comment the word 'DONATE' and we'll send you a link.

“The sadness is overpowering”

These words come from a young girl in Kabul.

Why?

Because her school is now closed.

One of over 20 written and verbal decrees on girls’ education, with each edict adding more restrictions.

These decrees, among other things, ban:

- Co-education
- Secondary education for girls
- Annual university entry exams for female students.

Meanwhile, university female lecturers face severe restrictions designed to keep them from interacting with men on campus.

Some schools are even burnt to the ground to restrict education.

It’s draconian.

These actions are already having devastating, long-term implications not just for women and girls but the very social and economic fabric of Afghan society, with half of the population unable to contribute to their country’s future.

The sadness that is being reverberated around the country is palpable.

And in the absence of having a voice - WE must be the voice for them.

Did you know about the closure of schools in Afghanistan?

At The Sweater Project, we have one clear mission

Provide hope, income and warmth for the most vulnerable Afghan families.

Our donation through yarn sales and knitting of sweaters and to gift the finished sweaters to Afghanistan’s most vulnerable children.

The Sweater Project is a humanitarian initiative continuing in Afghanistan.

Wendy, our founder, is the brains behind the organisation.
And it all stemmed from a passion for the people of Afghanistan.

Wendy built close ties with many local Afghans and local not for profit organisations, including Aschiana, a humanitarian NGO based in Afghanistan.

Aschiana provides literacy skill and vocational training and one hot meal a day to the poorest Afghan children.

Through a concerted effort - we CAN come together and truly make a difference.

If this mission calls to you, please comment 'SUPPORT' below and we'll send you more information on the project

As if puberty isn't enough, imagine it meaning the end of your education.

In Afghanistan, girls are denied any education after puberty, or after the age of 12.

Since 2021, women and girls have been denied their right to education.

The ban on girls’ education was introduced as a temporary measure.

However, unless promises to reopen secondary schools and universities are immediately fulfilled, it must be concluded that there is no intention of doing so.

There are no longer safe spaces for girls to:

Meet
Learn
Educate

Or to simply, just be children.

It’s heart-breaking.

And if the ban on education continues, life outcomes for girls in particular, but also for all children, will continue on a negative trajectory and recovery will take decades.

We cannot let this happen.

Combined with the dire economic and human rights situation in the country, the consequences are enormous.

Since the ban on education for girls was imposed, rates of child marriage and child labour have increased, as have reports of children being medicated to overcome hunger, and even dying from malnutrition.

We salute the brave women, children and men for continuing to protest the ban on women and girls’ access to education and echo their calls for the immediate reversal of the ban.

Can you help support these vulnerable women and girls? Comment the word 'SUPPORT' and we'll send you more information on how you can help.

Meet Shazya

One of our workers in Kabul who knits sweaters for us at The Sweater Project.

She is from Kapisa province and because of bad security issues, was forced to flee the homeland and mov to Kabul.

Shazya is:

A mother of 6 small children who are not yet able to work
Married to a man who is addicted to drugs
The only one in the family who can work

Yet, with the current situation in Kabul, Shazya is:

- Forbidden from leaving her house without a male relative
- Unable to educate herself or her children
- Struggling to feed her family

Therefore, by working with The Sweater Project within her own home, she is able to provide an income for her family, and build hope for her children.

Something that is especially during the very cold winter months when there is no work to be found on the streets.

Shayza is an example to all women at the Achiana centre and we love her contributions and the joy she can bring children in need when knitting the sweaters.

We need more people like Shayza
And we need more donors like you, to make this work possible.

If you're able, please consider making a donation to The Sweater Project. Comment the word 'DONATE' and we'll send you an easy link

Access to health care is one thing that should be a non-negotiable right?

Well, it’s not so simple in Afghanistan.

The country’s healthcare system is in tatters.

Requirements that women travel with a mahram (a male relation), as well as fears of reprisals against women and the large numbers of educated women who fled the country, mean that the healthcare sector has now faced a serious depletion in human resources.

Particularly in rural areas where health resources were already limited under the previous government.

The freezing of most international aid, which had been largely responsible for supporting healthcare before 2021, left hospitals and health clinics with:

Limited resources
Limited hospitals
Limited staff

This is contributing to widespread inability to access healthcare.

Things need to change.

Share this post with your friends to help spread awareness.

Afghanistan is so much more than what’s seen through journalistic views

We don't how it feels on a daily basis

The fear
The emotions
The hopes and dreams

All that is taken away from women.

This shouldn’t be the new normal.
This needs to be ancient history.

There needs to be a continuous light that shines on all stories and we need to do whatever it takes to make those voices heard and their stories heard.

We want to be an avenue where people in Afghanistan have their stories told.
Because there’s so much more that isn’t touched on by the news.

And the current reality for all these people is just of unimaginable uncertainty.

It’s impossible to put into words what it’s like, despite news articles attempting to do so.

But you can help.

Just $25 can change lives.

Comment the word 'DONATE' and we'll send you the link that'll change lives

Do you know what happened to The Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MoWA)?

It's been replaced...

And is now The Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice

An organisation managing restrictive and abusive decrees on women’s and girls’ rights.

Women who protested against these restrictions were met with unlawful detention and violence.

Several others are facing the same consequences.

In Afghanistan right now:

Civil society organisations are unable to document and report on human rights.
Independent human rights groups are unable to work freely.
Anyone who complains is in extreme danger.

What were once gratifying government bodies have now been dismantled by the Taliban.

But the voice is not gone.

Please share our posts to make others aware of the restrictions, and give a voice to the people of Afghanistan.

Our founder, Wendy Summers knows better than most the adversity that the people of Afghanistan are facing each and every day.

She also knows what it takes to make a difference.

- Donations
- Fundraising
- Talking about it
- Learning about it
- Spreading the word

Just $25 is enough to keep several children warm this coming winter.

Can’t donate?
Educate yourself on the goings on within the country.

If you tell one person.
And they tell another one.
And they tell yet another one.

A lot of lives will be changed.

And that’s exactly what we’re trying to accomplish at The Sweater Project.

To change lives for the better.

What would you do if your most basic human rights were taken from you?

Most of us can't even imagine it.

And yet, for the women of Afghanistan, this is the reality.

Excluded from the workplace
Unable to attend school over the age of 12
Forbidden to leave their home without a male family member

The situation for women in Afghanistan is not hopeless.
Not as long as there’s voices to be heard.

The future is uncertain but one thing that remains is our passion for the women of Afghanistan.

Do you want to make a difference? DM us to find out how.

Hundreds of women packed up their lives and were all set to fly from Kabul to Dubai to attend University in the UAE.

This was the plan anyway.

Yet once the Taliban got wind of the situation they barred these young women from leaving the country.

Pursuing an academic education is not a rightful reason to travel, they said.

This was an incredible opportunity for these young women and like so many other things in their life;
It’s been taken away.

The Taliban administration has already closed universities and high schools to female students in Afghanistan.

And now they are taking away the opportunity to study abroad.

What's next?

All beauty salons in Afghanistan are now closed

Here’s what you need to know.

The Taliban announced earlier this month that all beauty salons in Afghanistan must now close as a one-month deadline ended.

This is despite rare public opposition to the edict.

Following edicts in place have barred women and girls from:

- Education
- Public spaces
- Most forms of employment

Now add beauty salons to the growing list of employment restrictions.

The Taliban's explanation as to why they made the ban?

Because it caused economic hardship for the families of grooms during wedding festivities.

Let that sink in.

It’s 2023 and we’re living in a world where 60,000 women have lost their:

- Jobs
- Wellbeing
- Community

This is overwhelming.
This is a tragedy.

The secret schools in Afghanistan are giving young girls hope for a better future

More than a year after seizing power in Afghanistan, the Taliban still refuses to allow girls to attend secondary school.

Grades 7 - 12.

A critical age in a young woman's life when it comes to learning.

The ban has triggered global outrage and widespread protests by Afghan women.

Secret, ‘underground’ schools have been formed in:

- Kabul
- Herat
- Kandahar
- Ghazni and other cities

Girls and young women plead for education. These clandestine schools have been formed in the hope of continuing an otherwise impossible education.

Despite the risk.
Despite the threat.

These underground schools have been set up in:

- Apartments
- Housing complexes
- Attics of those willing to put their lives at risk

For the girls and their families?
This is worth the risk.

Education is a basic right.

No one deserves to have that right taken from them.

This is Hadisa’ story

A girl born in Kabul.
Raised in Kabul.

When Hadisa was a child, she had many dreams. She wanted to be a teacher, just like her mother.

Hadisa was one of the lucky ones who was fortunate enough to be educated because her mother took her to school everyday.

But recently - her dreams have been put on hold.

With the arrival of the new government - many of Hadisa’s friends have been forced to flee the country.

Hadisa herself cannot realise her dreams because

- Women can no longer work
- Women can no longer leave their homes
- Women can no longer go to wedding halls

All she wants to do is teach others like her mother taught her.
But she can’t.

No one is hearing the voice of these Afghan girls.
At least not yet.

Each $25 donation helps 25 people

We will never stop helping the people of Afghanistan.

Every donation changes a life.

The Sweater Project generates income for families in Afghanistan and helps the poorest children to survive by:

- Supporting families of shopkeepers who sell the yarn
- Providing income to women and girls who knit the sweaters
- Gifting new and warm sweaters to destitute children

Watch The Sweater Project in action

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=63&v=MWN9JVsJYqM&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thesweaterproject.org%2F&source_ve_path=Mjg2NjY&feature=emb_logo

Help us to make a difference.