Displaying Posts Tagged ‘ARZU STUDIO HOPE’

Today is International Women’s Day: Time to Take Stock Again

Connie K. Duckworth / March 8th, 2011 / posted in afghan women, events, social change / 3 comments

All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual.

- Albert Einstein

As I began to reflect over the weekend about the meaning of today’s global holiday, celebrating the achievements, rights and worth of women, my thoughts took a flight of fancy to a world (if not run by women) where women had an equal say in all things, large and small. Then, I opened the newspaper and was jerked back to reality.

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We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.

Connie K. Duckworth / January 24th, 2011 / posted in afghan people, afghan women, economic sustainability, sustainable economic development / 1 comment

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

– Albert Einstein

“Systems thinking” is about understanding how individual component parts influence each other within a whole framework. In a science lab, for example, systems thinking can be easily observed when small amounts of a catalyst create big chemical reactions.

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An empty stomach is not a good political adviser.

Connie K. Duckworth / January 12th, 2011 / posted in afghan people, business social responsibility, economic sustainability, opportunity, social change, social investment / 1 comment

An empty stomach is not a good political adviser.

– Albert Einstein

Everyone I know personally or professionally shares a singular perspective—how glad we are to see 2010 in the rear view mirror. The past two years, in fact, have been exhausting on every front—economically, politically, globally—and our collective fatigue level is high. It’s hard to run life unceasingly at DEFCON 2. At the same time, there’s an innate optimism that comes with flipping to the blank slate of a new calendar year. It refreshes our spirits, revives our energy, stiffens our resolve and restores our hope for positive change.

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Honoring Our Service Men and Women on Veterans Day

admin / November 11th, 2010 / posted in events / no comments

Founder & CEO Connie K. Duckworth and the rest of the ARZU STUDIO HOPE team would like to sincerely thank all of the men and women who have served in our country’s military, past and present. We would especially like to thank the United States Marine Corps for traveling with Connie during her recent trip [...]

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Welcome Home – You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby

Connie K. Duckworth / October 12th, 2010 / posted in afghan women, sustainable community, sustainable economic development / no comments

As mid-October approaches, members of the Marines’ first-ever “Female Engagement Team” will be head home. Deployed for six months in Helmand Province, Afghanistan along with 20,0000 other Marines under the command of Maj. Gen. Richard Mills, this band of 40 volunteers will return to the States from one of the most dangerous places on earth. (For more, read the October 3rd article in New York Times on this topic – “For Female Marines, Tea Comes with Bullets.”)

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Empowering Women, Empowering Their Children

admin / October 7th, 2010 / posted in afghan women, afghanistan families, economic sustainability, events, opportunity, social responsibility / no comments

With Child Health Day on Monday and U.S. National Children’s Day coming up this Sunday, October is a month dedicated to improving the lives of children in our global community.

At ARZU STUDIO HOPE, our mission is to empower women weavers in Afghanistan; and by doing so, we also strive to help their families. As the saying goes, “Educate a woman and you educate a family.” ARZU believes in this statement, with education being a main priority.

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Water Filters: Benefiting ARZU Families and the Local Community

admin / September 30th, 2010 / posted in afghan people, afghanistan families, social programs, sustainable environment / no comments

In partnership with DACAAR, a Kabul-based NGO, ARZU initiated a water-filtration system production pilot program to train apprentices in this trade. You can read the specifics behind the initiation of this program in the past STIR blog post, “Afghan Women Hard at Work.”

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Exploration, Innovation and Expeditionary Economics

Connie K. Duckworth / September 23rd, 2010 / posted in afghan people, sustainability strategy, sustainable economic development / no comments

Last week, I was invited to West Point to address Cadets taking an upper-level economics class about ARZU’s approach to grassroots community development in rural Afghanistan. Based on my interaction with the students I met, including a group of female (military-speak for “women”) engineers, I came away from this experience impressed with the intelligence, seriousness of purpose, and “systems-thinking” of our future military leadership.

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September 21 – World Peace Day

Connie K. Duckworth / September 20th, 2010 / posted in afghan people, afghan women, events, social responsibility / no comments

Tomorrow is recognized as an international day of peace. More specifically, it is a day dedicated to the “absence of war” and will hopefully be marked by a temporary ceasefire in combat zones around the world. At the United Nations, the “Peace Bell,” inscribed with “Long live absolute world peace,” will be rung as a reminder of the “human cost of war.”

No place seems to be more deserving of peace than Afghanistan. No people understand more completely the terrible cost of war. To commemorate this day, I’d like to share the stories of three of ARZU STUDIO HOPE weavers and what peace means to them.

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Afghan Women Hard at Work

Connie K. Duckworth / September 7th, 2010 / posted in afghan women, economic sustainability, social business enterprise, social programs, sustainable economic development / 1 comment

Yesterday was Labor Day – a time to celebrate and reflect upon the achievement of workers. It’s the perfect time to take stock in several micro-businesses that ARZU seeded earlier this summer. Each of these new enterprises shares the same overarching objective: to create sustainable jobs for rural Afghan women at fair wages through the sales of their products. That’s the ARZU STUDIO HOPE economic model for rugs in a nutshell, simply recast into new innovative applications.

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