Manhattan College To Host Presentation On Rebuilding Afghanistan And Renewing Hope

Relief workers share their experiences and goals in assisting the troubled country and its people.

RIVERDALE, N.Y. – Manhattan College welcomes Huma Safi and Melody McNeil, two field workers at Catholic Relief Services, to discuss “Rebuilding Afghanistan, Renewing Hope,” on April 3, 2006, at 7:30 p.m. The program is part of a Northeast Speaking Tour by Catholic Relief Services to raise awareness about Afghanistan and its people. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held in the Rodriguez Room (Room 311) located in Miguel Hall.

Huma Safi, childhood development officer, and Melody McNeil, agribusiness support program manager, have both worked in Afghanistan as part of Catholic Relief Services’ mission to provide emergency relief and long-term development activities in the battered country. Safi and McNeil will discuss their work in international development, how programs in education and women’s empowerment are increasing hope in the people of Afghanistan and understanding U.S. policy and its effects on Afghanistan.

The speakers also plan to focus on current development projects, including their push for basic education, focusing particularly on education for girls and women, which has led to four million in enrollment in the past few years – an unprecedented number in the Afghanistan’s history.

Afghanistan is the world’s sixth most underdeveloped country. Half of its rural population is without reliable sources of food and water. In recent years, Afghanistan has suffered from political unrest and violence, and in February of 2005, several hundred people were killed in one of the harshest winters the country has seen in decades. Catholic Relief Services began providing relief assistance in Afghanistan in 1998 through area partners. In 2002, the organization opened its own offices in Kabul, Kandahar and Herat with sub-offices in two districts of Herat and Ghor Province.

This event is sponsored by the College’s campus ministry and social action department, international studies, peace studies and Lasallian Collegians.

For more information, please call Lois Harr, director of campus ministry and social action, at (718) 862-7142. If you are a member of the press and wish to cover this event, please call Lydia Gray at (718) 862-7993 or e-mail lydia.gray@manhattan.edu.

Manhattan College is located at West 242nd Street near Broadway in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, one mile from the Westchester County line and accessible by MTA subway line 1.

Founded in 1853, Manhattan College is an independent, Catholic, coeducational institution of higher learning offering more than 40 major programs of undergraduate study in the areas of arts, business, education, engineering and science, along with graduation programs in education and engineering. For more information about Manhattan College, visit www.manhattan.edu.