Women of the Maiwand District in Kandahar Province are in the midst of opening the village's first Women's Center. Scheduled to open around the end of February 2012, the center will provide a place for the local women to work together in a positive environment.

Spirit of America is teaming up with COL Daniel Kinsey to help jumpstart the Women's Center by donating three sewing machines to sew items such as outfits for men, women and children. They are also talented in hand embroidery and beading to decorate the sewn items. Each woman specializes in her own design of work.

The local radio stations in Howz-e-Madad and Hutal are struggling to connect directly with the local populace due to a lack of equipment. The citizens of the town have issues and concerns they want to speak publicly but are unable to do so. With no access to radio equipment, the issues involving Afghanistan will go unheard and civil leaders will fail at communicating their message.

Spirit of America Field Rep Mike Press is working alongside and providing support to US Special Operations units in southern Afghanistan. Mike, a former Army Staff Sergeant, has been in Afghanistan for SoA since September.

Spirit of America was asked by one of the Special Ops teams if we could help them help a 2-year old Afghan boy. The boy suffers from a tumor the size of a grapefruit near his pelvis.

The people in the Zhari district of Afghanistan are having continuous battles rejecting insurgent presence within their communities. The Taliban is a constant threat and the local Police unit can only be in so many places at once. Locals in the Zhari district are not being protected and their lives will continue to be put in danger until there is stable protection.

In the Arghandab district in Kandahar, Afghanistan, a significant proportion of the area's security risks originate from unemployed males who lack the skills to find work. These men are easy targets for the Taliban, because the Taliban promise them work and money if they'll join them. This is a huge hurdle for our troops on the ground to overcome. The US Army and the District Support Team in the area are want to start a pilot program to train these men in various skills that could be easily marketable. If they succeed they will significantly reduce the Taliban's influence and ability to inflict harm in the area.

Afghanistan's Kuchi people are much like the Bedouin of the Arab Peninsula, traveling from place to place, always taking their families, belongings and livestock with them. But in the case of Kandahar City, many have de-facto settled here. This has caused a lot of friction between these settled Kuchi and the local government.

Afghan National Police forces in the Arghandab district of Afghanistan are currently at a huge disadvantage when pursuing Taliban insurgents through mountain trails, orchards and open deserts. Not only do they only have old pickup trucks with limited mobility due to their poor quality, but the police only have a few of them to begin with. Even when giving pursuit in these pickup trucks, the police often have to give up the chase, as their larger vehicles can't follow the motorcycles that the Taliban have. The Taliban, in contrast, make heavy use of motorcycles for scouting, quick attacks and getaways, as well as IED planting. The Afghan National Police force needs our help to create more security in the region.

US Army soldiers serving in Kandahar, Afghanistan need your help to provide hygiene kits to woman and young children living in terrible conditions in run down prisons. These women and children are living in abject poverty and have almost no access to basic hygiene products. Things as simple as access to feminine hygiene products and nail clippers can help curb rampant disease and save lives.

Midwives in the Maiwand district are battling with pregnancy-related deaths due to their lack of training. After 30 years of almost continuous warfare, basic services like healthcare are lacking in Afghanistan. More than 85% of Afghan women will deliver their babies at home and unattended by a skilled provider like a midwife. This doubtless contributes to the high rates of infant and maternal mortality associated with childbirth in this country.

Under the rule of the Taliban, the Afghan people had almost no access to information besides what the Taliban told them. Our troops are on the ground in Helmand Province, Afghanistan fighting to change that.

The Marines are requesting handheld radios to hand out in remote areas and villages so that those people have real access to information. This will help to defeat the Taliban by providing Afghans a connection to the outside world and access to true information.

Mike Press, our field representative in western Kandahar province, is working with the US Army and a representative from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to help a local Kandahar district create a demonstration farm.

In western Kandahar province more poppy, which is used to make the drug Opium, is grown than anywhere else in the world. The goal of this demonstration farm is to instead provide farmers with the means to grow legal crops. This will allow them to provide for their families outside of the drug trade, and make everyone in the area, including our troops safer.

Almost half (45%) of the Afghan population of 30 million people is under 15 years old. These girls & boys are crucial to the future of Afghanistan, but their isolation from the outside world puts them at high risk.

Spirit of America’s School Partners/Afghanistan provides a direct, unfiltered connection between Afghan school students and their American counterparts to change lives by changing minds.

Soldiers serving with the Army "Warhorse" battalion need your help to provide desperately needed winter clothing and school supplies to children in Herat Province, Afghanistan.

They’ve requested these supplies so that children in Herat are able to attend school and get an education, many for the first time ever. Providing these crtitical items and keeping the kids in school helps our troops maintain the peace and encourages the support of the local community for our operations in Afghanistan.

Second Lieutenant (2LT) Alfred Drago has been serving with the Army in Herat for several months and says that the Afghan people there are committed to providing their children a chance for a better future.  They recognize that eductaion is the key towards that goal and they are grateful for the assistance we deliver.

Lieutenant (LT) Kim Duenow, an Army nurse deployed to Kandahar province, needs your support for Afghan women.

LT Duenow’s unit is starting a birthing assistant program in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan and needs supplies to create birthing kits. These kits will be distributed to the local Afghan Women in conjunction with a training program that the Spartans will be conducting within their area of operation. These kits will help save lives while positively connecting our troops with the local people.

Panjwai District in western Kandahar Province, Afghanistan is known as the "birthplace of the Taliban" and widely considered to be the Taliban's spiritual home.

This is one of the most dangerous areas in Afghanistan and the New York Times recently reported that "clearing and securing [this area] is expected to change the entire balance of security in Kandahar Province." Because of this history, it is especially courageous for Afghans in this region to embrace the US military.

In a recent poll, 79% of Afghans listed "education" as their top priority.  However, Major General Richard Mills, former commander of 20,000 Marines in Afghanistan, said that Afghan families "lack the tools to turn their desire into fact."

The Afghan Children's School Project is a joint effort between the Marines and Spirit of America. Our mission is to connect Americans with one of the most important efforts of Marines in Afghanistan: to open and supply schools. Functioning schools stabilize communities and when communities are stable, less violence occurs.

Spirit of America has personnel in Afghanistan working alongside our troops. Their job is to identify how the American people can help our troops help the local people and to rapidly provide the support our troops need. This is a way for you to directly and quickly impact the success and safety of our men and women in Afghanistan.

Glasses are one key to improving economic productivity of poor people and encouraging school success for children with poor vision, especially in developing countries.

An Army Major who is also an ophthalmologist has developed a technique to address vision problems that is simple enough to be used in rural areas of Afghanistan. It will be used in remote areas of Afghanistan where there is very little medical infrastructure, and usually no access to vision services or to spectacle fabrication services.

Donations to our Unrestricted Fund allow us to apply your donation wherever the need is greatest.

Your donation may be used to fund any Spirit of America project and may be used to pay for the organizational/administrative expenses that provide the capacity to do everything we do. Unrestricted donations provide us the most flexibility to direct funds to where they will have the greatest impact.