by Karen Castellon, AWC Berlin
Ascend Athletics is a global not-for-profit organization working in Afghanistan to empower young women through mountaineering-based leadership training. Recipients of a 2021 FAWCO Foundation Development Grant to create health materials for their target population of young women and their families, Ascend pivoted in August 2021 to assist its participants and their families in fleeing Afghanistan. Here is an edited update from Ascend’s Facebook page, November 30, 2021:
To date, Ascend has evacuated 133 people from Afghanistan. Out of these, 64 have either already been resettled or have a visa. Sixty-eight are waiting in camps in the UAE or the US without a clear destination, and the remaining person was our Norwegian country manager.
Ascend girls are carrying on in seven countries. A sampling of our girls’ activities in Ireland, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Poland the US and Abu Dhabi is inspiring. They're working out in Abu Dhabi (thank you, Camille!), going climbing with new local friends in Chile, starting intensive Polish language courses in Krakow, volunteering to help other refugees in Denmark, and studying English and going sailing in Ireland. Meanwhile, our US girls have done very well landing in North Carolina in the capable hands of the Triangle crew.
Ascend athletes arrive in BerlinWhen the US military left Afghanistan and evacuations started, we expected many of the girls to end up in the US. It has been a long road, but it looks like this will finally happen. Our first girl arrived the day after Thanksgiving, started a new job and opened her own bank account. We can thank a wonderful sponsor family for this. We are still offering virtual programming to all of the girls. This includes online exercise classes, group and individual therapy, support with resettling and language classes in English, German, Spanish and Polish. The language classes are mostly done by volunteers, and we are grateful to them for donating their time and skills.
Our second girl has arrived in Denmark, and since they are free to leave the refugee centre we will be giving them travel allowances so they can get out and explore. You may have seen that our (Ascend Athletics’) founder, Marina, went hiking in Ireland with the groups there. It was so lovely to see the girls out in nature again. It was a small but impactful moment last week as the girls received their library cards. One of our artists in Chile sold her first painting since leaving Afghanistan. It’s stunning, and we look forward to seeing her future works.
First bike ride for the athletesIf you would like to help in the US, then we recommend looking at www.sponsorcircles.org, which will give you all the details of what is required. We are already fortunate to have a number of families applying to take 10 girls. Other ways you can help are by sponsoring memberships to climbing centers, donating used climbing gear or helping facilitate scholarships to schools (please note that we do not have exact US locations yet). Our clever girls are very keen to get back to both climbing and learning.
We do still need funds to cover resettlement costs and future programming and are grateful for every cent. You can donate via www.ascendathletics.org/donate. If you would like to sponsor a specific location then that is now an option.