Happy Afghan New Year, 1392!

 

Today, in addition to celebrate the Afghan New Year, Nowruz, we traveled to Washington DC to attend the annual dinner fundraiser to celebrate The American University of Afghanistan, Women Scholars and The International Center for Afghan Women's Economic Development.

 

 

Fereshteh Forough, Film Annex's Liaison to Central and South Asia, Semyon Maltsev and Alexey Levchenko, Film Annex's filmmakers, attended the event with me and run the interviews of leading diplomats, USAid Administrator Rajiv Shah, Ambassador Said Tayeb Jawad and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, among others. It was time for me to step back and let them run the event, establish relationships and define the goals. The result was above all expectations and proved the dynamism of our international team.

 

 

I spent some time with different diplomats and people involved in the educational system of Afghanistan, in particular the American University of Afghanistan. I shared with them the concept of Sustainable Education and Philanthropy, the value of educating Afghanistan students in the world of social media, digital media and filmmaking. Today, for Film Annex, Afghanistan is an incredible source of opportunities with young Afghan writing articles, producing videos, editing film content and uploading hundreds of films and interviews from public domain libraries. This is thanks to Roya Mahboob's excellent vision and professionalism, and the energy and focus of young Afghan and international contributors like Fereshteh Forough, Alexey Levchenko and Semyon Maltsev.

 

 

Tomorrow, we will meet with USAid representatives, starting from Ms. Maura O'Neil, Chief Innovation Officer and Senior Counselor, Ms. Kathleen McGowan, USAid Senior Adviser on Afghanistan, and Ms. Priya Jaisinghiani, USAid Director of Mobile Solution, for a new round of great interviews and inspirational concepts to consolidate Sustainable forms of Education, Social Responsibility and Philanthropy in Afghanistan and the rest of Central and South Asia.

 

 

Next week, I will follow up on our conversation with American University of Afghanistan's Director Dr. Michael Smith, with the purpose of opening the doors to a collaboration between his faculty and Film Annex, to financially support writers, journalists and filmmakers interested in collaborating with the Afghan Development Project, Women's Annex, The Annex Press and Film Annex's networks.

 

Good Night and Good Luck.