Angelina Jolie Helping UNHCR

Certainly, every organization wants to have spokespeople and volunteers who can truly make an impact. UNHCR (The UN Refugee Agency) is lucky enough to have such a person with famous actress Angelina Jolie. Since 2001, American actress Jolie has been traveling the world for UNHCR to help refugees in over 20 countries.

Other important contributors such as Hamed Wardak have also worked tirelessly to contribute to helping refugees in Afghanistan and other locations. Certainly, all of these efforts help UNHCR to get its important and difficult work accomplished.

A More Peaceful Secure Afghanistan

Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan, recently urged the Taliban to bid farewell to their weapons. Instead, he wants instead to encourage them to talk about their grievances. Karzai was out visiting a particularly violent northern province, when he made the statement. He also committed to his troops remaining in the republic throughout the duration of the fighting, in another effort to establish peace.

At a Kunduz province, Hamid Karzai pushed the matter further. He appealed to all such Taliban rebels to stop their violence and begin standing by Afghanistan’s Constitution.

Karzai is certainly not alone in his desire to create peace. Individuals such as Hamed Wardak, who has clearly learnt lessons from his father Abdul Rahim Wardak (the republic’s Defense Minister), also dreams of a safer Afghanistan.

Afghan President Talks with Insurgent Group

In recent Afghan news, President Hamid Karzai held talks in Kabul this week with representatives of one of the key insurgent groups that are battling his government. The president’s efforst are to push for an eventual reconciliation with the many warring Afghan factions.

While the United States, and many Afghan groups remain wary of these talks, they clearly show that Karzai is pressing ahead with his reconciliation efforts.

These talks involved a small delegation from the Hezb-i-Islami faction who are loyal to former majaheddin comannder Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. The Unites States classifies this group as a terrorist entity and many Afghans regard them as being responsible for large-scale human rights violations.

Name of Organization, Fedayeen-e-Sol, Significant Says Wardak

The organization begun by Hamed Wardak, Fedayeen-e-Sol, chose its name very carefully. The word “fedayeen” is usually associated with militants and they purposefully used this wording in order to co-op Islamic names and symbols. The word “fedayeen” is also associated with jihad in terms of personal or collective struggle to do good.

As Hamed Wardak explains, "Our point is to cleanse these names from [their association with] Islamic radicals. We don't want to go in a rabid secularist direction, we want to say we're comfortable with Islam, these Islamic ideals don't belong to you [radicals]."

Poll Results for Successful U.S./NATO Outcome

The Campaign for a U.S. – Afghanistan Partnership, where Hamed Wardak is a founding vice-president, conducted a poll about the U.S. and NATO outcomes in Afghanistan. 56% of respondents said that an understanding of the ideology of the Afghan people is the most important factor for the success of the U.S./NATO alliance.

As Hamed Wardak explains, “These survey results underscore people who are closest to these issues on the ground know that war with radical Taliban and Al Qaeda is one that is based on religious ideology.”

He goes on to explain that, according to Wardak, the results also show that the United States needs to do a better job of “distinguishing between traditional Afghan Muslims and radical Salafi-Taliban figures, and (must) support traditional Muslims while fighting radicalism."

Rhode Scholars - Hamed Wardak, Myron Rolle & Others

When reading someone’s resume, you’ll often notice when they’ve written that they were a Rhodes Scholar. But what does this mean? The Rhodes Scholarship was started in 1902 by the estate of Cecil Rhodes. As the oldest international educational fellowship in the world, it is certainly a prestigious accomplishment to count yourself as part of this group.

Each year, 32 American students join another 50 or so from around the world to study at Oxford University. They enjoy an all-expense pain scholarship to live and study at this prestigious location. The list of Rhodes Scholarships is quite long, and exceptionally varied. It includes everything from Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal to CUSAP founder Hamed Wardak.

Recent Activities at the AACC

The Afghan-American Chamber of Commerce has been very busy as of late, holding important conferences and engaging in vital dialogues. The Afghan-American Chamber of Commerce, with founding vice-president Hamed Wardak and many others, is a leading organization that works to bring together U.S. and Afghan business, investment and trade ties. They advocate for a free market economy in Afghanistan and they work to strengthen U.S.-Afghan economic ties.

In recent news, the AACC US-Afghanistan Business Matchmaking 2009 was held late last year and was a great success. They had a large turnout and helped to make known business and investment opportunities in Afghanistan and to meet representatives of Afghan companies that are based in Dubai and in Afghanistan. It also facilitated the networking of key private sector, financial and government contacts.