HOST: Warm greetings, open-minded viewers, to Good People, Good Works.
Today’s show features the Afghan Coalition, a non-profit community-based umbrella organization which is headquartered in Fremont, California, USA.

Rona (f): Afghan Coalition, we’re several communities leaders; we got together to start this program for the Afghan community.

Rona (f): We started working in 1998 all with the help of the city of Fremont. Especially the director of human services, Mrs. Suzanne Shenfil, she was very active with us.  We started with a very small grant and now thankfully we have an office so it’s open for our community members.

HOST: Since its founding, the Afghan Coalition has grown to become the largest Afghan-American organization in the United States. It is comprised of nine non-profit member organizations including the Afghan Women's Association International, the Society of Afghan Professionals, the Institute of Afghan Studies, and the Afghan Friends Network.

The Coalition is creating an ever brighter future for the peace-loving Afghan-Americans residing in Northern California, USA through a variety of social service programs and events.

It has been estimated that more Afghans live in this region, particularly southern Alameda County, than anywhere else in the world outside of Afghanistan. Some say as many as 50,000 Afghans reside in this area.

One of the Coalitions’ wonderful endeavors is the Youth Program which encourages young Afghan-Americans to learn more about their heritage and at the same time share their culture’s beauty with the larger community in which they live.

The following is an excerpt from a short documentary that the young program participants produced called, “Who is an Afghan?”