Afghanistan and Gender Equality: A Report from the Front Line

Afghanistan and Gender Equality: A Report from the Front Line

with Budd MacKenzie

Budd MacKenzie is founder of Trust in Education (TIE), a grass roots, non-profit, secular, people to people organization, returned recently from his fifteenth trip to Afghanistan, taken over the past 8 years. TIE has helped educate thousands of Afghan children, over 50% of whom are girls. He has first hand experience addressing the challenges posed by the Taliban and cultural “norms” that justify the mistreatment of Afghan girls and women. He will discuss what programs have and have not been successful and why. He will also discuss how we can work together to ensure that gender equality becomes the standard by which a society is judged. He recently wrote, “It is time for the subjugation of women by men be brought to an end, and become our top priority”. “We must do more than study the problem of gender inequality and be informed”. “It’s time to become proactive.” Information about Budd and Trust in Education can be found at www.trustineducation.org. Budd, an attorney from Lafayette, California, is a graduate of Amherst College, and has a joint JD/MBA degree from UC Berkeley. He has provided legal and business counsel to entrepreneurs for 40 years. Budd has also been very involved in community service and makes over fifty speaking appearances a year, as well as numerous television, radio and print interviews. Recognition for his community service includes Lafayette’s Citizen of the Year, Friends of Education Award from Acalanes High School; Peace and Justice Award, Mount Diablo Peace and Justice Center; a Paul Harris Fellow award from the Lafayette Rotary Club, and winner of the 2012 Happenings Local’s Choice Humanitarian Award for Contra Costa County. Budd founded Trust in Education (TIE) in 2003 and has devoted 80% of his time, as a volunteer to TIE, ever since.