Taliban takeover propels local group to shift educational support to refugee women at Algonquin College

Posted on Tuesday, January 31st, 2023

Women’s photojournalism course in Farah City, Afghanistan

“Women’s photojournalism course in Farah City, Afghanistan” by HMC Josh Ives, U.S. Navy/released is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

A $25,000 gift from the Ottawa Club of the Canadian Federation of University Women (CFUW-Ottawa) has established an endowed bursary to help Afghan refugee women at Algonquin College.

Since 2010, the club’s University Women Helping Afghan Women interest group and its 50 members have supported women students at Gawharshad University in Kabul. The Taliban take-over of Afghanistan in August 2021 and subsequent restrictions on women’s movements and activities now prevents that help from being delivered. The group looked to Algonquin College as an alternative primarily because of the College’s range of diploma and degree programs that may be appealing to women who are refugees from Afghanistan.

These are often women whose lives have been interrupted, said Lorna Bickerton, the fundraising chair of University Women Helping Afghan Women, and who have to return to school to study English or redo their qualifications once in Canada.

“Many of the Afghan diaspora that we have met here in Ottawa originally came to Canada for education to take back to their country,” said Bickerton. “I hope that this bursary will be an opportunity for our refugee recipient to continue or even to start her education then pass it on to other women and families in her community. As Dr. Sima Samar, founder of Gawharshad University has said, ‘If you educate a woman, you educate the family.’”

This bursary is the fourth scholarship or bursary the club has established at Algonquin College and brings their total giving to almost $60,000. In October, the group established the HOPE Bursary for Refugee Women in partnership with the Heads of Mission Spouses Association (HOMSA); previously, they established the Susan Davies Scholarship in Nursing and the Sherrylyn Sarazin Scholarship, for Indigenous students.

The group raises funds for their scholarships and bursaries in various ways, including through events, like garden parties, musical lunches and silent auctions, and well as by direct donation. The women who belong to the University Women Helping Afghan Women interest group are also committed to educating themselves about the issues facing women and girls in Afghanistan and raising awareness and advocating around the issues locally, nationally and internationally.

Patricia Duffey is chair of the CFUW-Ottawa’s Scholarship Trust, the CFUW-Ottawa committee that oversees all the club’s scholarships and bursaries.

“The bursaries will assist refugee women who have escaped war and very adverse conditions to pursue studies in an area of interest,” said Duffey. “Our hope is that the recipients of the awards will encourage others by becoming leaders and role models for women and children within their communities here in Canada.”

The $1,000 University Women Helping Afghan Women Legacy Bursary will be awarded annually to a second, third- or fourth-year female Afghan student enrolled in any diploma or degree program who demonstrates financial need and is in good academic standing. Preference will first be given to a convention refugee from Afghanistan. The bursary may also be distributed to a protected person or a permanent resident or Canadian citizen who was a refugee/protected person from Afghanistan.

Beginning next year, once the first bursary is awarded in the fall, the recipient and their families and friends will also be invited to a presentation event held by the Canadian Federation of University Women-Ottawa Scholarship Trust. This year’s event, scheduled for March, will take place at the Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre in Ottawa.


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