Background: The San Francisco Bay Area is home to thousands of the Afghan Diaspora. Many non-profit organizations have been established whose missions are to help with the rebuilding of Afghanistan. These efforts include projects to empower women, plant trees, build schools, assist with medical care, implement satellite teaching programs, donate wheelchairs, institute micro-lending programs and upgrade the country's infrastructure (build bridges, dig wells etc).

The scale of these projects vary but in the beginning all of the organizations faced similar difficulties with logistics. For example, those trying to rebuild had to find reliable people within the country and/or establish offices, deal with the nascent government and its requirements and overcome the problems of shipping (or lack thereof). Even the simple actions of emailing, faxing, making phone calls were sometimes difficult.

Rebuild Afghanistan Events: The Rebuild Afghanistan events were organized by Masood Sattari, an engineer who lives in the San Francisco area. Concerned about the fragile state of Afghanistan and the huge effort needed to rebuild the country, Masood wanted to mobilize the Bay Area to increase the response and get more people active.

The first event was held in Fremont, California in 2004. A second was held in 2005. The format consisted of each participating organization giving a short presentation of their work. These events were successful in terms of generating wider community support although the majority of the audience members were friends and family of the organizations involved and/or members of the Afghan-American community.

A third event was held in 2005 at the Oakland Public Library. More advanced publicity was done and a broader public turnout resulted.

The fourth Rebuild Afghanistan event was held November 4, 2006 at California State University, East Bay. Billed as the Rebuild Afghanistan Summit 2006, fifteen organizations presented their work to a capacity audience. Another ten organizations had tables at the event. Keynote speaker, Dr. Nake Kamrany, an economics professor from the University of Southern California, discussed the overall picture of rebuilding Afghanistan. Awista Ayub, from the Embassy of Afghanistan, spoke about the responsibility of U.S. citizens and Afghan Americans to help with rebuilding. Some good press coverage was gotten and overall the event proved to be the largest and most successful to date.

The fifth event was held on December 15, 2007 in a large venue, the gymnasium of Centerville Churce in Fremont. The Keynote speaker was the President of Cal State University, East Bay, Dr. Mo Qayoumi. The Summit event had now grown to the point that two presentations were given simultaneously in separate areas to accomodate all the groups participating. In addition to the presenters workshops where added so attendees could learn more in-depth facts from those who have worked in Afghanistan. These workshops included Working with the Government and  Travel Issues,

Please join us Sunday, October 12, 2008 for the sixth annual Rebuild Afghanistan Summit. Your interest and support are needed in this huge effort to assist the people of Afghanistan. Find out what local non-profit organizations are doing right now and see what you can do to help. In many cases a little effort goes a long way. We look forward to seeing you there.

The Rebuild Afghanistan Summit Planning Committee