Highlights of Achievement As of 2021

Labor Spring Organization (LSO) is a non-governmental, non-political, non-profitable and welfare organization registered with Ministry of Economy of Afghanistan in March 2010 under the registry number (1678). The organization’s main office is based in Kabul with regional offices in Bamyan, Daikundi, and Balkh, and project implementation capabilities across 34 provinces of the country. LSO is mandated based on (as per its) organizational constitution to support marginalized communities including women, girls and young generation to afford life free of violence.

Our primary goal is to enable women/girls to participate in the decision making processes in any level and to protect other women/girls who are at risk of violence. With respect to the rights and responsibilities of women in the society and their roles, LSO has a special ability to prevent and protect women/girls who are at risk, advocate for their rights, educate and encourage them to participate in the decision making process. LSO has a track record of supporting women in the central highland region, known to government, public and even UN agencies.

From inception, LSO implemented more than 25 projects with a funding of more than 2 million USD. LSO successfully implemented many projects in the interest of supporting women and girls, in different provinces of Afghanistan. These projects (e.g. handcraft, environment, Capacity building of youth and women groups, and Computer Training Course, Anti-Corruption, Peacebuilding, Awareness Raising on Women Rights, Youth Civil Rights, Human Right, Women Protection Center, capacity of MUSHARIKAT provincial VAW sub-coalition to elimination of violence against women, and Resilience Agriculture and Livelihood Initiatives for Socio-economic Empowerment-REALISE) have made significant contributions toward changing lives of women and their self-sufficiency.

Of the projects implemented, LSO has been running Women Protection Centers (WPCs) in Daikundi and Bamyan provinces between 2014 to 2021, providing life-saving and essential services to women survivors of violence  (VAWG), LSO served and successfully reintegrated 779 VAW survivors into their communities, out of which, 97% of the VAWG cases showed satisfactory life in our follow-up visits. In 2020, LSO was able to serve more than 260 VAWG survivors, that show a significant increase in the cases compared to previous years.

Through the WPCs, LSO built capacity of more than 500 VAW cases who continued economic activities after reintegration from WPCs. Each of them recorded 600 to 900 AFN daily income from their tailoring and embroidery in their homes and reported their family respect in follow-up visits. Through awareness programmes, LSO raised awareness and capacity of 6108 individuals and CSOs activists (3660 female and 2448 male) on women rights, advocacy, human rights and EVAW law, advocated for elimination of violence against women in Bamyan and Daikundi provinces.

LSO even went further advocating for elimination of child marriage in 10 districts of Daikundi province in coordination and support from Ministry of Hajj, MoWA and Justice. The Ministry of Hajj sent out assurance letter to all Mullas Imam members banning child marriage, who have shown commitment towards LSO’s efforts on elimination of violence against women and essential services to survivors of VAW. The Imams were true to their words, during the project life stopped four child marriages by referring them to the police and judicial system. For further information, LSO’s Success Story on its Advocacy on child marriage can be found at: https://www.musharikat.com/success_history/docs/dR3Sg3XP2nrG.pdf.

Through Band-e-Amir Northern Plateau Proposed Protected Area Landscape Management and Rehabilitation of Degraded Land and Livelihood Improvement Projects, LSO provided facilities and resources in the form of cash for work, plant seeds and working tools where marginalized communities (as the labor forces) contributed and completed construction of a ranger station, plantation of wild almond and cherries, 2000 gully plugs and watershed on 75 hectares of mountain slopes in Bamyan province.  LSO enhanced the capacity of a total of 2978 individuals (1248 females and 1730 males) from rangers, environmental conservation committees, youth, and school students in Bamyan province on natural resource management, biodiversity conservation, landscape  management, and livelihood security between 2014 to 2020. LSO also raised awareness of of more than 2,000 individuals on protected areas, wildlife, and elimination of hunting.

In Agriculture and Livelihood Sector, LSO Resilient Agriculture and Livelihoods Initiative for Socio-economic Empowerment (REALISE) has directly supported 6599 people (2849 male and 3750 female) across 35 villages of Panjab and Yakawlang districts in Bamyan province between 2018 to 2021. The project’s overall objective has been to develop their resilience of the 35 rural communities to shocks and seasonal fluctuations in food and livelihood security. The project has made an important contribution to women’s economic empowerment, and the gender responsiveness of the overall LSO program, including increasing women’s mobility, confidence, skills and ownership of assets, as well as supporting women’s leadership in improving family nutrition and incomes. Farmers have also been supported to increase income and production; and small scale infrastructure projects have contributed to these results as well as reducing (unpaid) labour. A key achievement has been creating organized structures for farmers, both women and men, to collectively engage in value chains and to influence improved services and policies. LSO has increased their capacity to work with people with disabilities (PWD), Internally Displaced People (IDP) and this important target group has benefited from vocational training, alongside women and other community members.

LSO has currently functional offices in Kabul, Daikundi and Bamyan provinces, with more than 120 staff members, of which 60 percent are female. LSO worked with many donors and government stakeholders including MoWA, MRRD, MoLSAMD, MAIL, UN Women, UNDP, AKDN, DAI Promote, Action Aid, Asia Foundation, Counterpart, French Embassy and US Embassy. The last but not the least, LSO raised capacity of 1730 individuals (1160 female and 570 male) including women, girls and people with special disability in handicraft, embroidery, English, computer, and career development.