As many of you know, we have historically been unable to allow letter writing for our participants in Iraq as a matter of security. It was found to be unsafe for the women to have letters from their sponsors, particularly from sponsors in the United States. Recently however, the women in our Iraq program have made it clear to us that they feel a great loss in being unable to correspond – and we have worked with our wonderful Iraq staff to make it possible.
We began piloting a program for letters in Iraq in Fall 2008, with the assurance that we would let you all know as soon as we were ready to open the letter writing program to all Iraq participants and sponsors. That day is today! Iraq sponsors: if you choose, you can now send letters to your sponsored sister.
Letter writing in Iraq differs slightly from the program in our other countries. Since it remains unsafe for the participants to have physical letters from their sponsors, we will accept letters from sponsors only through email. The letters will then be available for sponsored sisters when they are in the office for their classes. Participants in Iraq will write paper letters, which we will send along to you the same as those from any of our other country offices.
Although they are unable to take the actual letters home with them, so far the participants are ecstatic to be able to communicate with their sponsors and very appreciative of any letters or photographs (sent as attachments) we have sent to date.
If you would like to email a letter to your sister in Iraq (or any of our countries), simply send it to letters@womenforwomen.org and include your full name and sponsor ID, along with your sister’s name, country, and woman group.
