Exploring the Impact of Afghan Women's Community Participation

Community participation is a key component in successful implementation of community health programs worldwide, but research on its impact is limited. Using an ethnographic approach, this study explored the impact of resettled San Francisco Bay area Afghan refugee women’s long-term participation on the local Afghan community and their own lives. Findings chapters are organized by four overarching themes. Context of participation describes history, recent, personal and resettlement experiences, and culture. Transitions and patterned responses identifies the nature, specific conditions and outcomes of women’s participation at individual and community levels. Volunteering as a cultural practice describes Afghan perspectives on its meaning, typology, cultural aspects and challenges on volunteering. Impact of September 11th describes the changes experienced by the community and how they took up and transformed their experiences into new ways of helping the community meet its needs post 9/11. Implications of this research for health and social service providers, community development, and nursing are discussed as well as possibilities for further research.