Introduction
As part of AFLP, the UNITAR Hiroshima Fellowship for Afghanistan (AF) community-- Alumni, Mentors, Faculty Members, Partners and UNITAR teams – has been invited to submit individual or collaborative essays/chapters for a book about their experiences.
The book on the AF aims to wrap up the lessons of the past 15 cycles, focusing on both the overall and individual stories it holds. The book is as much about Afghanistan as about the Fellowship itself. Each chapter will be the story, narrative, lessons learnt, impressions or reminisces of the project which a Fellow (or a group of Fellows) undertook— the what, why and how stories. It will look at Afghanistan through the different lenses/stories of the Fellows, but it would also be about them, their own unique human stories, their dreams and aspirations for their country. The book will not only focus on the Afghans whose lives changed once they took off from this platform, but also the Mentors, the resource persons and international partners whose lives, too, were transformed by proximity to the Fellows and their projects. There will, in short, be a diversity of perspectives – academic, development-related, cultural, or human perspectives—reflecting the full richness and diversity of the AF itself.
We believe that this is the last opportunity, to document the stories and the consequences of participating in this very unique undertaking, that has created what we feel as a lasting social capital. We also believe that this story, of people coming together from around the world and from vastly different backgrounds, to address a need acknowledged by all, would be quite timely in the current state of world full of divisions, prejudices, and despair in many places.
The AFLP Secretariat, the Book Steering Committee and the AF Community has committed with its time and knowledge, pro-bono, to this vision of recording the legacy of the AF, to inspire the next generations of Afghans and others.
Call for Papers
Call for Papers to the AF Community
In February 2020 members of the UNITAR Afghan Fellowship (AF) Community – Alumni, Mentors, Faculty Members, Partners and the various UNITAR staff and teams over the years - were invited to submit individual or collaborative essays/chapters for a book. The aim of this initiative is to include not just the Fellowship story but also give a glimpse of Afghanistan and different profiles of Afghan professionals, as well as teams or individuals around the world who committed to, and got immersed, in this community. The range and styles therefore can be as broad and diverse as the Fellowship itself. Similarly the book would benefit from accounts of how the AF connection to and learning about Hiroshima and the A-Bomb survivors, and/or working closely with international members of the AF community from around the world, impacted how the community members saw Afghanistan’s path towards peace and its role in global history.
Based on the above, the AF Community was sent an invitation to contribute with a set of suggested guidelines and parameters for their submissions, details of which can be accessed through the link below:
Afghan Fellowship Legacy Projects (AFLP), Book Project – Call for Papers, Feb 2020 (Excerpt)
