“Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world…would do this, it would change the earth.”
William Faulkner
Advocacy is a process to bring about change in the policies, laws, and practices of influential individuals, groups, and institutions. It involves many people and/or organizations working together toward a shared vision of change. Advocacy work takes many shapes and serves many purposes. It is possible to advocate for ourselves or for other people. DHSA has taken this initiative to advocate for Afghans through a media approach to support and serve the following purposes:
- To educate ourselves and others about an issue or problem that needs to be addressed.
- To change attitudes: addressing specific misconceptions about a problem, including that it is intractable.
- To influence law-makers so that their new laws and changes to existing laws reflect greater awareness of the issues you raise.
- To support legal and social changes advocating who are campaigning for new laws and enforcement of existing laws that address your concerns.
- To address policy-makers so that their agenda includes your issues.
- To influence the media so that it draws more attention to your concerns.
- To apply pressure to public officials for enforcement of laws and policies addressing your concerns.
- To develop coalitions and networks to work together to achieve shared goals.
DHSA has done many efforts for advocacy promotion since its establishment in different sectors via different approaches especially through media platform on certain issues;
- Violence against women
- Women empowerment
- CSOs empowerment
- Social justice
- Transitional Justice
- Humanitarian assistance (shelters, food security & nutrition, education & IDPs facilitation)
- Development of investigative reports for different advocacy segments
- Advocacy initiative on several social themes through Golden Hill drama, social media, and print media