Founder

Demonstrating Strength in the Face of Early Adversity

Kandahar Treasure’s founder, Rangina Hamidi, escaped her native Afghanistan in 1981, at the age of three, during the Soviet occupation. She moved first to Pakistan and then, in 1988, to the United States. Settling with her family in Virginia, Rangina earned a Bachelors degree in Religious Studies and Gender Studies from the University of Virginia and worked for the Institute for International Public Policy, an affiliate of the United Negro College Fund.

Committed to Her Homeland

Rangina returned to Kandahar, in 2003. With a personal commitment to help lead change in Afghanistan she assumed the leadership of the Women’s Income Generation (WIG) Project for Afghans for Civil Society (ACS), a development organization dedicated to the social development of Southern Afghanistan. Afghans for Civil Society was founded by the older brother of President Karzai, Mr. Abdul Qayum Karzai, who has been an inspiration for all ACS projects, in particular WIG. From its inception, Mr. Karzai’s goal and mission for the income generation project was to eventually spin it off as a sustainable business, so that the women of Kandahar could play a meaningful economic role in Afghan society.