Our mission-driven work for a just world, welcoming our new neighbors and advocating for a safe and inclusive community are inspired and guided by our own lived experiences. CRIW’s cofounders are three women - A refugee from Afghanistan, an immigrant from Italy and a granddaughter of Jewish refugees fleeing genocide in Eastern Europe in the early twentieth century. 

In 2020, we learned about a community of underserved and marginalized, preliterate women from rural Afghanistan who were living in New Haven. They were facing enormous challenges due to their forced displacement, post-migration and resettlement experiences, which grew substantially worse as a result of COVID pandemic. In the summer of 2021, and as a result of the collapse of the Afghan government and the Taliban takeover, their families remaining in Afghanistan were experiencing humanitarian crises of horrific proportions. Together, these conditions only worsened the women's pre-existing physical and mental distress and decreased their access to local resources and services. 

CRIW began by creating an equity-led partnership honoring the women's unique culture, beliefs, strengths and aspirations and with their collective power, we sought to better understand the challenges that this community faced and together with community partners, co-create meaningful solutions to promote their psychosocial wellbeing.