name: Afghan Relief Committee
text: The Afghanistan Relief Committee (ARC) is a private organization established by former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Robert Neumann and Mary Ann Dubs in 1980 to help Afghan refugees from the war between the mujahedeen and the Soviet-backed government. Initially the group worked within the United States, using the media and organizing activities to publicize the situation of the refugees. ARC then began to work directly with Afghan refugees living in camps inside the Pakistan border, and more recently has been providing humanitarian aid in Afghanistan.
  
  ARC was founded shortly after the onset of the Reagan administration, a time when many anticommunist, "freedom fighter" nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) undertook the cause of the Afghan mujahedeen resistance. Among the many support groups founded at that time were the Committee for a Free Afghanistan (CFA), American Friends of Afghanistan (AFA), and the Afghanistan Information Center (AIC)--all of which received funding, directly or indirectly, from the governmentfunded National Endowment for Democracy.
  
  ARC has been defined by author Helga Baitenmann as an "advocacy NGO." Its initial work was to raise public awareness and interest in the situation of the Afghan refugees through extensive media campaigns in 1985 and 1986. More recently the committee has delivered food and medical services in Afghanistan through Medecins Sans Frontieres, Aide Medicale Internationale, and other international medical relief organizations.  It has an affiliate organization, Freedom Medicine, which trains Afghan paramedics in Pakistan. Upon completion of training, the paramedics return to Afghanistan to work.
  
  ARC used its original grant from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) to reopen and maintain schools in areas controlled by the resistance inside of Afghanistan. The texts provided by ARC were designed to combat the Soviet "indoctrination" of Afghan youth. This project was monitored in Afghanistan by Medecins sans Frontieres, a group which received funding from the U.S.-based NGO, the International Rescue Committee (IRC).
  
  ARC grants received from NED in 1986, 1987, 1988, and 1989 were used to support publication projects of three Afghan organizations--The Writers Union of Free Afghanistan (WUFA), The Afghan Information Centre (AIC), and the Afghan Information and Documentation Centre (AIDC).  WUFA translates books and articles by foreign authors about the Soviet Union for distribution inside of Afghanistan.  Materials were designed to "educate" the Afghan people about the problems of communism.  AIC and AIDC publish English-language newsletters and bulletins distributed to the U.S. media on developments inside Afghanistan.