An Anniversary, a Homecoming, and a Future: A Letter from Ascend's Founder and Executive Director
- laurenmanfuso
- 4 days ago
- 7 min read
When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan five years ago, it was a defining and devastating moment for Ascend. Today, it’s time to reflect on our journey since then and, above all, to look ahead to the future and chart a course forward. For the women and girls who’ve been with us from the beginning—and for the women and girls we still hope to reach—it’s time for Ascend to come home.
“If one man can destroy everything, why can’t one girl change it?” Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani women’s rights activist, Nobel Peach Prize Recipient
There are certain times in history that just seem objectively darker—times when the uphills seem steeper and the hurdles seem higher. Five years ago felt exactly like such a time, after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan and so much of the progress we had made seemed to evaporate overnight.
And, one day—perhaps when our current reality has become our past—I suspect the present moment might seem like a darker moment, too.
The current tenor of our political and social discourse in the U.S. certainly feels, at times, like we’re inching backwards. Years ago, certain problems (like hunger, public health, child education) were viewed as humanitarian, not political issues. Today, though, these subjects have grown increasingly politicized and polarizing, until often it feels as if productive discussions are all but impossible around issues like diversity and inclusion, climate change, and gender-related protections.
Unfortunately, I know all too well what happens when nations reverse critical progress. I watched it happen in Afghanistan. But I also know that in moments of darkness, even the slightest light can look that much brighter. I saw that firsthand, too: Amid all of the chaos and heartbreak, Ascend’s supporters constantly came through. People around the world rallied to help us evacuate countless women and girls to safety. They gave. They helped Ascend grow in unprecedented ways.
Now, we need our supporters to rally again, this time not solely to overcome oppression or inequality, but to preempt it, right here, in the United States.
It’s time to bring Ascend home.
Slideshow: Looking back to the 2021 evacuation and resettlement of Ascend's women and girls from Afghanistan.
A changing world. A relentless mission to empower women everywhere.
When Ascend first launched in 2014, we saw a clear and achievable opportunity to help women in places like Afghanistan to overcome oppressive circumstances and, ultimately, go on to change the world themselves. But, more importantly, we saw a need: While women’s rights took incredible strides after the Taliban fell in 2001, there was still so much to do. Having lived and worked in Afghanistan for years, I’d seen firsthand how desperately the nation’s women needed meaningful opportunities to learn, grow, and lead. In the mountains surrounding their homes, I saw the perfect classroom.
And so, we began. Our first program launched in 2015 and trained 20 Afghan girls. Things took off fast, with more than 200 girls joining the program between 2015 and 2020. Our graduates became leaders in their communities, instructors to future program participants and, in one case, set a world record as the first Afghan woman to summit Mt. Noshaq, Afghanistan’s tallest mountain at 24,580' (7,492 m).
But then came 2021, when the Taliban seized Afghanistan, and, with it, the hard-won rights of the nation’s 22 million women. Overnight, our mission took a detour. While most of the world watched the chaos unfold from the safety of their TV and computer screens, Ascend was desperately working to get our girls to safety.
But getting these women on a plane was only the first step. Our girls were leaving everything they knew, with nothing but what they could carry in a small backpack. They needed visas. They needed resettlement support. They needed new lives and new futures, with dignity and validity. In the years since, we’ve endeavored to give them that—all while simultaneously supporting the women who remained behind in Afghanistan and launching a new program for women and girls in Pakistan.
It hasn’t been easy. We’re a small organization with extremely limited funding. But every night, we go to bed knowing that we’re doing everything we can to continue our investment in women, whether they’re resettled refugees, aspiring Pakistani mountaineers, or women still isolated in Afghanistan, missing the lives they had and dreaming of a day when those freedoms might be returned.
A worldwide trend, a worldwide struggle
Unfortunately, Afghanistan isn’t the only nation where human and civil rights face a risk of regression.
Earlier this year, the United Nations published a report detailing how democratic setbacks around the world are leading to a deterioration in women’s rights, an increased risk of sexual violence, and a decrease in economic opportunity. Entitled Ensuring and Strengthening Access to Justice for All Women and Girls, the report presents a number of troubling facts and statistics, raising an alarm for anyone who believes women deserve the same degree of equality, freedom, opportunity, and safety as men. For instance:
Worldwide, women have 64 percent of the legal rights of men
54 percent of countries lack consent-based legal definitions of rape.
In 2024, 676 million women and girls lived within 50 kilometers of a deadly conflict, resulting in a reported 87-percent increase in conflict-related sexual violence.
44 percent of countries lack legislation mandating equal pay for equal work
For those of us in the nonprofit and nongovernmental sector, the change is particularly worrisome. We see it in high definition every day, as public sentiment grows increasingly polarized and revenue dwindles.
It’s no secret that nonprofits and other non-government organizations are hurting. Funding for causes like ours was already limited; Now it’s essentially nonexistent. Inflation has driven operating costs higher than ever. Volunteerism and philanthropy have suffered, especially following the introduction of tax laws that have disincentivized donors from giving. In fact, every year for the past five, charitable giving has declined among Americans and around the world.
Ascend hasn’t been immune to these hardships. Like so many others, we’ve experienced a decline in funding and charitable giving that puts at risk our ability to continue doing this amazing, critical work. But it’s at times like these, when so much is at stake, that our mission matters most.
When the change we want to see in the world begins at home
We’ve made incredible strides in the years since the evacuation, elevating countless women through the power and impact of alpinism, climbing and athletics. So far, however, our work has focused overseas, in Afghanistan and Pakistan—nations we largely consider light years behind our own when it comes to gender equality. And yet last year, a Freedom House report found that the United States has seen a greater deterioration in political rights and civil liberties than all but two other free nations in the world since 2005.
When our rights and liberties regress, the consequences aren’t limited to impoverished nations or people far away: They seep into the areas of life and society that we once considered immune to political debate, dissension, and hostility. I see it happening here in the U.S., and it stands in stark contrast to our nation’s character and ideals, let alone the American Dream.
I’m not being dramatic. One after another, civil rights leaders around the U.S. have expressed fear that civil liberties are moving backwards. Conversations around public health, climate change, education, reproductive rights and religion have become increasingly incendiary. A bipartisan poll of American voters by the Pew Research Center found that roughly seven out of 10 citizens are dissatisfied with how U.S. democracy is functioning.
This is not the dream we promised our women and girls when we helped them escape Afghanistan. They deserve a world that recognizes and embraces all of the good they’re capable of doing. And that’s exactly what we intend to give them.
To do that—and to help sustain our work and our mission long-term—we’re bringing Ascend programming home to the United States.
While our overseas work will continue, we feel a deep obligation to make these opportunities available to women and girls anywhere that systemic oppression persists to any degree. Later this summer, we plan to launch our first U.S. program at Sportrock Climbing Centers, a family of climbing gyms and guide services based in Northern Virginia, just outside Washington D.C. The area is home to thousands of refugees from around the world—including a significant Afghan diaspora—who we believe can deeply benefit from the programs, skills, education and resources that Ascend offers each of its participants.
This program, we hope, is just the beginning. Ultimately, we hope to replicate it across the U.S. and, eventually, to other places around the world—to any place, really, where women and girls desperately need opportunities.
We’ve made so much progress through the years. Because of generous people like you, countless women have come through our programs equipped to lead, thrive, and give back to their own communities. Now, with so many women around the world desperate for opportunity, we refuse to lose momentum. But we cannot do it alone.
Join us. Ascend with us.
We’ve amassed so many American supporters through the years, people committed and compassionate enough to lend significant support to on behalf of women they’ve never met, a full hemisphere away. Now, as we prepare to bring Ascend to the U.S., this is an opportunity to support Ascend on the ground and to see the impact of your generosity firsthand.
We need your continued support. Yes, that could mean a gift of money (and any gift, of any amount, truly does make an impact). But our needs aren’t limited to funding. We also need gifts of time, expertise, connections, and skills.
Maybe you know someone whose life has been changed by climbing and alpinism.
Maybe you know someone who’s looking for charitable causes to support and whose values align with Ascend’s mission.
Maybe you have professional skills that might benefit our fundraising endeavors. Maybe you have an online following who cares about what you have to say and the causes you support. Or maybe you’re a highly skilled and certified climbing or mountain guide willing to share your knowledge with the girls and women who enroll in Ascend’s programs.
Whatever you have to give, whatever support you can offer, we want to hear from you. Working together, I know that our investment in women and girls can help us build a world that deserves all the good they’re capable of doing. Let’s get started.
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