IRS:	The organization stated that it was committed to working nationally and internationally for the welfare of humanity in general and women in particular. How will your organization accomplish this on a national and international level? Please be specific.
WFH:	Total vision is not fully formed yet but our eventual goal is to set up adult education system especially for women who have received little or no education in villages and areas not served by any schools. In India or Pakistan about $6000 will pay a teacher's salary and other expenses of setting up a small school in a rural area for a year. Tax exemption and schools named after them could be very powerful incentives for philanthropic persons and organizations to donate money for such a cause. We have met many caring men and women during our travels who are anxious to do something for their communities but don't know what or how. We could provide guidance in setting up self help groups, the kind that are common occurrence in the West but are almost nonexistent in some parts in the East.
IRS:	The organization stated, "We will work to promote communication among various ethnic, racial and religious groups. To achieve this goal we will have a monthly meeting for an open and friendly discussion of issues of mutual concern. The topics to be covered in these meetings include interactive positive communication, menopause and hormone replacement therapy, clinical depression, etc." a) Who conducts these meetings; b) who will or has in the past attended these meetings; c) where are these meetings held: d) list the various ethnic, racial and religious groups your organization has met with or provided meetings for; e) how do these meetings further your organizations exempt purpose; what qualifications are individuals discussing positive communication, menopause and hormone replacement therapy, clinical depression, etc. required to have; f) how will your organization promote communication amongst various ethnic, racial, and religious groups by holding meetings?
WFH:	a) Currently, Razia Ahmed, with input from members regarding speakers and agenda; b) friends and acquaintances and women from all walks of life. We especially encourage women with international affiliations to ; c) at the Bahai Faith Center, 5209 N. University, Peoria, IL. We have no formal affiliation with Bahai Faith except some members belong to the faith and their assembly has kindly allowed us to meet at their facility without charge; d) women of Indian and Pakistani and Middle East origin, Black and Caucasian American, representing Bahai Faith, Christianity, Hinduism and Islam. We invite speakers from all faiths but we endorse or affiliate with none; e) these meetings have been a forum to bring diverse women together and to educate ourselves in preparation for the charitable work we intend to do; f) by sharing common traditions or concerns, discussing issues of common interest, discussing with our families and friends. Our meetings bring together women of diverse background who will not normally run into each other.
IRS:	Your organization stated, internationally, our efforts are directed toward helping women in the developing countries... Our goal is to provide guidance through counseling and information education so these women can make educated decisions about their lives." a). in what countries will your organization help women; b); who decides which countries your organization will help; c) do individuals from your organization travel to these foreign countries; d) is money sent to these foreign countries, if yes, do the countries or organizations receiving the money account for it? Please give details of accounting made to your organization; e) with regards to counseling and informal education, 1. How will the organization provide guidance through counseling and informal education? 2. How will the organization accomplish this counseling and information education? 3.Where will the organization provide tile counseling and informal education? 4. Who will do the counseling and informal education? 5. What qualifications are the counselors and educators required to have? 6.What type of counseling and informal education will be performed or taught?
WFH:	a. We plan to start with India and Pakistan where some members come from or have connections. Razia Ahmed on her last visit to Pakistan has already discussed such possibility with interested people. Once we have gained experience we hope to do similar projects in Africa and eventually other parts of the world; b) Membership c) yes, our members besides having traveled all around the United States have also travelled to Africa, India, Israel, Palestine, Pakistan, and perhaps many more countries. d) We don't have any money to send but some form of accounting will have to be worked out when situation occurs; e) 1. We will consider funding trips by professionals who are willing to donate their time to establish counselling services or assisting the existing ones. 2 By establishing schools and self help groups mentioned before; 3. In the villages or areas identified to need such services. 4. Professionals hired locally or nationally or qualified volunteers, depending on the need
IRS:	The organization stated, "We denounce all types of violence, and abuse of women, physical and/or emotional. We hope to provide assistance and guidance to local existing support groups. We will use all available resources to fund our projects. a) What kinds of assistance and guidance will be provided to existing support groups? Please describe in detail; b) How will you provide assistance and guidance to these local existing support groups; c) How will local existing support groups know of your organizations existence and services; d) What projects has the organization started? Please give details of all projects.
WFH:	a) Many members are considering training with Center for Prevention of Abuse and volunteer our services to the community. We as a group are involved in serving food for the homeless through local services; b) We educate ourselves to identify and meet individual needs through volunteer services. We learn from the existing local organizations and hope to spread our knowledge to people across borders around the world through networking; c) Mostly by networking locally, nationally and internationally. We have been getting quite a bit of publicity through local press since we have started International Women's Day celebration. We volunteer our services to local not for profit organizations and tell them about us. We talk to young people in chat rooms on Internet, through e-mail lists. We are also in the process of developing website whereby we'll be able to reach even wider audience; d) So far due to lack of funds our efforts have been limited to projects requiring little or no capital. With the help of local chapters of national and international organization have we have been celebrating and set a precedence for International Women's Day celebration. Another project in the works is collaboration with Bradley University's Women's study program to invite speakers well versed in women's status and rights in various cultures and religions. One speaker currently under consideration is nationally and internationally respected Professor Riffat Hassan at Louisville University in Louisville, KY. We are in touch with professors at Bradley University and National Organization of Women to invite professor Hassan to Peoria for a talk/workshop on violence against women and other related issues. Professor Hassan is originally from Pakistan and has spent several years there studying the cultural and religious biases against women and is the founder of International Network for the Victims of Violence in Pakistan.
IRS:	In your response received on April 30, 2001, the organization stated that recent immigrants to the United States have secluded themselves, which has led to isolation and mistrust with society at large; a) What recent immigrants is the organization referring to; c) How will your organization work with these immigrants; c) How will your organization promote its work to these immigrants' d). What types of services have been provided to these immigrants to date'?
WFH:	a) Mostly immigrants from Middle Eastern and South Asian countries; b) By inviting them to our meetings and through members, who are part, affiliated with or have knowledge of the community, their culture and tradition; c) By interacting them socially as well as inviting them to our meetings and providing a friendly non-threatening environment goes a long way toward alleviating fears and sense of isolation d) One of the goals of our organization is to make relatively new immigrants feel welcome and part of the new environment that they may at times perceive as foreign and hostile even after living here for many years. Engaging them in dialogue and speaking about subjects that would not normally be discussed at home or in their community have helped some members realize their self worth. We have had professional counsellor talk about how to identify and resolve marriage conflicts.
IRS:	In your response received on April 30, 2001, the organization stated, As the world continues to get smaller every day, the need to understand each other becomes more important than ever. We need to make a concerted effort in all neighborhoods across the world to raise the level of education, social awareness and consciousness in women. We need to allocate more resources for educating and empowering all women toward a better status in the future. We need to create social awareness of violence toward women, dispel ignorance and reach out to women who need help. to do this we invite women to join hands all across the globe and embrace equality. We urge women to open their hearts and minds to new ideas and new realities of today. We especially encourage women to step out and join us in discovering the strengths in our diversity... We hope to achieve this through education, dialog, and action at local, national, and international levels. ... Using,~ our individual connections through the United States and other countries, we plan to start small grass root groups, as we have done in Peoria, all around the country and the world a) How will your organization accomplish the above locally, nationally, and internationally? Please give details and be specific; b) What type of education, dialog, and action will your organization take at the local, national, and international level? Please give details and be specific.
WFH:	a We realize that our plans are ambitious and will require lot of help and cooperation of others to make them a reality. Fortunately wonderful organizations dedicated to everything under the sun are already in existence. We believe making use of their full potential we can solve most of our problems. We see our function to locate these facilities and lead the needy to them. The same rule can be applied locally, nationally and internationally. It will require members to travel to various parts of the world; b) The type of education, dialogue and action would very much depend on the situation at hand. But the basic framework will be the same as we have in Peoria i.e. grass roots organization based entirely on volunteers dedicated to basic human right for all.
IRS:	In your response received on April 30, 2001, the organization stated, "Our most important function yet, besides our own activities, is to promote interaction among existing national and international organization. We seek to provide a link among various organizations... We at Women for Humanity would like to make the US our headquarters for all our activities around the world." a) What national and international organizations is your organization interested in; b) How will your organization make these national and international organizations aware of your existence; c) Will your organization receive a fee for providing interaction amongst national and international organizations; d) How will interaction between your organization and national and international organizations promote
WFH:	As mentioned earlier we are interested in somehow engaging all human rights organizations in general but we are particularly committed to making a connection with women's organizations. Partial list that we hope to contact in future includes such institutions as National Organization for Women, International Network for the Victims of Violence in Pakistan, women's section of Amnesty International, World Conference on Women, Network of East-West Women; b) We have already been recognized by local chapters of national and international organizations. We have been on the air for the Heart of the Matter, NPR program devoted for women. Peoria Chapter of National Organization honored us with Equality of Women Now award last year. Our members include members of Amnesty International, Peace Network. We'll go to any church, synagogue, temple or mosque to promote our existence. When we can afford it we'll have our website hosted on the Internet; c) At the moment we have no plans to charge any fee; d) Tax exemption will make it easier to ask for donations. It will help us raise funds we need to cover our expenses.

We have tried to answer all your questions to the best of our ability, yet some of the answers may seem vague. It is because we have not worked out all the details. In fact some of your questions have identified areas we need to address. The best we can say at this point is that we have this vision for the future, which will require hard work, a long time commitment and perseverance. We believe by dialogue, action, patience and understanding it is possible to bring about a change in attitude where women are seen as useful members of society, rather than property or secondary citizens as they are still considered in many cultures around the world.

We visualize our dream as the formation of the brightest source of light in Peoria in the middle of the United States of America, with radiations emanating outwards to encircle the globe, touching hundreds of thousands points of light, lighting the dark corners of the world along the way and coming back re-energized and revitalized to start all over again. Sounds quixotic? Perhaps, but we should never underestimate the power of dreaming.