Following a trip to Afghanistan, novelist Masha Hamilton built the Afghan Women’s Writing Project–a project that gives them “a direct voice in the world, not filtered through male relatives or members of the media.”

At Well-Read Donkey, Hamilton explained how the project uses volunteer women authors and teachers in the United States who work with Afghan women writers in online classrooms. To keep the writers safe, only first names of the individual authors are used on the site, and all place-specific references are removed. Interested readers and writers can donate to the project here.

Here’s a heartbreaking memory from a writer named Zaralasht: “Our parents carried us in their arms and ran barefoot from our home. We were not the only family running away without knowing where we were going. The street was filled with people just like us who were trying to flee the fighting and killing … Our parents tried to not let us see the dead people who were lying along our path.”