CEO Rona Popal

Afghan Coalition Executive Director

Afghan Women’s Association International founder and Ms. Popal is a recognized community leader and champion of Afghan women’s rights locally, nationally and internationally. In 1977, two years before the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, Rona Popal came to America with her husband, then Afghanistan's Representative to the United Nations. Rona and her husband later moved to the East Bay, where Rona spent 15 years as a social worker and Activist helping Afghan refugees to America. She began the Afghan Women's Association International (AWAI) in 1992, working on behalf of Afghan women to defend their human rights in Afghanistan. In 1998, Rona Organized the community-based Afghan Coalition, a 501(c)(3) whose Mission is to empower Afghan women and their families in southern Alameda County in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the largest Aggregation of Afghanistan refugees in the country is located. In 2004, Rona brought a community-based Afghan television group into the Coalition to bring awareness, build unity, and educate the greater Community about Afghan culture. 2002: Now she is working as executive Director with Afghan Coalition since 1998.