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Roger Williams University

In response to stories about the plight of women in Afghanistan, Roger Williams University, a small, private liberal arts school in Bristol, RI, found a way to help. The University president and his wife established a program that brought young Afghan women to America to attend US colleges on full, four-year scholarships with the provision that they then return home to assist in the rebuilding of their country. D&S was asked to promote and publicize the program.

Rather than hold a formal news conference to announce the program and introduce the first attendees, the Agency instead gambled that media would attend an intimate, yet structured, briefing at the Bristol home of the University president. This setting proved to be more comfortable for the young women, who had been in the US for less than 24 hours and who spoke mainly broken English. The gamble worked, and the Agency secured stories with the New York Times, National Public Radio, Associated Press, the International Herald Tribune, the Christian Science Monitor, CNN.com and the Boston Globe. Follow-up of the young women attending school resulted in additional feature stories in publications such as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Houston Chronicle.