When the Red Army invaded in 1979 they moved to foun underground clinics also small field hospitals to help survivors of the helicopter and machine gun and tank assaults recover.

The war has had many sides with unexploded mines still a problem for herders, travelers and farmers.

RAWA had to fight fundementalists who were a leading force in Afgan cultural groups and who play a restrictive role against women as well as teenagers who play a role in the economy but are oppressed in decision making.RAWA has a magazine which is published in several languages that are part of the Afghan mosaic. Among these languages are Farsi also Pashto a language spoken daily by millions in urban enclaves also rural places both young and old. This group once collected cameras to distribute inside Afganistan to document a number of what we would consider crimes. The cameras were airmailed to Quetta Pakistan for overland smuggling routes to friends inside the mountainous border with todays people of Asian Afghanistan