An Evening With Heidi Kuhn | Roots of Peace

Heidi Kuhn, Founder and CEO of Roots of Peace, delivered a talk that summarised an up-to-the-minute description of conditions on the ground in Afghanistan and lit a path to bringing it a long-awaited peace. Conditions in Afghanistan remain dire, but Heidi has a vision to bring sustained prosperity and stability to a country of resolute beauty and enormous potential.

In August 2021, when Afghanistan underwent a sudden regime change, Heidi Kuhn immediately knew two things. One, that she had to do everything in her power to protect the 300+ Afghan workers Roots of peace employed across the nation. Two, that she had to fight to protect the organization’s twenty year progress across Afghanistan, where it had removed over 100,000 landmines and replaced them with sustainable, regenerative agricultural infrastructure.

Despite the Taliban takeover, Roots of Peace was able to retain and protect their staff of over 300 Afghan workers, managing over $85 million in contracts, while training an additional 6.6k agricultural workers in advanced horticultural practices that will help feed future generations– a boon to an Afghan job market 80% reliant on agricultural work. Roots of Peace’s work facilitated domestic sales of $4.6 million dollars of crops as the nation faces a food shortage this winter (as recently highlighted by The New York Times). For her work in Afghanistan, as well as the nine other countries where Roots of Peace institutes its “mines to vines” vision for peace, Heidi was named a 2021 Forbes 50 Over 50 Women Who Are Leading the Way in Impact honoree.