Santwana Dasgupta is the director of Partnership for the Education of Children in Afghanistan (P.E.C.A). She got involved in the Peace and Social Justice movement by joining the group Peace in the Precincts, a program of Friends for a Non-Violent World. After working for various organizations in the technology sector and volunteering extensively in her spare time, she took on a part-time job as a Program Co-coordinator for Minnesota Universal Health Care Coalition and as a volunteer Development Director for Friends for a Non-Violent World. She visited Afghanistan for the first time in 2006 and was moved both by the devastation caused by decades of war and by the valiant efforts of the Afghans to rebuild their country. She started as a volunteer with P.E.C.A, became a board member in 2007 and now serves P.E.C.A as the Volunteer Executive Director. She visited Afghanistan each year since 2006 to move the work of P.E.C.A forward, and then got the support of her family to move to Kabul for two years and work directly from the ground. She took a position with the Higher Education Project, an USAID funded program, and teaches leadership and management classes to the Education Faculty of 22 Universities and Institutes of Higher Learning across Afghanistan. She also works with an all women's group at the Kabul Education University to develop their leadership and management skills.