Shannon Galpin

This Mother's Day, Girl Bike Love presents 'CycloFemme,' the first Global day of women's cycling. Its goal? "To Honor the Past, Celebrate the Present, and Empower the Future of women in cycling."

Cyclists around the world are invited to create rides, or take part in local...

Take the community conversation of coffeehouse culture, throw in the passion of youth activism, add in the power of social media and the borderless knowledge of the Internet, and package it up in a social enterprise and what do you get? Internet cafes.

Across the world, Internet cafes are...

Working in war zones, silence is in short supply. Even in a city such as Kabul, outside the daily fighting of Afghanistan's southern provinces your ears are assaulted at odd hours by low-flying helicopters, sirens, and occasional gunfire. The horns of cars, motorcycles, and police trucks blaring through the traffic...

September 27, 1996, the Taliban took Kabul. The first thing they did was brutally execute President Najibullah and leave him hanging from a lamppost for all to see.

Exactly 14 years later, hundreds of Afghans marched in Kabul to protest the recent assassination of former president Burhanuddin...

Dubbed the world's first stealth concert, Sound Central is ready to rock the capital of Afghanistan. Founded by Australian Travis Beard, a photojournalist and guitarist in the Kabul-based rock band, White City, Sound Central is a rock music festival bringing artists from around Central Asia to Kabul for...

This October, the Panjshir Tour rolls into several cities - grassroots, community bike rides that support Mountain2Mountain's work with women and children in conflict zones. This is the second year of the Tour, based off my experiences mountain biking in Panjshir province of Afghanistan. Yup, Afghanistan....

Tuesday was International Women's Day, and celebrations were in full effect around the world, where for many countries, it's a national holiday. Since it was the 100th Anniversary, the celebrations seemed to take over the US media as well, marking a significant departure from the day's usual low-key coverage. I...

Talisman. def: an object held to act as a charm, avert evil and bring good fortune

My talisman is a silver ring that I've had for several years. It's now scratched and has a small dent but I wear it every day because of the words inscribed upon the silver.

Talisman. def: an object held to act as a charm, avert evil and bring good fortune

My talisman is a silver ring that I've had for several years. It's now scratched and has a small dent but I wear it every day because of the words inscribed upon the silver....

According to Gateway Pundit, Jim Hoft, "Lara Logan is lucky she's alive. Her liberal belief system almost got her killed on Friday. This talented reporter will never be the same."

I almost spilled my coffee when I read this on Media Matters this morning. Thinking it must...

You would think there would be more of an uproar in a country with the highest maternal death rates. No other country in the world loses more women in childbirth than Afghanistan. None. Rarely has being first at something meant so much loss.

It's not just the women either, lest...

One of the most important things we can do as a non-profit organization is to make a connection. Not just between donors and projects, but between communities and individuals. Working in Afghanistan makes that connection very difficult to achieve.

Time and time again, people travel to the far-flung corners...

Something new is in the streets of Kabul.

Increased security? Check

Lakes of mud and sewage? Check

Street art? Check

Street art, stencil art specifically, has popped up on several walls across Kabul over the past year.

Under the cover of night they take to the streets of Kabul, armed...

"Man up" seems to be the catch phrase du jour within female campaigns over the past couple of months. While I may be a little late to the party, with the elections finishing up at the polling stations tomorrow, that doesn't prevent me from expressing my extreme nausea at this...

"Afghan women are like sleeping lions, when awoken, they can play a wonderful role in any social revolution." -- Meena Keshwar Kamal - (1956-1987)

"If elected I will face up to the old men with guns that destroyed our country. Now it is our turn to fight with them." --...

As the US enters its tenth year of active engagement in Afghanistan, a polarizing debate intensifies regarding our continued involvement. Rather than enter the weary fray of should we/shouldn't we, I offer up a different window into the future of a country plagued by nearly 40 years of conflict and...

Midnight on Friday in Kabul, a few hours before the polls open. The walls start shaking, and Kabul feels the effect of an earthquake in the Hindu Kush. A few hours later, walls shake again as a rocket attack kicks off election day. The rest of the day passed without...

Elections are always a time for unrest in conflict areas like Afghanistan. It's an unfortunate fact that violence ramps up as a means to deter voters and disrupt the process. The streets in Kabul are literally blanketed with hundreds of posters. Every roundabout or wall is covered and large billboards...

Last year, I was driving in Panjshir with a colleague when in response to one of my endless "why" questions about Afghanistan, he eventually replied, "In Afghanistan, there are too many whys and not enough becauses."

Recent Taliban attacks like the one on medical aid workers brutally killed in northeast...

The news broke that President Obama had accepted General McChrystal's offer of resignation an hour before I was scheduled to do a live interview on CNN about Mountain2Mountain and our work to create education and opportunity for the women and children of Afghanistan . We watched the news...