I am raising funds to sponsor the family of a friend and colleague to bring their family out of danger in Afghanistan and Pakistan. “S and F and their children and elderly mother fled Afghanistan for Pakistan in the weeks following the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in August 2021. Once the Taliban took Kabul, they knew they were in danger…the Taliban came within two days to search for them, and they have been on the run inside Afghanistan, and now in Pakistan for a year, where they have no legal status.

S. has worked as a lawyer with the United Nations in Afghanistan for over ten years. He supported the UN and the then Afghan government enacting laws to ban virginity testing, reforming the penal code for women and children, preventing the elimination of Violence against women and more. His wife was among the first female diplomats in Afghanistan's recent history, working for her country's government until it fell last year. She is a leader who organized a women's professional network in the Ministry. Before these careers, they were both active human rights researchers and advocates in their community.

They are Hazaras, an ethnic group long persecuted in Afghanistan, and in great danger now the Taliban are in control. Taliban and ISIS-K attacks on Hazara mosques, schools and more have been documented extensively by the United Nations and Amnesty International, among many others. They and their young children have no choice but to find a new home.

Unfortunately, despite these contributions to Afghanistan human and women's rights over more than 20 years, they were not accepted by any special immigration programs to assist Afghans. These have focused on Embassy employees or military interpreters, bypassing hundreds of Afghans who risked their lives to support the same government and rights that Canadians and other nations did.

That is where we come in - through Canada's sponsorship of refugees program, we are working with our local church and Diocese to sponsor this family to find a new home, in Hamilton, Ontario. Here they will have the support of a range of community members, and these contributions will all go to funding their resettlement in line with Canadian requirements for the private sponsorship of refugees.

Any amount will be helpful, as will the show of support and solidarity it represents! Many many thanks.”