In The Name of God

The All Beneficent, the All Merciful.

My dearest brothers and sisters, close friends, and community leaders,

I, Ali Sayedsarwar, have once again endeavored to commit to another fund drive to help raise necessary funds as we did back in 2022 with the "Afghanistan Winter Coal Drive."

Back in 2022, through your kind and generous donations, we were able to successfully raise $4,000 USD, which enabled us to purchase 50 tons of coal that were rationed to over 120 families. Once again, I am sincerely reaching out to my dearest friends and community members to double the amount of the last Coal Drive. Recently, hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees have been deported from countries like Iran and Pakistan. Many of these families have come with nothing other than the clothes on their backs. Therefore, I am compelled to try and help as many families as I can, and it would not be possible without the generous support of my community.

I remember as a child at the age of 8 years during the first takeover of the Taliban, millions of people struggled for survival. Thousands of kids like myself had lost their fathers or eldest brothers during the sectarian wars. This brought extreme poverty to hundreds of thousands of families. They were forced to send their kids, some older than me and some younger than me, to seek work or sell small goods to make ends meet. Their day-to-day struggle was just to earn a loaf of bread. In the northern provinces of Afghanistan (Mazar-e Sharif), winters can be extremely harsh, with temperatures plummeting below 10 to 20 degrees Celsius.

Back in 2002, I came to the great state of Utah as a war refugee and an immigrant and have lived here ever since. Throughout my childhood growing up in Utah, I was blessed to have had many sincere friends, role models, kind teachers, family friends, and a prosperous community. I am forever indebted and sincerely grateful for all the wonderful individuals who have greatly impacted my life in a positive way. This urges me to seek opportunities to help those who absolutely live below poverty. During the distribution of the Winter Coal, families who are widowed with orphaned kids will be the 1st priority.

Thank you sincerely for all of your compassionate and generous donations.

Ali A. Sayedsarwar.